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.
