The Johan G.R. Banér collection is an especially valuable resource for the study of immigrants in Michigan; it also provides examples of popular folklore during the first half of the twentieth century. The collection is divided into six series: Biographical Information, Correspondence, Manuscripts, Scrapbooks, Publications and Photographs; the material is written in both English and Swedish.
Johan Gustav Runeskeold Banér was a noted Swedish-American author and folklorist who spent most of his life in Ironwood, Michigan. Born in Småland, Sweden in 1861, he immigrated to the United States in 1883, where he lived in Ashland, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota.
While in Ashland, Banér began publishing Frihet, which became the major Swedish language publication in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. He continued to publish Frihet after he moved to Ironwood, which was home to a large Swedish speaking community. Banér also began to write poetic accounts of Scandinavian epics, as well as translations of Chippewa legends, myths and folklore; he wrote literally thousands of articles and poems for the nation's Swedish language press. As his influence as a publisher and writer spread, Banér corresponded with several well-known people, including Luther Burbank, Booker T. Washington, Elbert Hubbard, and Michigan governor Chase S. Osborn. He died in 1938.
