This blog post is part of a series of posts in honor of the Society’s 75th Anniversary.
The Swedish Pioneer Historical Society (now Swedish-American Historical Society) created the Carl Sandburg Medal in 1977 to honor service to the Society, service to the Swedish community, and/or service to the community at large. It is the Society’s highest honor. There have been only 26 recipients of the Carl Sandburg Medal in the 40+ years since 1978, of which Harald Runblom is the most recent (2019).
The Swedish-American poet and author Carl Sandburg was nationally and internationally known. He spoke at the large gathering in Chicago in 1948 as part of the Swedish Pioneer Centennial, out of which the Swedish Pioneer Historical Society was formed. Sandburg also served as the honorary chairman of the Society from 1948 until his death in 1967.
The first Carl Sandburg Medal was awarded to Vilas Johnson at the annual meeting of the Society on 8 April 1978. Vilas was a founder of the Society in 1948, and the first president of the Society from 1948 to 1954. Vilas gave a moving response to the award, recalling his friendship with Sandburg.
The full list of recipients follows:
1978 – Vilas Johnson, Chicago chair of the 1948 Swedish Pioneer Centennial Association and first president of the Swedish Pioneer Historical Society (1948-54).
1978 – Conrad Bergendoff, president of Augustana College and Theological Seminary, Rock Island, Illinois; national chair of the 1948 Swedish Pioneer Centennial Association; first managing editor of the Society; third president (1962-65).
1980 – Selma Jacobson, guiding spirit behind establishment of the Swedish Archives of Greater Chicago at North Park University.
1981 – Franklin Scott, Northwestern University professor of history, leading scholar of Swedish America, author of Sweden: A Nation’s History, fourth president of the Society (1965-67), editor of the Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly (1967-74).
1982 – Nils William Olsson, executive director of the 1948 Swedish Pioneer Centennial Celebration, one of America’s and Sweden’s best known Swedish Americans, president emeritus of the Society, founder of the Swedish American Genealogist.
1983 – Wesley Westerberg, Methodist clergyman, college president, fifth president of the Society (1967-73), director of the project that resulted in the Guide to Swedish American Archival and Manuscript Sources in the United States, published by the Society in 1983.
1984 – Sten Carlsson, professor of history at Uppsala University. His “Sweden and America” seminar at Uppsala (1962-76) resulted in an impressive array of papers, theses and published doctoral dissertations. Chair of the Swedish Committee of the Society.
1986 – Emeroy Johnson, Minnesota Lutheran clergyman, scholar and archivist who wrote widely on Swedish America.
1987 – Emory Lindquist, professor of history, college president (Bethany College and Wichita State University), prolific author and Society board member.
1990 – Nils Hasselmo, former president of the University of Minnesota, Society president and board chair (1984-86).
1995 – H. Arnold Barton, professor emeritus of history at Southern Illinois University, who followed Franklin Scott as editor (1974-90) of the Swedish-American Historical Quarterly.
1998 – Eric R. Lund, journalist, assistant managing editor of the former Chicago Daily News, journalism educator; past president (1976-82) and board chair (1994-96) of the Society, editorial board chair (1982-86).
2002 – Ulf Beijbom, founder and retired director of the Emigrant Institute, Växjö, Sweden; author, Swedes in Chicago, 1846-1880 and frequent contributor to the Swedish-American Historical Quarterly.
2003 – Philip J. Anderson, professor of history, North Park Theological Seminary; longest-serving Society president, 1989-2023.
2008 – Eloise Nelson, program chair and former Society board chair, 1998-2001. Eloise was the first woman to ever chair the Society’s board of directors.
2008 – LeRoy Nelson, publications committee member and former director. The Nelsons have been active members of the Society since the 1960s.
2009 – Ronald J. Johnson, finance committee chair and former board chair, 2001-2007, 2012-2014, 2020-2021.
2010 – Byron Nordstrom, professor of history, Gustavus Adolphus College; former board chair, editor of the Quarterly from 1997-2015.
2012 – Bruce Karstadt, president and CEO, American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, 16-year Society board and finance committee member, 1992-2012.
2013 – Kevin Proescholdt, Society board member since 1993, past board chair (1997-1998, 2008-2012, 2015-2019), Associate and Book Review Editor of the Quarterly from 2008-2015, Editor of the Quarterly from 2016-2020.
2013 – Glen Brolander, Society board member 1973-1988, Society president 1982-84, former chair of Swedish Council of America.
2014 – Kerstin Lane, long-time executive director of the Swedish-American Museum of Chicago, long-time Society board member, Honorary Consul General for Sweden in Chicago.
2016 – Dag Blanck, author of journal articles and books on Swedish immigration, long-time Society board member, long-time director of the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College, and professor at Uppsala University.
2016 – Donald E. Olson, treasurer of the Swedish-American Historical Society 1998-2019, and chair of the Center for Scandinavian Studies at North Park University.
2018 – Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey, Society board member, active board member of Swedish Council of America, retired professor from San Diego State University, originator of Snoose Boulevard performances in Minneapolis, and long-time practitioner of Swedish-American performance arts.
2019 – Harald Runblom, Uppsala University professor and pioneering scholar of Swedish migration to America, long-time head of the Society’s Swedish Committee. Among his numerous publications, he co-authored From Sweden to America: A History of the Migration.