Husqvarna Factory Museum in Sweden
#3 in a series on a trip to Sweden in May 2017
A historical street close to the Factory Museum in Huskvarna where black smiths lived. Now used for arts’ and crafts’ shops
In this post I will focus on Huskvarna a town in Smaaland, Southern Sweden where people were poor and many emigrated to the United States. Some of those who stayed home found a living by producing things for the household.
Småland postcard
In upcoming posts I will continue on this subject with Almhult, the first IKEA outlet and Vaxjso on making toys and the Swede Carl von Linné, botanist who named the flowers in the enlightenment period.
The other articles are here and can be read in any order.
Huskvarna has a factory museum with the old spelling Husqvarna. They started as a weaponry factory but as sales went down in the last part of the nineteenth century they started to make sewing machines and bicycles and cast iron things. Later on stows and motorbikes. Nowadays they produce lawnmowers. A waterfall was used for the production as the old factory is situated beneath a steep and rocky hill.
A ship sunk with a load of sewing machines about 1910 in the big lake of Vattern close by the factory. A sewing machine was found forty years later in the water and after being repaired it could still sew. The products used in the households were of good quality and helped to raise the living standards in Sweden. The 1950s were the peak period of the factory. Many more items for households were made at that time.
Huskvarna postcard with the factory in the background
Impressions from the Factory Museum in Huskvarna
Remington Rifles from the Husquarna Factory
The good quality rifles were bought by the Danish Army as we had lost devastating to Germany in 1864. Unfortunately when we have been involved in war our military equipment has been outdated.
In times of peace our military is not renewed so in times of danger history repeats itself.
My blogging friend Paula Peterson’s father, Hans Peterson the mysterious builder of the West used this weapon in his time in the Danish army before he emigrated to the United States in 1884. My husband Henry Jorgensen has written posts about his Danish background. He has a Google translate button on his page.
A bit like my first bike in the 1950s
A girl’s Husquarna bike from 1950s
The Huskvarna Youth Hostel where we stay when in this area
Categories: Emigrants, Historical issues, Sweden
From one Heart to Another 
I didn’t know Husqvarna had such a history ( or that the spelling had been changes – I think I’ll stick to the old spelling 🙂 ).I only knew about the sewing machines and bicycles. I have a passion for sewing machines, and theirs were beautiful. The first sewing machine I ever used was a Husqvarna Thank you for this fascinating piece of history.
Your presentation is lovely. I think we’ve both learnt a lot since we began blogging.
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So kind of you to comment on this post. Yes the town is now spelled with a K and the old factory had this rare Q. I love the area and have been there many times as it’s half way from Uppsala to Copenhagen and you drive along a beautiful lake called Vattern. Jonkoping and Huskvarna are two towns grown together in the bottom and is shown as a star ⭐️ at the end of a long narrow lake. 300 km if you go by bike all the way round
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I’d love to go to Denmark. I developed a fascination for Copenhagen as a child, when I read Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tail, and have high regard for all Scandinavian Countries. Britain (and the rest of the world) could learn a lot from Scandinavia.
Have you cycled all the way round?
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No not all the way round but when I was young and lived in Copenhagen I would only go around by bike. I hated the cars that polluted the streets a lot more then. Just read about two 20 year old female students who will go on all the most pretty roads all across Denmark for the next two months
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I love flat cities where people rely a lot on bicycles to get around. I was once told that in Cambridge, England, a lot of students who just had cheap cycles used to leave their bikes unlocked when they went into college, and when they came out they’d take the first one to hand and nobody cared.
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Ha ha and I’m Delft in the Nederlands the students throw other students’ bicycles in the canals just to make fun
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Do they jump in to retrieve them?
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By the way you are welcome at my place
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What a generous thought! I can’t afford holidays, apart from visiting my brother in rural Spain, unless by some miracle that changes 😉
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At least you would have a plan to stay ☺️
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It’s incredibly kind of you. Perhaps I’ll manage it next year. It’s an exciting thought especially as I haven’t left the UK for about eight years. I’d given up hope of visiting Denmark. I’ll check out plane fares, just so I have some idea.
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I need to sink my teeth into the history of Denmark and Sweden properly. Thank you for reminding me of that.
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