Name/Title
De sista svenskarna, om svenskamerikanerna i Brooklyn, New YorkEntry/Object ID
2023.7.1Description
Hardcover book titled "De sista svenskarna, om svenskamerikanerna i Brooklyn, New York" (Translated by author: The Last Swedes, about Swedish-Americans in Brooklyn, New York). The book features interviews and photographs of Swedish-Americans taken by donor Per-Olof Ödman in Bay Ridge in 1974-1975. There are 115 photographs in the 110-page long book. The photographs are accompanied by a descriptive text of the history of the Swedish immigrants, as well as descriptions of the photographs. The book was published in 1976 by Fyra Förläggare.Context
Ödman was born in Sweden in 1943 and emigrated to the United States in 1967. He served as a rifleman with a Marine Corps infantry unit in the Vietnam War. In June 1968 he was seriously wounded in combat.
Around 1900 there was a concentration of Swedes along Atlantic Avenue (at that time Brooklyn’s main thoroughfare–often called Swedish Broadway), as well as in the adjacent urban and industrial waterfront which made up a significant part of the New York harbor. In the early 1900s Bay Ridge, a quite large rural area located in southern Brooklyn along the New York Bay, became more and more industrialized as well as urbanized. Most Swedish immigrants who decided to work in the Brooklyn waterfront industries, from around 1910 to the beginning of the Second World War, made their home in Bay Ridge. The documentary photographs which Ödman took in 1975 depict some of the remaining Swedish Americans around Atlantic Avenue, but primarily the ones who lived and worked in Bay Ridge.
In the mid-1970s the number of Swedish Americans in Brooklyn, mainly in Bay Ridge, were about 5.000. During that time there was a part of Bay Ridge which today is called Sunset Park.
The author, donor and photographer Per-Olof Ödman used a 35mm camera, black-and-white film and ambient light for the photographs.
Ödman exhibited a selection of these photographs at the Swedish American Museum in the summer of 2024 in the solo exhibit "The Last Swedes".Acquisition
Accession
2023.7Source or Donor
Per-Olof ÖdmanAcquisition Method
GiftCredit Line
Gift of Per-Olof OdmanLexicon
LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
Photographs, InterviewsSearch Terms
New York (State)--New York--Brooklyn, Swedish AmericansBook Details
Author
Per-Olof ÖdmanPublisher
Fyra FörläggareDate Published
1976Time Period
20th CenturyPublication Language
SwedishISBN
9185246115Copyright
Copyright Details
Ownership was legally transferred to the Swedish American Museum per the gift agreement. Certain works may be protected by copyright not governed by the Swedish American Museum.Reproductions
Notes
Reproduction of the Museum's archives for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires written permission.
