Swedish Immigrant’s Trunk
date: label: Date made
content: 1867
notes: label: Description
content: This handmade wooden trunk has a hinged wooden lid, a metal keyhole plate, and rope handles on the sides. The top and front of the trunk are decorated with hand-painted red and white tulips and roses. The initials “ABAD” are painted in white scrollwork above the date “1867” on the face of the trunk. The trunk was found around 1910 in the attic of the donor’s grandparents in Jamestown, New York. An elderly Swedish couple, who had been renting the upstairs, left the trunk behind when they moved out of the house.
label: Description
content: Although the Swedes who came to the United States with their belongings in this trunk are not known, they were part of a mass migration out of Sweden that began in the 1860s. A combination of population pressure, limited agricultural land, and political and religious unrest had driven many Swedes to the United States since the 1840s. But disease and famine beginning in the late 1860s forced many more to leave Sweden. Between 1868 and 1914, more than a million Swedes emigrated, mostly to America. After arriving in New York, many went west to farmland in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Swedes also settled in urban areas such as Chicago and Minneapolis.
topic: label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Transportation
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Barbara A. and Edward C. Swanson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2002.0362.01
label: catalog number
content: 2002.0362.01
label: accession number
content: 2002.0362
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Trunk
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (keyhole plate material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 51 cm x 94 cm x 60 cm; 20 1/16 in x 37 in x 23 5/8 in