"The Land of the Midnight Sun": American Tourists in Finland, 1870-1914

From 1870 to 1914, Finland attracted newfound attention from American tourists eager to explore this western corner of the Russian Empire. Americans ventured through forests, lakes, saunas, and villages, acquiring a deep admiration for Finns. Yet, travelers also harbored hesitancies about Finns’ “Mongolian” roots and ambiguous racial status. Even so, American tourists fretted about the impacts of Russification, which increased from the 1880s, and largely echoed concerns throughout Europe and the diaspora about Finnish sovereignty and self-determination under the tsars. Tourists’ experiences in Finland thus reveal vital tensions and evolutions in American perceptions of Russia and its empire.