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Joseph J. Mickley collection
The Joseph J. Mickley collection, which is housed in one box, contains copies and translations of documents about the early Swedish settlement in America (Folders 2 to 21), as well as some letters to Mickley from the years 1871 to 1878 (Folder 1). They are part of his correspondence to Sweden and th...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Collection: | Joseph J. Mickley Collection |
| Collection Number: | 0647 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | Swedish |
| Subjects and Genres: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
| Tags: | Add Tag |
| Physical Description: |
0.4 Linear feet ; 1 box [21 folders] |
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| Access: |
The collection is open for research. |
| Summary: |
The Joseph J. Mickley collection, which is housed in one box, contains copies and translations of documents about the early Swedish settlement in America (Folders 2 to 21), as well as some letters to Mickley from the years 1871 to 1878 (Folder 1). They are part of his correspondence to Sweden and the Netherlands concerning the documents of this collection about New Sweden (an early Swedish Delaware Valley settlement) and its history. People from those regions copied the original documents for him in Swedish archives (the Swedish State Archives, Stockholm; the Oxenstjerna Archives, which belongs to the Swedish State Archives today; the Royal Library in Stockholm, University Library in Uppsala; and others). For more information about some of the people mentioned in this description and the collection, please see the reference list below.
These hand-copied documents (made at different times between 1830 and 1880) include the correspondence from Johann Printz to Peter Brahe, Axel Oxenstjerna and others, and also council records, official memoranda, orders of the queen, reports about New Sweden, travel accounts, calculations, lists of persons living in the settlement, instructions for Peter Minuit and Johann Printz, and more correspondence, all concerning the history of the colony New Sweden at the Delaware River, which existed from 1638 to 1655. Folder 18 contains a copy, plus a partial English translation of the Geographia Americana by Peter Lindheström, 1691 (Chapters II, IV, V and XXIX). Peter Lindheström (also Lindström) lived in New Sweden as a military engineer during 1654-1655. He kept a journal of his observations and experiences. Topics include weather, climate, local Indian tribes, colony’s agriculture, and his eye witness account of New Sweden’s fall to the Dutch.
Folder 19 contains an interesting manuscript: the handwritten English translation of "Seventeen Historical Documents" and additional notes both by "Charles Lewis Gustavi," pseudonym of Carl Love Almqvist (1793-1866), the famous Swedish author and one of the foremost Swedish social reformers of the 19th century. In June 1851 Almqvist fled from Sweden to Philadelphia on suspicion of fraud and poison attempts against a fellow writer. In America, he went by the alias Lewis Gustavi. While living in Philadelphia, he earned his living as a journalist. It is possible that Mickley retained Almqvist as a translator. The translation is followed by unique notes about certain aspects in the documents. The translation bears on its title page the pseudonym Charles Lewis Gustavi. Apparently, it is the only existing document with this adopted name written down. Unfortunately, this title page is only a copy, the original having been lost, which probably dates from the 1990s when the Almqvist Society discovered that his manuscript might be in Philadelphia. A few folders in the collection were noted as having missing documents as well, but it is difficult to discern exactly what items are no longer extant.
The documents in this collection are mainly in Swedish and German, with some items in Dutch, Latin, French, and English. A few documents are English translations of foreign materials.
There are some duplicates in different folders; for example, there are several instructions for governors in Sweden to send people to New Sweden, deeds of Queen Christina, and correspondence.
Several of the copies contain gaps where the transcriber in the archives could not decipher the original words. |