Title: Magnus Swenson Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1881-1936

Creator:

• Swenson, Magnus, 1854-1936

Call Number: Wis Mss SN; PH 2262; PH 2271; M65-369

Quantity: 5.8 cubic feet (14 archives boxes and 1 flat box); plus additions of 0.4 cubic feet and 9 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Magnus Swenson, a Madison, Wisconsin businessman, inventor, philanthropist, and University of Wisconsin regent. The collection consists mainly of correspondence and related materials which reveal Swenson's interests in civic and political affairs, University activities, and organizations with a Scandinavian orientation.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000sn

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Magnus Swenson (1854-1936) was a Norwegian immigrant who attained considerable stature as an inventor and developer of various machines and methods for the utilization of waste products in such industries as sugar refining, cotton baling, paper and mining. He received his training as a Mechanical Engineer at the University of Wisconsin, from which he graduated in 1880.

After graduation Swenson served for a time as one of the first two instructors in the new College of Agriculture. Around the turn of the century Swanson retired from the active practice of his profession (consulting Chemical Engineer) and returned to Madison. Back in Madison, Swanson proceeded to engage in many activities of a civic, educational, political and business nature. He was a member of the Capitol Building Commission, 1906-1922, a Regent of the University of Wisconsin, 1905-1911, and a member of the Great Lakes Waterway Commission. Swanson was also active in such local civic endeavors as the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association. During World War I, Swenson served as Chairman of the State Council of Defense, and the collection contains a considerable amount of material, mostly in the form of mimeographed reports and notices, relating to the work of this agency. After the war, Swenson accompanied Herbert Hoover to Europe as Food Administrator for Northern Europe. His letters and reports written during that period are noteworthy for the descriptions of conditions which he encountered.

Swenson was a close personal and political friend of William D. Hoard, Irvine L. Lenroot, and, as a result of his work in Europe in 1919, Herbert Hoover. Swenson was actively interested in politics but was content to confine his activities to service on committees working for the candidacy of Hoover. Swenson was a conservative Republican and his correspondence with political personages, particularly with William D. Hoard, and business associates reflects a sincere anti-Progressive attitude at a time when such an attitude was counter to the main stream of public opinion.

Swenson never forgot his Norse ancestry and was active in many organizations that had a Norwegian or Scandinavian orientation. For example, Swanson was an active member and one-time President of the Norwegian American Historical Society. His connection with the Norwegian America Steamship Line as President of their American organization was based as much on sentimental attachment for anything Norwegian, and particularly things Norwegian-American, as on purely pecuniary considerations.

Although Swanson was ostensibly retired when he returned to Madison about 1900, he still engaged actively in business affairs and took an active part in the management of several companies in which he was interested, notably the Wisconsin River Power Company and the Southern Wisconsin Power Company; a good deal of the collection deals with this aspect of his life.

The collection covers the years 1881 to 1936 with the bulk of the papers falling between 1899 and 1936, or roughly the period corresponding to Swenson's later life in Madison. There is material in this collection that touches on a wealth of varied topics, but the most significant materials are those which deal with Swenson's role as Regent and active alumnus, 1903 to 1911, as Food Administrator for Northern Europe, 1919, as Chairman of the State Council of Defense, 1917 to 1919, and as a perennial Hoover booster, 1919 to 1936.

This collection was received in multiple parts from the donor(s) and is organized into 3 major parts. These materials have not been physically interfiled and researchers might need to consult more than one part to locate similar materials.

• Part 1 (Wis Mss SN): Originial Collection, 1854-1936
• Part 2 (PH 2262, PH 2271): Additions, 1919
• Part 3 (M65-369): Additions, 1894-1928

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mary S. North, Madison, Wisconsin, April and October, 1958, and 1965. Accession Number: M65-369

