As written history is a collaboration of the living and the dead, it behooves us to examine the essential elements—the actors, the sources, the narrative themes, and the context for the stories—with a sharp eye on the living historians, who after all shape the tale and give it significance. The story told thus far—almost entirely by Finnish North Americans and Finnish nationals—of Finnish–North American history is rich and distinctive, enough to whet the appetite of all kinds of readers; a wider appeal to non-Finns, transcending the smaller and narrower ethnic audience, may yet secure the...

Historical interest in Finnish immigration to the United States may be divided into a few phases. First, in the early twentieth century the Finnish American past was examined through the genre of travel descriptions. Then, from the 1910s to the 1940s followed a period of historical interest that was characterized by strong national romantic overtones and an emphasis on the role of Finns in America. The Finnish American past was examined as a showcase for the achievements of Finns in North America. Justifications for their presence there were also sought. The next period consists of the two decades after World...

In the mid-1600s, there existed the New Sweden colony, at the time when Finland was a part of the Swedish kingdom. Finns comprised a majority of the few hundred colonists who arrived to the Delaware River valley. The composition of the colony, however, has been a disputed topic and the target of nationalist writing in Sweden and in Finland; it has also bumped up against an interesting question of heritage: who were the settlers, and was the signer of the Declaration of Independence John Morton (in 1776) a descendant of Finnish colonists?

Nya Sverige (in Finnish, Uusi Ruotsi, and in...

The mass emigration of Finns to the United States extended from the 1870s to the early 1920s, with a gross figure of about 389,000 Finns emigrating to North America, while every fifth person returned home. The 1920 federal census counted 150,000 persons born in Finland. The migrants were mainly peasants and laboring people from the countryside, with males clearly predominant. In the following pages, analysis is also presented on the minor migration wave of the post–World War II period, which is composed of different types of more educated migrants.

As was true of other European countries, migration from Finland...

The broad pattern of enclaves that Finns established throughout the United States included typical Finnish buildings such as saunas, churches, halls, and cooperative stores. There were several periods of migration—the American colonial era, the Gold Rush era, but most important was the 1880–1924 mass migration movement. During the 1870s and the 1880s the incipient Finnish settlements were called “nesting places” (pesäpaikat) by some Finnish Americans, although non-Finns eventually began describing them as “Finntowns.” Today, the term “Finntown” is commonly used to identify many former Finnish settlements, even if they were never called Finntowns in the past.

When compared...

The debate on the racial identity of the Finns in the twentieth century reflected the “scientific discussion” in American society at large. In the following, both popular and literary definitions and the definitions that gained currency within the natural and social sciences in Europe and the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are examined. In these depictions, Finns were linked not only to Mongolians but sometimes also to American Indians. These racial associations were a sensitive issue for Finns, although attempts to counter the negative stereotypes were more evident on the conservative “Church Finn” side of the...

Each immigrant group in America established its own organizations for a number of reasons. This can be partly explained as a means to maintain ethnic ties and family connections. Ethnic ties persisted for long periods and were even revitalized in immigrant communities. This may be partly seen as a kind of transnationalism that took on many forms. It was also practical to seek protection from working accidents, sickness, and other situations in which migrants were not able to support themselves properly.¹ The first Finnish ethnic organizations were actually temperance groups, responding to the problem of the immigrant population’s abundant use...

After the long and arduous trip across the Atlantic, Finnish immigrants were now living in America, a secular country. This was quite the transition from living in Finland, where ecclesiastical doctrine and legislation dominated cultural, economic, and social life. While immigration from Finland to America was a transition from a Lutheran religious state to a secular nation, the secularism of America was perhaps mostly illusory. Nominally, America was indeed a secular country. However, while this secularism was officially a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, industrial America in the Gilded Age equated laissez-faire capitalism squarely with the Protestant...

The abundant Finnish American political activities were a response to the labor conditions, resulting in strikes and demonstrations. The activities were mostly concentrated in rival ideological groups: the first orientations were those of European-type socialists or social democrats, which suffered several ideological splits and lost supporters to syndicalism or industrial unionism as well as to Communism. A lot of debate took place on the role of social and cultural activities in labor circles, called “hall socialism” (“hall” meaning meeting place), which attracted political and nonpolitical people to events and various circles of activity. A number of persons—for example, Gus...

The formation of the cooperative stores is a landmark of the Finnish immigrant history, with national importance. They were strongest and most active in the Midwest, although Finnish communities both on the East and West Coasts were also known for their cooperatives. The Finnish American masterpiece was the Central Cooperative Wholesale (CCW) and its educational department. By training cooperative activists, store managers, and bookkeepers, among others, it gave an excellent example to all cooperative communities in America. A political schism ended in the creation of two rival central organizations, one strongly leftist and the other a liberal-type central cooperative.

The...

The many-sided and rich cultural pursuits and interests such as arts, theater, music, schooling, and sports played a central role in the process of Finnish immigrant adaptation to the new society in the United States and Canada. A close look at the development of such pursuits, and at variations in the levels of activity, can help us to interpret the process whereby immigrants, and their descendants, became integrated and adapted to their new life circumstances. At the same time, it also casts light upon the persistence and preservation of Finnishness in this new context.

