Shepherd of an Immigrant People: The Story of Erland Carlsson

From book jacket: The life of Erland Carlsson (1822-1893), immigrant pastor and Augustana Lutheran Synod leader, was fashioned by his pietistic family home in Älghult parish, Kronobergs län, Sweden, it was enriched by the evangelical läsare movement, and it was deepened intellectually by his theological studies at Lund University. Table of Contents: Preface -- Acknowledgements -- The Early Years in Sweden -- Emigration to America -- Building a Congregation -- The Life of an Immigrant Pastor -- The Pastor and His Congregation -- Outreach in Service -- The Church Beyond the Parish -- Champion of Education -- Promotor of the Printed Word -- Leadership in the Augustana Synod -- Conflict and Criticism -- Family and the Larger Society -- The Last Years -- An Appraisal -- Erland Carlsson’s Immigrant Guide -- Bibliography -- Indexhttps://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/ahsbooks/1019/thumbnail.jp

Birger Sandzén: A Painter And His Two Worlds

Birger Sandzén, Swedish-born painter and lithographer, achieved a national reputation during the more than half a century that he was associated with Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. His place in the mainstream of American landscape painting is readily apparent if one considers the vast number of exhibitions of his paintings, which ranged from hand-carried portfolios in a school or church to one-man shows in major galleries in the United States and Europe. Although Sandzén\u27s paintings had been exhibited before, his national reputation really began in 1922 with a showing of his work at the Babcock Galleries in New York City. The New York Herald commented enthusiastically, west to paint .... He says there is more color than light. He defies the Colorado Canyon to do its worst, knowing that he has more vermillion in his color box than nature herself can afford to spend on sunsets .... It is all very vehement, splendid and very western.1 Sandzén\u27s national recogmtIOn following this show was enhanced over the years as his work was given a series of exhibitions at leading galleries and museums including the Brooklyn Museum; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Los Angeles County Museum; the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery in Kansas City; the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco; the Santa Fe Museum of Art; the Taos Society of Artists; and others in the United States, France, Italy, and Sweden. Groups that exhibited Sandzén\u27s works include the American Watercolor Society; the New York Water Color Society; the Philadelphia Water Color Club; the Society of American Etchers, Lithographers, Gravers and Woodcutters; the National Academy of Design; and the Philadelphia Print Club. Birger Sandzén\u27s paintings are distinguished by his masterly drawing and by his use of color. The nature of his achievement is associated with his two worlds: his native Sweden and his . new world of the American West. When Birger Sandzén was born in 1871 in the rural parish of Järpås in Västergötland, Sweden, the home of his parents, Pastor and Mrs. Johannes Sandzén, offered him fine cultural resources. This prepared him, at age ten, to enter Skara School, which offered him eight years of classical education and, fortunately, the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of drawing and design from Olof Erlandsson, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Art. On Sunday, 27 February 1887, the teacher told the young student that his progress merited painting lessons. The following day, Birger wrote his parents thanking them for the twenty kronor they had provided for the purchase of materials and told them, I started painting yesterday in a room on the third floor of the school, which has been cleared out and serves as a studio for the school boys who paint. 2 After Birger Sandzén completed his studies at Skara School with distinction in the spring of 1890, he took lessons in watercolor from Regina Sophia Bobeck, a painter who emphasized color and possessed almost an impressionistic attitude. 3 That autumn Sandzén attended lectures in aesthetics and enrolled in French classes at Lund University, but he was not vitally interested in a traditional university career