Gunilla Bergsten was an associate professor of literature and devoted herself mainly to German literature, both in academic and popular science circles.
In 1963, she defended her thesis Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus, which attracted considerable international attention. It came to mean a great deal for Thomas Mann research because Bergsten skillfully unraveled the structure of Mann's novel construction while presenting extensive, previously unknown source material.
Gunilla Bergsten was also for many years theater reviewer in Upsala Nya Tidning.
After studying under Carl Wilhelmsson at the Valand School of Painting from 1907 to 1909, Ingegerd Beskow traveled to Paris, where she became a student of Henri Matisse and Maurice Denis.
Beskow was a skilled watercolorist and also painted in oil in a muted, black color. Between 1926 and 1950 she exhibited her art in several major Swedish cities. The motifs were often landscapes, taken from cities such as Stockholm, Uppsala, Växjö and others.
Photo from 1943 at Växjö upper secondary school's 300th anniversary. The picture shows Ingegerd Beskow and (probably) Bishop Brilioth on their way into the cathedral. Photo: Yngve Andersson / Kulturparken Småland / Smålands museum.
Oil painting on canvas by Ingegerd Beskow in 1937. The painting depicts the then Växjö Cathedral seen from Ingelstadsvägen, with Karolinerhuset in front. Photo: Kulturparken Småland / Smålands museum.
Image description: Ingegerd Beskow painting on one of the paintings at an exhibition at Småland Museum in 1944. Photo: Jan Erik Anderbjörk / Kulturparken Småland / Smålands museum. [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Greta Arwidsson was born in Uppsala in 1906, the daughter of Ivar and Anna, who were both academics.
In the 1930s, after studying at Uppsala University, Arwidsson participated with Professor Sune Lindqvist in the investigations of the boat burial field at Valsgärde, which is located 7 km north of Uppsala on the Fyrisån River and is a large burial field used during the Iron Age.
She was an associate professor at Uppsala University, and later became the county antiquarian on Gotland and a member of the Swedish Academy of Letters. Arwidsson carried out several important surveys on Gotland. Arwidsson also participated in investigations of Birka and thus contributed to Birka research, including as editor and author of research publications.
In 1956, Arwidsson was appointed professor of archaeology. She was also internationally recognized for her work in archaeology. In her name, "Greta Arwidsson's Friends" was founded, an association for women active in national and union life in Uppsala.
From Greta Arwidsson's book from 1942 about the finds in Valsgärde. The picture shows a helmet found in one of the graves. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
In 1944, Greta Arwidsson and Gunnar Ekholm from Uppsala University examined six graves on Högåsen in Gamla Uppsala. Greta Arwidsson stands by the camera. Photo: Nils Sundquist [assumed] / Upplandsmuseet.
Image description: Greta Arwidsson at the Museum of Nordic Antiquities, Gustavianum, Uppsala, unknown year. Gunnar Sundgren / Upplandsmuseet. [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Gurli Taube worked as a typist at the university library, became a librarian in 1944, head librarian in 1953 and head of the maps and plans department.
Taube published a number of historical works, such as Från gångna tiders Uppsala (1950) and Ett svunnet Uppsala (1966).
Gurli Taube was also responsible for the cultural history texts in Ett bildverk om Uppsala (1954).
Image description: Gurli Taube when Gabriela Mistral came to visit, Uppsala 1945. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet. [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Gusten (Erik Gustaf) Widerbäck is an artist from Uppsala and the Uppland plain, although he was born in Södra Vi in Kalmar County.
He began studying music under Ruben Liljefors, but was encouraged to devote himself to oil painting by Ruben's brother Bruno, who gave him support and help. Widerbäck received his formal training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1899 and at the Artists' Association School in 1900.
After studying art in Stockholm, Widerbäck returned to his childhood town of Uppsala. Widerbäck moved to Årsta, just east of Uppsala, in 1918 and lived there until his death in 1970.
Throughout his 70-year career as an artist, he depicted the plains and the city. Widerbäck's art is characterized by the mood painting of National Romanticism, and he paid lyrical attention to the plains, trees and houses.
Widerbäck spent a lot of time with Olof Thunman and Manne Ihran and had exhibitions in Uppsala, Gävle, Stockholm and Gothenburg.
Shortly before his death, he donated a large number of sketches, drawings, watercolors and gouaches to Upplands konstmuseum. Gusten Widerbäck is represented at the National Museum, in Kalmar, Uppsala University Library and Uppsala Art Association.
Lithograph. Landscape view - Uppsala from the south with Uppsala Castle and Uppsala Cathedral in the background. Gusten Widerbäck 1922, photo: Olle Norling / Upplandsmuseet.
Gusten Widerbäck at work in Uppsala in August 1958. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet.
Svante Arrhenius was born at Wik Castle outside Uppsala, where his father was a steward.
He was one of the foremost natural scientists of his time and was the first Swede to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903 for his work on the electrolytic dissociation theory from 1887. It completely changed chemists' understanding of acids, bases and salts.
From the mid-1890s, Arrhenius' interests expanded to geophysics and cosmic physics. He considered himself a physicist but his main discoveries were mainly in chemistry.
From 1905 Arrhenius was the director of the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry, established by the Academy of Sciences in the same year.
