Ten Swedes who made a lasting impact on the US

1. Alexander Samuelsson

 

Photo: TT
 

Samuelsson helped design the curvy Coca Cola bottle, known as the “contour bottle”, when in 1915, Coca-Cola launched a competition among its bottle suppliers to create a new look for their beverage that would distinguish it from its competitors. The Root Glass Company, based in Terre-Haute, a small town in Indiana, participated in the bid, and the project was turned over to members of its supervisory staff, including Swedish emigrant Alexander Samuelsson. Sadly, the Swede and other colleagues who directly assisted in the creation of the successful bottle received little compensation compared to the glass company business owner – he reportedly became a multimillionaire following the bottle's success.

 

2. Eric Wickman 

 

Transport giant Greyhound operates throughout the US and Canada. Photo: Flickr

 

This last name probably sounds familiar for a reason – it is the name of upscale retail empire Nordström which Swedish-born Johan (later changed to John) Nordström originally co-founded as a shoe business with friend Carl Wallin in Seattle. Born about 100 kilometres from the Arctic Circle in the small Northern town of Alvik, near Luleå, Sweden, Nordström came to the US at age 16 with just $5 to his name. After working at a saw mill, the ambitious young Swede headed off to Alaska, like many other Americans at the time, in search of gold during the Klondike era. Returning with a handsome sum, he launched Wallin & Nordstrom, a shoe store in 1901. Today, the upscale department store chain operates hundreds of stores across 40 states.

 

4. Mary Anderson

 

Anderson influenced the American workplace. Photo: Shutterstock

 

Anderson is one of the most prominent Swedish-American women in history, playing a central role in furthering women's rights in the US workplace. Her extraordinary career saw her thrive as a member of President Roosevelt's office and later as head of the Women's Bureau of the Ministry of Labour, holding that office for over two decades. She was described in 1935 by American feminist Carrie Chapman as “one of the ten most outstanding women in the United States”, and is certainly recognized as the most popular Swedish-American woman involved in trade unions and politics in the US. But while well-known during her time there, Anderson seemed much less known at home. She died in 1964.

 

5. Frederik Lundin

 

Home-made juniper ale. Photo: Flickr

 

A jack of all trades from humble beginnings, Lundin emigrated with his family from a small village in Östergötland to the USA in 1880, when he was just 13. His success took off before he was even 20, when he created Juniper Ale – a beverage he concocted based on a recipe from his home parish in Sweden, using juniper berries. That drink brought him early fortune. His career gradually evolved from ale creator to US Congressman, with a successful political career beginning 1893. Swedish author Jan-Olof “Jolo” Olsson described him in the 1950s as the “the invisible force and power behind the Republican Party”. Lundin meanwhile has reportedly declared that he was never “particularly interested in politics and have never had any influence. I have never been more than a poor Swede in my entire life.”

 

6. Charles R. Walgreen

 

One of thousands of Walgreens drugstores in the US. Photo: Flickr

 

You recognize this name from one of America's largest pharmacy chains. Indeed it was Swedish pharmacist Charles Walgreen who founded the mega-drugstore, which today operates 8,217 stores in all 50 American states. Born in 1873 in Illinois, his father Carl Magnus Olofsson came to America from Sweden, at which time the family name was changed to Walgreen.

 

7. Curt Carlson

 

A Radisson hotel in Frankfurt, Germany. Photo: Flickr

 

 

Chicago city skyline. Photo: Shutterstock

 

Chicago-based Swede Lanquist developed one of Chicago's earliest skyscrapers, the Monon Building, although the 45-metre, 13-floor building erected in 1890 was demolished in 1947 to give way for a Chicago Parkway to be extended through the block. Lanquist was also the man behind the Wrigley Building which after construction in 1922 became Chicago's tallest building. In the early 1900s, more Swedes were being born in Chicago than back home in some of Sweden's own cities, and 100,000 Swedish immigrants were living there at the time.

 

9. Peter Aron Aronsson and Gideon Sundbäck 

 

The zipper was perfected by two Swedes. Photo: Flickr

 

The zipper is a well-known Swedish invention. It was first patented back in 1851 by an American sewing machine designer named Elias Howe. However, it was two Swedish-Americans who took on perfecting that patent into a fully functional 'device', Mr. Aronsson and son-in-law, Sundbäck, an electrical engineer. Together they began in 1903 to work on the project from inside a zipper manufacturing company in Hoboken, New Jersey. Sunbäck later went on to build the world's leading zipper factory in Pennsylvania and in 2006, he was added to the US' National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work on the development of the zipper.

 

10. Walter Hoving

 

A girl's best friend. Photo: Flickr

 

This Swedish-born American businessman headed jewellery giant Tiffany & Company from 1955 to 1980, bringing the company to enormous success during that period. Born in Stockholm, he immigrated to the US with his parents in 1903. He took control of Tiffany's at a time that the jewellery retailer was on the brink of going out of business, turning it into one of the most recognizable luxury goods brands on the planet.

 

Norhan Elhakeem

 

Article written in 2015 and updated in 2017.