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Louisiana is probably best known for its French and Spanish influences, but Swedish? Not so much.

But the Scandinavian country's influence on the state goes further back and deeper than many realize.

Legendary opera and concert singer Jenny Lind visited New Orleans in 1851 and performed . The occasion not only holds a place in New Orleans history but also that of Louisiana's Swedish culture. 

In fact, Cecilia Kjellgren, the honorary Swedish consul for Louisiana, counts it as one of the highlights of Louisiana's Swedish culture.

The first Swede

Though her district also includes Mississippi and Alabama, Kjellgren is based in New Orleans. 

Which is why Kjellgren not only asked Curious Louisiana to highlight this subject but also offered up examples of Swedish contributions to Louisiana's culture and history.

"The very first Swede that landed here in New Orleans met with the founding French father Jean-Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville, in 1721," she said.

The first Swede was a soldier named Charles Frederick D’Arensbourg, born Carl Friedrich Arensburg in Pomerania, Sweden. He landed in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1721, the same year he would meet Bienville — who not only befriended the Swede but appointed him commandant of the German colony of Des Allemands, southeast of New Orleans.

Arensburg eventually modified his name to the more French-sounding Charles Frederick D'Arensbourg.

"He served as commandant for more than 40 years," Kjellgren said. "He also fought with the French militia trying to scare off the Spanish, but they spared his life due to his old age — he was 84 at the time."

D'Arenbourg's legacy doesn't stop there. His great-grandson, Jacques Phillippe Villeré, served as the second governor of Louisiana after it became a state.

Many came through New Orleans

"The reason for finding Scandinavians in Louisiana is that New Orleans had the status of 'Port to South,' just as New York had in the North when it came to immigration," Kjellgren said. "One other main reason is the Scandinavians are a seafaring people, so many of them in the city were sailors when they arrived there."

From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, poverty forced 1.3 million Swedes to emigrate to North America. Many settled in the Midwest, while others began landing in New Orleans in the 1820s. 

"During the Civil War, Louisiana had the only company with a Scandinavian name in the Southern Army as a whole," Kjellgren said.

The company was part of the Louisiana Militia's Chalmette Regiment, consisting of foreign volunteers, which was called to fight for the Confederacy between May 1862 and May 1863.

Its Company A, called the "Scandinavian Guards," was the only all-Scandinavian unit in the Confederate Army. Its membership of some 100 men consisted of Norwegians, Danes and Swedes.

Hammond's Swedish connection

In 1820, a Swede named Peter av Hammerdal moved from New Orleans to Ponchatoula and changed his name to the anglicized Hammond.

He eventually earned enough money to build a timber plantation, where he started a lumber business that supplied New Orleans' maritime industry. When the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad made its way through Louisiana, a stop was named for Hammond's settlement.

It was called Hammond's Crossing. Today, it's called the city of Hammond, and the railroad still makes a stop there. The railway was bought by Illinois Central, which is now owned by the Canadian National Railway.

A state marker commemorates Hammond's gravesite beneath an oak in his namesake city. 

Kjellgren says Swedes are responsible for many of New Orleans' "lavish and beautiful Mardi Gras decorations."

"For over 40 years, we had two prominent artists from Sweden in charge of creating and decorating the floats during the golden age of Mardi Gras," she said.

Krewes employ Swedish artists

According to online news site Daily Scandinavian, , "New Orleans parade design reached its pinnacle in the late 1800s through the work of two cosmopolitan Swedish artist-emigres — Charles Briton and Bror Anders Wikstrom, which documents the Swedish connection to Mardi Gras."

Both designed fantastical floats with whimsical confections.

Briton, a native of Gothenberg, Sweden, arrived in New Orleans in 1865. His earliest design was the ensemble tableau for the Comus ball in 1870. From there, he became the favorite designer for krewes throughout the city, his creations including costumes and floats.   

Briton died at age 44 in 1884 while working in his studio in Exchange Alley. Wikstrom, Briton's assistant, succeeded him and became known as the designer for Rex and Proteus. 

The New Orleans Museum of Art in 2018.

Also on Kjellgren's list is Swedish-born architect Gustav M. Torgerson, who designed the main building for New Orleans' 1884 Cotton Centennial Exposition, in what is now Audubon Park.

The building was the largest of its kind, its exterior echoing the towers, arches and turrets of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Its Music Hall at the center could seat 11,000 people in the audience and 600 on stage.

The building was also the first at a World's Fair to feature elevators and electric lights.

Then there's Sweden native and attorney Gustavus Schmidt, who came to New Orleans in 1830 and established the Louisiana Law Journal in 1841. It was the first journal not only in the state but the South.

In 1844, Schmidt established the Louisiana Law School, also a first for the state.

Swedish-born artist Thure de Thulstrup, whose painting, "Hoisting American Colors, Louisiana Cession, 1803," has been on continuous exhibit at the Cabildo since it has become a part of the Louisiana State Museum system.

Thulstrup was commissioned to paint this scene commemorating the transfer of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States for the St. Louis World's Fair.

What list of Louisiana Swedish notables would be complete without Olympic gold medalist and World Champion pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis?

Though born in Lafayette, Duplantis' mother is Swedish, and he holds dual citizenship. He competed for LSU in college, but he competes for Sweden in Olympic and world competitions and is regarded as the greatest pole vaulter of all time.

Story of Swedish Consulate

Kjellgren, herself, is a Stockholm, Sweden, native, who has lived 30 years in New Orleans. She worked in Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs before moving to New York to work in the Swedish Consulate.

From there, Kjellgren and her husband moved to New Orleans, where the consulate of Sweden office was established in 1797. As indicated by Kjellgren's title, the office is now classified as an honorary consul.

Through this office, Kjellgren promotes and shares her Swedish culture in the southern region, just as she's doing now with Curious Louisiana.