Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

Spring 2026

Abstract

This thesis examines the memorialization of two Swedish immigrants John Ericsson and Joe Hill by their contemporaries. The first section, focusing on socially mobile upper class Swedish immigrants who immortalized Ericsson as a symbol of their "Americanness," The latter documents the life of Joe Hill and the IWW. His labor activism forever typified Hill as an outside foreigner. Both Ericsson and Hill's actual lived experience demonstrate a more complex weaving between Swedish and American. Ericsson frequently confirmed a loyalty to his native Sweden, even with his final wishes being to be buried under Swedish soil. Hill on the other hand, anglicized his name and spent most of his adult life moving across America for the fight of labor reform. This paper examines how these people cannot be categorized as wholly American or Swedish. The category of Swedish American is a fluid designation meant to encapsulate a broad group of people who lived on across the political, and economic spectrum.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Kathleen Mapes

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