Erik Joel Eriksson was sent by the Central Committee for Swedish Mongolian missions (SMM) in 1913. His wife was Annie Almqvist (Annie Maria Eriksson). They married in 1918 in Kalgan. He studied medicine in England before he left for Kalgan.
He was a missionary, but worked as a local agent for the Central Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History, under the leadership of Roy Chapman Andrews during 1926-1930.
He was a leader and secretary of the Central Committee for Swedish Mongolian missions in between 1938-1947, after Magnus Ferdinand Johansson-Havermark.
He donated his photographs to Uppsala university in 1985.
His son is Paul Eriksson who also come to Mongolia as a missionary in 1947.