Greetings from Swedish Crafts in Lindsborg, Kansas!
Since 1952, Swedish Crafts has been importing and selling Swedish and Northern European handicrafts. both retail and via mail-order, from the brick storefront in the little Kansas town of Lindsborg. What Hilding Jaderborg started as " The Walton Bookstore" (named after the Destroyer Escort he was stationed on in WW2) would become Swedish Crafts, and Hilding's wife, Esther (Dahlsten) Jaderborg, joined the partnership. Both Hilding and Esther are 100% ethnic Swedish, from the first generation of grandchildren born to Lindsborg's founding fathers.
Over the decades, their "little-brick-store-on-the-corner" has provided a wonderful resource to the many local, national and international customers they have come to know and serve. While they raised their three children, (Kathy, Paula, and Tom), Hilding and Esther developed a unique and sophisticated collection of the very finest international gift-ware. They soon gained a reputation for providing the best gifts for people to give to others.
Swedish Crafts in Lindsborg has been providing mail-order gift services for 40 years, it is a natural fit for handling Internet orders. Hilding was
virtually a pioneer in the import-mail-order business, publishing a yearly catalog of gift wares that was distributed across the country, and advertised in national magazines.
Swedish Crafts also built a reputation for maintaining a very unique selection of colorful Swedish and seasonal gift-wrapping paper, which we are still in the process of adding to the website, so very soon when you order online, you will be able to pick from that special paper, and we will do the wrapping for you. Swedish Crafts can package, wrap and ship an entire box full of beautifully-wrapped Christmas gifts, each one custom wrapped to match your needs.
As a popular mail-order source, Swedish Crafts in Lindsborg also played an important role in building Lindsborg's reputation as a five-star tourist town. During his earliest days in the import business, Hilding advertised Swedish-made kitchen items and Danish collectibles in national publications, and he made certain that Swedish Crafts was occasionally featured in a story in the magazine pages. On all his advertising, Hilding always added the little phrase, in italics or quotes, "Lindsborg, Little Sweden, USA."
Through the years, and increasing after I-135 was laid close by, thousands of Swedish Americans followed that little promotional cue to Lindsborg. If they were anywhere near Lindsborg, whether travelling to ski in Colorado, to bet in Vegas, or between Oklahoma and Nebraska for "Red Day" football games, Swedish Americans made a regular pilgrimage to "Little Sweden, USA," along with countless other curious folks who just wanted to know what "Little Sweden, USA" was all about.
So, along with the traditional Bethany College Messiah Festival, and the more contemporary bi-annual Hyllningsfest pioneer celebration, Swedish Crafts helped create and build-up the tourism tradition that Lindsborg now thrives on. The entire town, and many surrounding villages and hide-aways, are rich with Swedish-American history and lore, providing visitors a wealth of places to visit, and events worth remembering. At one time, Hyllningsfest drew a crowd of over 40,000 people.
But Swedish Crafts in Lindsborg is not just a Swedish-American icon, it is is as much an all-American business story as it is one of rock-hard Swedish pioneers, and the elegant and cultured legacy they forged out of the wilderness, for their children and grandchildren. Swedish Crafts is also a wonderful example of the small-town, downtown, brick-front retail store, that grew steadily along with the rest of the nation during the years following WW2, thriving in the post-war American economy.
Now you can experience this icon of American small-town retail business, on the Internet, just as if you were parked on the brick street out in front of the store. We can bring you arts and crafts, jewelry and ornaments, from around the globe, like the ancient Viking Ships, returning from exotic lands, our website will provide access to traditional and contemporary Scandinavian and Northern European crafts.
Swedish Crafts in Lindsborg will be sending out a quarterly email newsletter, featuring the latest items we have added to our web pages, and new consignment items, the artists and craftspeople who have joined our site. We will offer specials on seasonal and overstocked gift items and listings of new consignment pieces. After you sign up on the consignment page, you can click here to email us your information, prices and jpegs of your work. Since we are emailing many people in Sweden, please, if you know any crafts people or artists or artisans who might want to list their items with us on a consignment page, please pass this along to them.
And along those lines, for everyone who receives this email, since we are just getting started on the Internet, we would like to ask you to help us network our monthly email newsletter out to other Swedes and quality-gift shoppers you know, so we can build our services and begin to offer online the same wide array of products and handcrafts that are offered in the store. Help us get the word out by forwarding this email, and those folks you introduce to our website can sign up for monthly emails right on the home page.
We appreciate your looking in on our new website now and then, we hope we can help you simplify your gift-giving needs.
Tak sa Mycket!!!
...from everyone here at Swedish Crafts in Lindsborg!!!.
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