Folkets Röst (1874-1884) now joins Vårt Land (1888-1920) online at the Minnesota Historical Society's website. MNHS's Swedish American Newspaper collection new additions bring this no-charge online source to 348 titles and 1.3 million images. This collection is a collaborative American and Swedish effort but these wonderful image are thanks to the Kungliga biblioteket (National Library of Sweden) who have safeguarded and made available these chronicles of our local history.
This is an invaluable resource for my historical research and should be useful to people searching for more information about their families' lives in Jamestown. The MNHS collection is nearly complete and includes Folkets Röst issues from No. 13 to 498. Fenton Historical Society has copies of issues 9, 11, and 12 that I hope to photograph and provide to MNHS. If you know of any of the other issues (1 through 8 and 10) please let me know (jamestownswedes@hotmail.com).
Folkets Röst was the brainchild of Olof A. Olson, a young law student who thought that Jamestown was ready for a Swedish language newspaper. His efforts led to a start-up by Conrad A. Hult and others to publish "The People's Voice" (Folkets Röst) in April 1874.
The successor to Folkets Röst was Vårt nya hem. The MNHS website includes 357 issues from No. 499 to 960 covering 8 May 1884 - 17 April 1891.
In 1891 the publication was sold to new owners and merged with Vårt Land. MNHS has an incomplete collection of Vårt Land. The digital images online do not include issues from 1887 - 1890 (1 though 105, 112 to 115) and are missing most of the issues from 1891.
In addition, MNHS has Scandia (1909-1946). This now allows researchers to look at everyday life of the extended Scandinavian community for nearly six decades!
Plus the other short run publications that included:
Vikingen 18 February 1876 - 26 May 1876 (15 issues)
Österns väktare 27 September 1888 - 27 November 1890 (101 issues)
The history of newspaper publication in Jamestown by the Swedish American community is detailed in the histories of A. J. Lannes (1914) and M. Lorimer Moe (1983). See Olof A. Olson, " Chapter 19 Swedish Library and Paper" in A. J. Lannes. Civic and Industrial Progress of the Swedish People in Jamestown, 1848-1914, p 77-83; and M. Lorrimer Moe, "Swedish Language Press," Saga From the Hills, p. 191-199.
