Merlin Peterson, Executive Director of the Pope County Historical Society, selected this photograph of Swanson's Glenwood Bakery from their collection in MDL:

Swanson Bakery interior, Glenwood, c. 1920

Swanson's Bakery originated in 1914 in the basement of the Roger's Hotel on Minnesota Avenue, Glenwood, Minnesota, and quickly outgrew that space and moved in 1916 to a former bottling company property on East Green Street (First Avenue SE) where it saw several expansions.

Founder, C.A. (Carl) Swanson, was active in the statewide bakery association and loved the marketing part of the business. He died in an auto accident in 1932. The company continued under the direction of his wife, Clara, and other managers. Swanson's Glenwood Bakery closed operations in 1941. The large bakery building was razed in 1967.

This photo collection was donated to the Pope County Museum by Carl & Clara's son, Clarence Swanson. Clarence had the opportunity to take over the bakery business, but his heart was in music. He founded Northwest Organ in Bloomington, Minnesota, which at one time had a staff of six musicians who took turns providing live organ music on Northwest Airlines flights between MSP and Chicago and New York.

This image is part of a large collection of photographs that document the grand opening of an expanded, regional bakery business. Swanson's Best Yet and Sonny Boy bread labels produced up to 7,000 loaves of bread each day and delivered to hundreds of cities across three states! The photo collection documents every part of the operation - mixing, baking, packaging, retail sales and delivery. In an especially savvy marketing plan, C.A. Swanson crafted miniature delivery trucks to distribute miniature loaves of bread to children. The loaves included instructions to the children to insist that their mothers buy Sonny Boy Bread for their whole family. (See the other bakery photographs in this collection, and also watch this historical film clip for more.)

The Swanson's Bakery collection represents a thoughtful and responsive business leader, C.A Swanson. We are inspired by this collection to entice more people in our community and statewide to bite into history and savor the details that are revealed by a deeper look at the things we thought we knew. History is so multifaceted! The details of a story like Sonny Boy Bread draw us even deeper into local lore.

This particular image is a favorite because MDL allows us to zoom into the photo and see C.A. Swanson, bakery owner, on the telephone taking an order while an employee packages freshly baked bread. Another employee is seen in the pass-through window assisting a walk-in customer. Many other details also become clear because of the MDL zoom feature - the electrical fuse system, the heavy packaging machine, the regulator clock high on the wall, and more. The rest of the Swanson's Bakery collection is just as revealing.

The Pope County Historical Society in Glenwood, Minnesota, collects photographs, printed materials and artifacts related to the history of Pope County. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10-5. The historical society contributed highlights from their collection to the Minnesota Digital Library.

Browse the Pope County Historical Society collection in MDL.

See more favorites using the page links below.