New Sweden - Significance and Legacy

Significance and Legacy

The historian H. Arnold Barton has suggested that the greatest significance of New Sweden was the strong and long-lasting interest in North America that the colony generated in Sweden. Major Swedish immigration to the United States did not occur until the late 19th century, however. From 1870 to 1910, over one million Swedes arrived, settling particularly in Minnesota and other states of the Upper Midwest.

Traces of New Sweden persist in the lower Delaware Valley to this day, including Holy Trinity Church in Wilmington, Gloria Dei Church in Philadelphia, and Trinity Episcopal Church in Swedesboro, New Jersey, all commonly known as "Old Swedes' Church". Christiana, Delaware is one of the few settlements in the area with a Swedish name. Swedesford Road is still found in Chester and Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania, although Swedesford has long since become Norristown. The American Swedish Historical Museum, located in FDR Park in South Philadelphia, houses many exhibits, documents and artifacts from the New Sweden colony.

Perhaps the greatest contribution of New Sweden to the development of the New World is one that is not even thought of as Swedish. The colonists brought with them the log cabin, which became such an icon of the American frontier that it is thought of as an American structure. The C. A. Nothnagle Log House on Swedesboro-Paulsboro Road in Gibbstown, New Jersey is one of the oldest surviving log houses in the United States.