Arrhenius also became internationally known as a popular science writer through the publication of The Evolution of Worlds (1906), Man in the Face of the World Riddle (1907), Smallpox and its Control (1930), The Fate of the Stars (1915) and Chemistry and Modern Life (1919).
Image description: Svante Arrhenius, year unknown. Photo: Unknown photographer / Tekniska Museet. [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
Rutger Sernander became associate professor of plant geography in 1895 and later professor of plant biology from 1908 to 1931.
His research areas included plant distribution biology, lichen biology, forestry, dendrology, archaeology, and the development of climate and plant life in Scandinavia after the ice ages.
Sernander was an internationally recognized scientist and among his works are Den skandinaviska vegetationens spridningsbiologi (1901) and Zur Morphologie der Diasporen (1927).
Sernander also wrote about important places from a natural and cultural point of view. In particular, he wrote about Uppland and Gamla Uppsala, Rickebasta träsk, Flottsund and also the book about Uppsala Kungsäng, which Gustav Sandberg completed and published.
Sernander led an intense struggle to preserve unique plant communities, such as Fiby primeval forest and Uppsala Kungsäng. The platform for nature conservation work became the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, which Sernander helped to found in 1909, and was its chairman from 1917-1930.
Professor Sernander with students before 1944, Uppsala University. Photo: Paul Sandberg / Upplandsmuseet.
Professor Sernander on Upplands fornminnesförenings spring excursion, Uppland 1936. Photo: Paul Sandberg / Upplandsmuseet.
Adolf Nyman's father Anders Nyman started a precision engineering workshop in 1873 at Dragarbrunnsgatan 25 in Uppsala and began repairing bicycles with high front wheels in the 1880s.
The first bicycle was built in 1888 and can be considered the Nymans company's first bicycle. After the father's death in 1889, the business was taken over by his widow, who handed over the workshop to her sons Adolf and Janne, who began manufacturing Hermes and Crescent bicycles. Bicycle manufacturing developed into one of the city's largest industries.
The workshop, which was converted into a limited company in 1889 under the name Nymans verkstäder AB, moved to the block at S:t Persgatan 28-30 and became one of Uppsala's largest industrial companies with 1500 employees in the 1950s.
In 1947, the name was changed to Nymansbolagen, which in 1960 merged with the Monark bicycle factory in Varberg. Operations in Uppsala ceased in 1963.
Group photo of the staff at AB Nyman's workshops in the early 1900s, taken with the factory in the background. Photo: Emil L:son Finn / Upplandsmuseet.
Assembly of bicycles, AB Nymans Verkstäder, Noatun block, Uppsala 1939. Photo: Östlings foto / Upplandsmuseet.
Karl Gustaf Lennander became a student in Uppsala in 1875 and later an associate professor and professor of surgery and obstetrics in 1891.
With him, modern abdominal surgery began in Sweden and in 1889 the first operation for peritonitis (inflammation of the peritoneum) originating from the appendix was performed. Lennander presented the results in 1902, when he also recommended early surgery for appendicitis (inflammation of the appendix). Lennander published several studies in surgery and gynecology.
Lennander became a member of the Society of Science in Uppsala in 1893, the Society of Science and Literature in Gothenburg in 1902 and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1905. Lennander's large fortune was bequeathed to a scholarship fund at Uppsala University and to the Swedish Medical Society.
Surgery course, fall semester 1890. Professor Karl Gustaf Lennander (sitting in a light-colored coat near the operating table) with students Lindblad, Segerstedt, Floderus, Strandman, Kaijser, Olsson, Wennerström, Didriksson, Bodinsson, Nilsson. Photo: UUB.
Doctors at Uppsala University Hospital in 1889. Around the portraits are photographs of Fyrisån, Uppsala University Hospital, the harbor with the Pump House and the Department of Anatomy, Uppsala University, the staircase in the university building, the Botanical Garden, view of Uppsala University Hospital and the castle and cathedral, Flustret. Photo: Heinrich Osti / UUB.
Mathilde Wigert studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts 1896-1902 and studied in Paris 1903-1904. During her studies she met her husband, the artist Johan Österlund, and the couple moved to Uppsala in 1908.
Wigert early paintings were characterized by national romantic moods and later became more expressive and emotional. One group of motifs that increasingly characterized her later art was the church interiors, which were characterized by emotional tension.
Wigert painted, among other things, a suite of tombstones in Uppsala Cathedral, interiors from Rasbo Church and church interiors from Bro on Gotland.
Over the years, Mathilde Wigert suffered from serious mental health problems and was periodically hospitalized at Ulleråker Hospital. She also published books and became involved in improving the conditions of the mentally ill.
Mathilde Wigert at the easel. John Österlund and Lilly Wigert at the parasol. The picture was taken around 1905, Vaxholm. Photo: Unknown photographer / UUB. Provenance: Christina Backman.
Female students at the Academy of Fine Arts 1897-1898. Mathilde is seen standing on her knees at the front. The others in the photograph are T. Wrede, S. Sonntag, Eva Befve, K. Hult, G. Palm, Kjellberg and L. Lindberg. In the background a male artist model. Photo: Unknown photographer / UUB. Provenance: Christina Backman.
Image description: Mathilde Wigert at her easel ca 1900. Photo: Unknown photographer / UUB. Provenance: Christina Backman. [The image is cropped] Click here for an uncropped image
