At a visit in Atlanta, Georgia, in the spring of 1993 I found interesting information about an architect with the Swedish-sounding name Gottfrid Norrman. It showed that he indeed was born in Sweden and came to Atlanta in 1880 when Atlanta still was a relatively small town but strongly growing. Norrman had been an important architect, not only to Atlanta but to the entire southeast.

I also found that three other Swedish-born architects had been active in Georgia in the end of the 19th century and into the 20th. This frequency of Swedish-born architects in a state with very low Swedish population told me that there could have been quite a few other Swedish-born architects in the United States, such as in states like Minnesota and Illinois.

In the year of 1900 only 203 Swedish-born people lived in Georgia, while there in Minnesota, the most popular state for Swedish immigration, lived 115,476 Swedish-born people.

I discussed the matter with Swedish researchers. Professor Ulf Beijbom at the Swedish Emigrant Institute in Växjö, Sweden, told me that no research about Swedish architects had been conducted, while there is a lot written about other professional categories, such as clergymen, teachers, journalists and farmers. He also said that a study on this subject would be very welcomed. Also the director of the Swedish Museum of Architects in Stockholm, Jöran Lindvall, welcomed an initiative in the improvement of the knowledge about this group of emigrants.

Obviously a research project about the Swedish architects who immigrated to America would be as well interesting as important. I decided to go ahead with the project and started in the fall of 1993 with preparation and search for grants. I was lucky to receive funds from five Swedish foundations.

After three years of research, going through a lot of literature, visiting 70 archives, libraries and museums in 12 states as well as in Sweden (and contacted many more), writing a lot of letters (and received answers on 450 of them) I finally in the fall of 1996 put together the research report called “Svenska Arkitekter i USA 1846-1930″ (Swedish Architects in the USA, 1846-1930)”. The report was printed in a very small number of copies, enough only to be given to the sponsors and to a limited number of archives.

Now, this report finally has become a book, with updates and a lot of photos. The number of architects presented now is 156.

During the research process about 600 names were analyzed in the search of qualified architects. The qualification and selection bases were:

1. The architect in question must have been born before the year 1900, i.e. born in the 19th century. (No one born in the 18th century was found. And they were men only – no Swedish female architect was found.)
2. He had to be born in Sweden.
3. He should have worked as an architect in the United States for at least a year.
4. He should have a university or college architectural education, or been established in the United States as an architect or reported as the architect of an important work.