The bulk of Birger Sandzén’s drawings can be found in his sketchbooks and were used primarily as studies for paintings and prints. He did, however, produce a number of finished drawings prior to his efforts in printmaking that began in 1916. There is no record of his finished drawings, but the majority of his sketchbooks are in the Sandzén Gallery Archives. In 1982, Nina Stawski completed a comprehensive survey of his sketchbooks for her Master’s thesis at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She documented 82 sketchbooks completed between 1883 and 1952. The bulk of these sketches are quick contour line studies in which Sandzén would indicate the colors of the scene for future reference. An example of this are two sketches of Coronado Heights (located 3 miles northwest of Lindsborg), one with the intended colors written in Swedish, the other English.