Vestkusten was an originally Swedish-language newspaper, published in California from 1887 to 2007. It was founded as Ebenezer, a church news bulletin by Augustana Lutheran pastor Johannes Telleen, but it soon changed focus and became a newspaper after he gave it over to editor and typesetter Alrik G. Spencer.[1][2] For most of its run, it was a weekly newspaper published in San Francisco. It was primarily a local newspaper for Swedish Americans in northern California, but also contained news from the Swedish press in the form of special reports.

Vestkusten
TypeWeekly newspaper
Founder(s)Johannes Telleen
Founded1887
LanguageSwedish
Ceased publication2007
CitySan Francisco, California, United States
ISSN1073-6883
Free online archiveshttps://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=VEST

Swedish-Americans Ernst Skarstedt and Alexander Olsson [sv] took over the newspaper in 1894, increasing its popularity.[3] After Olsson's death in the 1950s, it was run by writer Karin Person for some time; the association Friends of Vestkusten was founded in 1968 to keep it afloat when Person began to struggle.[4] More recently, the paper was owned and operated for many years by Swedish-American Barbro Sachs-Osher, who purchased it in 1991.[3]

It has been digitized and is searchable on the Internet under CDNC – the California Digital Newspaper Collection – which also contains digitized versions of many other newspapers.[3] The CDNC invites volunteers to proofread to correct conversion errors from scanning and digitizing.

At the time of its closure, Vestkusten was incorporated into Nordstjernan, a newspaper with an editorial office in New York but with part of its circulation printed in California.[5]

References edit

  1. ^ "Telleen, Johannes". Svenska män och kvinnor: biografisk uppslagsbok (in Swedish). Vol. 7. p. 473. Archived from the original on 2023-01-20. Retrieved 2023-04-15 – via Project Runeberg.
  2. ^ "Vestkusten". Minnesota Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2023-04-17. Retrieved 2022-05-26.
  3. ^ a b c Thorsell, Elisabeth (2015-06-01). "Vestkusten is now digitized!". Swedish American Genealogist. 35 (2).
  4. ^ The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly. 58–59. Swedish Pioneer Historical Society: 207–209. 2007. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ "Nordstjernan". Minnesota Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26. Retrieved 2022-05-26.

External links edit

  • Vestkusten – California Digital Newspaper Collection