The adventures of Sweden’s favorite storybook hero, Pippi Longstocking, come alive at the Museum. Enjoy tales from this beloved children’s series while traveling through the Museum galleries as a “thing-finder”, playing Pippi's favorite games like Don't Touch the Floor, and creating a Pippi craft to take home.
Participate in a Swedish holiday tradition – the Lucia festival. Lucia, the saint of light, has long been honored on December 13th, the longest night of the year. Children will learn the legend of Lucia, explore Swedish Christmas traditions, and experience the magic of a traditional Lucia procession. Don’t forget your camera!
Celebrate holidays the Swedish way! Even though we may celebrate some of the same holidays in the United States, Swedes have many unique traditions. From Midsommarfest, to Easter, to the Lucia festival before Christmas, children will participate in and discover how Swedish holidays differ from our own.
Did you know that the Swedes were the first Europeans to settle the Delaware Valley? This program focuses on the founding and legacy of the New Sweden Colony, established in 1638 along the Delaware River. Using Museum collections and hands-on artifacts, children will explore how and why the settlement began, learn more about Swedish relations with local Native Americans, and experience elements of colonial daily life, like making real butter!
In honor of Philadelphia Histories Month, don’t miss guided tours of the American Swedish Historical Museum on this Free Second Sunday! The tours will highlight Swedish connections to the Philadelphia area from the New Sweden Colony (1638-1655) to naturalist Pehr Kalm’s expedition in the Delaware Valley (1748-1751) to feminist, author, and abolitionist Fredrika Bremer’s travels in the city (1849-51).
Tours will begin in the Museum Grand Hall at 11am and 1:30pm and will last approximately one hour.
What better place to celebrate Swedish National Day than the American Swedish Historical Museum!
Learn about the Museum's history through special guided tours of our A Century in the Making: 100 Years of ASHM exhibit at 11 am and 1pm, and enjoy a special Swedish summer cake throughout the day.
Tours and refreshments are included with regular admission.
This exhibit, installed throughout the Museum galleries, will celebrate ASHM’s 100th anniversary with rarely seen artifacts, captivating photographs, and personal stories.
A Century in the Making will highlight the figures, exhibits, and cultural moments that made ASHM the pillar of heritage and community it is today.
Be sure to stop by and see this installation during the Museum's open hours, Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, beginning Sunday, May 10th.
Join ASHM at the Bryn Mawr Film Insitute for to view the classic 1933 Greta Garbo film, “Queen Christina.”
The gender-bending Queen Christina of Sweden has always resisted marriage, but an encounter with a Spanish envoy forces her to weigh passion against duty to the throne. Packed with queer-coded sequences still possible in the Pre-Code era, this lavish costume drama finds Greta Garbo at her most luminous and iconic. ASHM Curator Brett Peters will participate in a post-screening conversation.
Discovery how a century of change has shaped ASHM into the Museum you know today. The special Museum-wide exhibition A Century in the Making: 100 Years of ASHM invites visitors of all ages to journey through time and see how the American Swedish Historical Museum has evolved with a dynamic blend of past and present through rarely seen artifacts, captivating photographs, and personal stories. This once-in-a-century exhibit looks to the past, honors, the present, and invites visitors to imagine ASHM's next 100 years.