Amandus Johnson (October 27, 1877 – June 30, 1974) was a Swedish- American historian, author and museum director. He is most associated with his epic two volume history '' The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware 1638-1664'', which was also published in Swedish as ''Den första svenska kolonien i Amerika'' (1923).

Biography

Amandus Johnson was born at Långasjö in

Emmaboda Municipality Emmaboda Municipality (''Emmaboda kommun'') is a municipality in Kalmar County, in south-eastern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town Emmaboda. The present municipality was formed in 1971, when the market town (''köping'') of Emmaboda (itself ...

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

, Sweden. His family emigrated to America and settled in Rice Lake, Minnesota in 1880. Johnson studied at

Gustavus Adolphus College Gustavus Adolphus College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minnesota. It was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans led by Eric Norelius and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Gustavus gets its nam ...

and in 1904 took a bachelor's degree. He earned a master's degree at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

at Boulder. He received his doctorate in 1908 from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

where he wrote his doctoral dissertation ''Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, 1638-1664'' on the Swedish colony of

New Sweden New Sweden ( sv, Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. New Sweden form ...

. In 1908, Johnson was one of the cofounders of the Swedish Colonial Society. Amandus Johnson was a senior lecturer in Scandinavian languages at the University of Pennsylvania from 1910-1921. Johnson was the founding curator of the

American Swedish Historical Museum The American Swedish Historical Museum is the oldest Swedish-American museum in the United States. It is located in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in South Philadelphia, on part of a historic 17th-century land grant originally provided by Queen ...

and museum director and curator 1921-1943. In 1943, he was named Emeritus Curator. Dr. Amandus Johnson served as a governor of the Swedish Colonial Society 1958-1960 .

Amandus Johnson Papers

Originally deposited at the Balch Institute, th
Amandus Johnson Papers
including correspondence, manuscripts, organizational records and research materials, are available for research use at the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

Selected bibliography

*''The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware Volume I: Their History and Relation to the Indians, Dutch and English, 1638-1664'' (1911) *''The Swedes in America 1638-1900: Vol. I, The Swedes on the Delaware 1638-1664''. (1914) *''Johan Classon Rising: The last governor of New Sweden'' (1915) *''The Indians and Their Culture as Described in Swedish and Dutch Records'' (1917) *''The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware 1638-1664, Volume 2'' (1927) *''Instruction For Johan Printz, Governor Of New Sweden, "The First Constitution or Supreme Law Of The States Of Pennsylvania And Delaware''. (1930) *''Mbundu English-Portuguese dictionary: With grammar and syntax'' (1931) *''The Journal and Biography of Nicholas Collin 1746-1831'' (1936) *''Swedish contributions to American freedom, 1776-1783: Including a sketch of the background of the Revolution, together with an account of the engagements'' (1953)

References

Other sources

* Benson, Adolph B.; Naboth Hedin ''Swedes in America, 1638-1938'' (Swedish American Tercentenary Association. 1938)

External links

American Swedish Historic Museum website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Amandus 1877 births 1974 deaths People from Emmaboda Municipality 20th-century American historians Gustavus Adolphus College alumni University of Colorado alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Swedish emigrants to the United States Burials at Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers