Andrew Adin Stomberg Papers

Andrew Adin Stomberg, B.A. Gustavus Adolphus College (1895), M.S. University of Minnesota (1896), graduate work at the University of Leipzig (1897-1898) and Harvard University (1904-1905). Professor of Scandinavian languages and literature at the University of Minnesota (1907-1939).

A.A. Stomberg was born March 29, 1871 in Carver, Minnesota. He graduated with a B.A. degree in 1895 from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota and received his M.S. degree from the University of Minnesota in 1896. He worked in the newspaper industry in St. Paul in 1897 and in May of that year he was assigned to Europe as a special correspondent for the Minneapolis Journal, traveling throughout Scandinavia, Germany, and the Netherlands. He did graduate work at the University of Leipzig from 1897-1898, was an Austin fellow at Harvard from 1904-1905, and in 1916 received the American-Scandinavian Fellowship for the University of Upsala, Sweden.

From 1898-1907 he was professor of history and political science at Gustavus Adolphus College. He came to the University of Minnesota on October 3, 1907 as professor of Scandinavian languages and literature. Stomberg was named head of the department in 1929 and retired in 1939. Upon his retirement, he went to San Francisco where he taught evening classes at the University of California, but after two years he returned to Minnesota. He died on November 16, 1943.

Stomberg’s interest in Swedish and Scandinavian culture is reflected in his many activities. He was the director of the American Institute of Swedish Arts, Literature and Science and served as the editor of its bulletin. He was chairman of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (1918-1920) and headed the Swedish Historical Society (1927-1928). He also headed the Swedish Cultural Society of America in 1926. In 1925 King Gustav V of Sweden made him a Knight of the Order of the North Star. In 1931 he wrote A History of Sweden.