Historical Portrait
People: Sjoblom Family 1920
Archive record
Historical family portrait of Finnish immigrants Aina, Frans Victor, and son Tauno Sjoblom from 1920. Public-domain photograph from California archive collection.
About this photograph
The Sjoblom family were Finnish immigrants living in California. This 1920 portrait shows Aina, Frans Victor, and their son Tauno.
The photograph sits near the tail end of a transformative period in American life. Between roughly 1880 and 1920 some 20 million people arrived in the United States, most from southern and eastern Europe. Studio portraits from this era often mark the journey itself, made at home to leave with relatives or taken soon after arrival and sent back as proof of safe passage and employment.
The record comes from a California institution through California Revealed, a statewide programme that digitises holdings from libraries, archives, museums and historical societies across the state and makes them publicly available. Because California Revealed gathers material from many separate local collections, the shared source tag indicates where a photograph was digitised rather than where it was taken.
The photographer is not identified. The archive lists agriculture among the subject terms, though the record itself does not specify the family's occupation or where in California they settled.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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