Wis Mss SN	Part 1 (Wis Mss SN): Originial Collection, 1854-1936 Physical Description: 5.8 cubic feet (14 archives boxes and 1 flat box)  Scope and Content Note: Reports and notices document his chairing of the State Council of Defense in World War I. Many letters from Herbert Hoover relate to Swenson's duties as U.S. food administrator for Wisconsin and food administrator for northern Europe after the war, and his activity in the Hoover-for-President campaign in 1928; see Appendix A for a list of Hoover's letters by date. Also included is a large group of letters concerning the Norwegian America Line and the Norwegian-American Historical Association. Other correspondence relating to Swenson's duties as a University regent includes letters from John R. Commons, Richard T. Ely, William D. Hoard, and Charles R. Van Hise. State political figures who corresponded with Swenson included Merlin Hull, Robert M. La Follette, Philip F. La Follette, Solomon Levitan, Irvine L. Lenroot, Walter J. Kohler, Francis McGovern, Emanuel L. Philipp, and John C. Spooner. Other papers concern his participation in the management of several companies, notably the Wisconsin River Power Company and the Southern Wisconsin Power Company.
	Correspondence
Box   1	1881-1898
Box   1	1899 January-November
Box   1	1899 December-1900 April
Box   1	1900 May-1901 August
Box   2	1901 September-1992 May
Box   2	1902 June-December
Box   2	1903 January-June
Box   2	1903 July-1904 January 14
Box   3	1904 January 15-July
Box   3	1904 August-1906 September
Box   3	1905 October-1906 December
Box   3	1907 January-July
Box   4	1907 August-1909 April
Box   4	1909 May-1910 August
Box   4	1910 September-1911 December
Box   4	1912 January-December
Box   4	1913 January-1914 December
Box   4	1915 January-December
Box   5	1916 January-December
Box   5	1917 January-June 15
Box   5	1917 June 16-September
Box   5	1917 October-circa 1917
Box   6	circa 1917 (continued)
Box   6	1918 January-May
Box   6	1918 June-December
Box   6	1919 January-June
Box   6	1919 July-December
Box   7	1919 October-December
Box   7	1920 January-March
Box   7	1920 April-August
Box   7	1920 September-December
Box   7	1921 January-December
Box   8	1922 January-December
Box   8	1923 January-December
Box   8	1924 January-September
Box   8	1924 October-1925 September
Box   8	1925 October-1926 December
Box   9	1927 January-December
Box   9	1928 January-June
Box   9	1928 July-November
Box   9	1928 December-1929 April
Box   9	1929 May-December
Box   10	1930 January-March
Box   10	1930 April-July
Box   10	1930 August-December
Box   10	1931 January-June
Box   10	1931 July-December
Box   11	1932 January-February
Box   11	1932 March-August
Box   11	1932 September-December
Box   11	1933 January-June
Box   11	1933 July-December
Box   11	1934 January-April 12
Box   12	1934 April 13-August
Box   12	1934 September-1935 January
Box   12	1935 February-June
Box   12	1935 July-December
Box   12	1936
Box   12	undated
Box   12	Newspaper clippings
	Letter press books
Box   13 Volume 1	1894 October-1899 November
Box   13 Volume 2	1899 November-1900 February
Box   13 Volume 3	1900 September-1906 May
Box   13 Volume 4	1902 May-1902 June
Box   14 Volume   5	Personal financial records, 1899-circa 1906
Box   14 Volume   6	Journal and cash book, 1903-1905
	Construction proposals
Box   14 Volume   8	Southern Wisconsin Power Company
Box   14 Volume   9	Wisconsin River Power Company
Box   15 Volume   7	Scrapbook, 1919 February 3-July 17
PH 2262, PH 2271	Part 2 (PH 2262, PH 2271): Additions, 1919 Physical Description: 9 photographs  Scope and Content Note: Photograph additions are in two parts. PH 2262 includes images related to massacres and atrocities in Finland, primarily images of corpses, circa 1919. PH 2271 includes images of steamships unloading food in Finland, 1919, stockpiling the food, and officials of the U.S. Federal Food Administration mission to Northern Europe.	⇧
M65-369	Part 3 (M65-369): Additions, 1894-1928 Physical Description: 0.4 cubic feet  Scope and Content Note: Additions include correspondence from Swenson to family members, particularly Mrs. Swenson, 1894-1928; Food Administration for Wisconsin correspondence and documents, 1918-1919; and clippings, telegraph, and deposition.	⇧
Box   1	Family correspondence, 1894-1928
Box   1	Food Administration for Wisconsin correspondence and miscellaneous, 1918-1919
Box   1	Clippings, telegraph, and deposition

Appendix A: List of Herbert Hoover Letters

• 1917 August 14
• 1917 August 15
• 1917 August 15
• 1917 August 27
• 1917 August 29
• 1917 September 1
• 1917 December 22
• 1918 November 7
• 1919 May 1
• 1919 September 27
• 1919 November 1
• 1920 June 14
• 1920 September 21
• 1920 December 7
• 1922 February 14
• 1922 April 29
• 1922 August 16
• 1923 November 1
• 1925 August 26
• 1926 August 2
• 1928 June 18
• 1928 September 26
• 1929 February 26
• 1935 April 23
• 1935 December 30