Some of the earliest cultural activities...

Many types of publishing activities flourished in the Finnish American community, thus providing the immigrants with information and possibilities of network of contacts across the extensive continent and many geographical regions. This chapter discusses the formation of publishing companies, most of which were short-lived, although a number were active even for decades. Many types of books and other publications were issued. They ranged from religious to political publications, including children’s books, guidebooks, and leaflets. Mostly, the publications reflected the ideological split in the ethnic community.

Immigrants brought with them cultures of their own, which were reflected strongly in the literary...

The Finland-Swedish population has provided a relatively large proportion of immigrants, since every fifth Finn going to the United States was from the Swedish-speaking regions of Finland. The economic, social, political, organizational, and cultural differences between the Finnish Finns and Finland-Swedes have been a multifaceted issue, as relations between the two ethno-linguistic groups have waxed and waned over the years. Attitudinal differences between generations, questions of ethnic self-identity, and even the place of Finland-Swedes in today’s immigrant community are explored below.

The roots of the Finland-Swedes date to the twelfth century, when Swedes began their rule over Finland after the...

Many Finns who migrated to North America later either returned to Finland for good or often took part in various types of tourist trips, telling stories about the countries to which they had been and having different ideas and expectations about what exactly they were hoping to find in Finland on their return. Their various hopes and disappointments highlight the extent to which travelers transmitted information about changing historical and cultural realities and influenced the ideas that other North Americans had about Finland. This in turn affected the ways in which the immigrants adjusted to their new environment and their...

Relief activities on behalf of Finland took place during the First World War and the Second World War, most particularly during the Winter War of 1939–40 and its aftermath, and the activities significantly impacted American–Finnish relations and Finnish American communities. This chapter explores the strong role of former president Herbert Hoover in working on Finland’s behalf and the challenge this presented for American foreign policy during World War II and in subsequent decades. The chapter demonstrates that the official and voluntary efforts at providing aid, despite at times being contested, ultimately impacted political relations and social and cultural...

Roughly 90 percent of the Finnish emigrants to America between 1860 and 1930 planned to make only a preliminary working trip: their purpose was to earn money and then return to Finland. Of the 380,000 emigrants, only 20 percent came back permanently. This contrast between the original motives of the migrants and the final result of the Finnish overseas emigration is examined here. The Finnish experience is analyzed as a twofold phenomenon: the adaptation of Finns to American society, and their integration into and impact on Finnish society after their return. This essay defines the central factors in the life-cycle...

Although the United States was a land of dreams for immigrants, in real life it could be something else: their reception and final deportation was, to many immigrants, a nightmare. This contradictory face of the New World is seen in the formulation of the deportation policies, which were an important part of the policies of the immigrant-receiving countries, as they are in the contemporary world. It is evident that several hundred Finns entering a North American port were turned back. Of special interest, however, are deportations caused by social and economic problems, illness, criminal acts, or political activities, after these...

This article examines changes that have taken place in the family life of Finns in the United States over the course of the twentieth century. The following two passages reflect aptly how Finnish families in the United States have changed over the course of the twentieth century. The first quote is from a memoir written by Armas Tamminen, a Finnish American who lived his childhood in a farming community in northern Minnesota in the beginning of the twentieth century: “Growing up in two cultures? What two cultures? I was just a little Finn kid, tucked safely in the warm bosom...

Finns offer an instructive case of political transnationalism, particularly during the period known as Karelia fever of the 1930s, during which time several thousand Finns from the United States and Canada departed for Soviet Karelia to help the Communist regime build the “Labor Republic.” While the first, and to a more limited extend, the second generations provided ample evidence of transnational activities, over time transnationalism declined as the ethnic community was transformed into American citizens, defining themselves as hyphenated Americans rather than as workers of the world.

This chapter asks whether Finnish migrants in America could be construed to be...

This chapter focuses on the processes of defining and redefining Finnish identity and traditions that are taking place among recent immigrants from Finland and American-born descendants of earlier Finnish immigrants in the present-day United States, utilizing oral history interviews that I conducted with thirty-five Finnish-born women living in Minnesota. By pointing to theories of ethnicity formulated by U.S. migration scholars, I examine how these processes of redefinition sometimes create frictions within an ethnic community and between different immigrant generations. The tradition invented by Finnish Americans in Minnesota—St. Urho’s Day—serves as a lens through which I discuss these points....

The immigrant Finns have always represented a relatively small population, roots of which come from a largely agricultural environment in northern Europe, with specific linguistic and cultural features. Work was usually found in the expanding industrial America, although many longed for farmland. In facing problems of integration, the typical immigrant solution was to build a strong societal life of their own, which often echoed the norms of the Old Country.

Immigrant generations played an important role in the development of ethnic life. The first generation had strong roots in either the Finnish or Swedish languages or the corresponding cultural heritage...