This is the official website for the Swedish Colonial Society. They have a sister site in sweden: ColonialSwedes.se.

“Founded in 1909 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,by a group of 24 prominent academics and cultural historians, The Swedish Colonial Society is America’s oldest Swedish historical organization and unique in this country because of its relationship to the Swedish Royal Family and the Swedish government.

“Over the past century, the Society’s research provides a strong foundation for the study of New Sweden Colony (1638-1655), the short lived effort by Sweden to claim a stake in colonial America. After 1655 the Swedish flag no longer flew overheard, but the Swedish and Finnish colonists remained as the majority population in Delaware, Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey under successive Dutch and English rulers. They lived with a considerable degree of self government until the arrival of William Penn and the flood of several thousand English Quakers ended the so-called “Swedish Nation on the Delaware” (1655-1681).

“New Sweden was unique among the American colonies because the colonists lived peaceably with the Lenape Indians and the friendship between the two communities continues into the 21st century. It was also in 17th century New Sweden where Swedes and Finns carved homes from the forest and introduced the most iconic symbol of the American frontier, the log cabin.”