Preserving the Swedish-American Immigrant Experience

FAIN: PG-266633-19

North Park College and Theological Seminary (Chicago, IL 60625-4823)
Andrew Meyer (Project Director: January 2019 to present)

A preservation assessment and supplies for 3,500 audiovisual recordings in various formats, such as 16mm film, magnetic tape media, and audiocassette, which document the Swedish American experience.  Highlights of the film collection include footage from the Swedish Pioneer Centennial Celebration from 1948, home videos from the Austin neighborhood in Chicago, and oral histories. The collection also contains amateur film from the Mission Fields in Africa, which recorded daily life in African villages.

The F.M. Johnson Archives and Special Collections at North Park University requests funds for the project Preserving the Swedish-American Immigrant Experience. Funds will improve our ability to preserve and provide access to our unique audiovisual resources. These resources contain significant documentation of Swedish-American immigrant history including neighborhood videos from the early twentieth century and historical and cultural insights into religious responses to refugees, immigration, and other historical events. Grants funds will be used to contract with experts from the Chicago Film Archives to 1) conduct an assessment of our entire audiovisual collection, 2) create a detailed technical inventory of our film collection that will guide future preservation efforts, 3) recommend the purchase preservation supplies, and 4) conduct a workshop that will offer education and training related to film preservation to other archivists in Chicago and the surrounding areas.