Elias Fries

1794–1878.

Botanist, mycologist.

Elias Fries came from Femsjö in Småland and was the son of the Parson Thore Fries and Sara Elisabeth Wernelin. He became one of leading figures of mycology, who produced writings that still play a scientific role.

Originally, Fries studied at Lund University and he became associate professor of botany at the age of 20.

He later moved to Uppsala University and was in 1851 Professor of practical economics and botany. He was also the prefect of the Botanical Garden and the museum there.

Fries was especially focused on the study of fungi, but his research touched on all the fields of botany. His most influential work was Systema Mycologicum, which was Fries's systematic work regarding fungi. Other mycological works were Elenchusfungorum and Hymenomycetes Europaei.

Fries propagated to use fungi as food, by the work of plates Sweden's edible and poisonous mushrooms. The interest in mycology was transferred to several of the children. For example, the son and daughter, Elias Petrus and Susanna (Sanna) Christina, draw several plates with mushrooms which several are preserved in Uppsala.

Fries also published the popular scientific papers Botanical Flyers (1-3, 1843 – 1864).

In addition to rector of the university, Elias Fries was a member of the Swedish Academy.

Title sheet from Elias Fries "Sweden's edible and poisonous mushrooms", Norstedt & Sons, Stockholm, 1860. Photo: Bukowskis Auktioner AB.

Spread by Elias Fries "Sweden's edible and poisonous mushrooms", Norstedt & Sons, Stockholm, 1860. Photo: Bukowskis Auktioner AB.

Burial site: 0103-0185

Image description: Elias Fries, Uppsala 1860's. Photo: UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Adolph Törneros

1794–1839.

Author, humanist, philologist.

Adolph Törneros was born in Eskilstuna on Christmas Eve 1794. At the age of 12 he began to work as a private teacher. In 1812 he began his studies at the Uppsala University and later became professor of Aesthetics in 1829 and in Latin 1832.

Törneros spent most of his life as an academic teacher in Latin and was a part of the literary circle around Geijer and Atterbom, which was his closest friends.

Törneros is one of the greatest letter writers of Swedish literature and was one of his time's greatest travel writer. Törneros longed every spring out of the countryside, where he in his many letters, described the impressions from the travels of the Swedish landscape around Lake Mälaren.

Landscapes and environments are described with extreme detail and the adventures are portrayed with a particularly lively language. In a letter to his mother, on the 29 of December 1828, the hike from the home of the Geijer family he describes, at half past seven on Christmas Eve 1828:

 

"the Snow cracked under my boots – the twenty-degree cold bit like a shark after my nose tip, ears and fingers – the star filled sky stared with grim eyes down over it as well as to the Earth, dressed in white for the weekend – Orion, just rised out of the southeast, sparkling one seemed to hear it – the moon was still and behind the clouds, but nontheless,  you saw its rays.

Adolph Törneros was described as lanky, with a slight bird profile. His friend Atterbom found in Törneros' quick movement him to unmistakable resemble a bird.

His last Christmas Törneros spent with the Atterbom family. Sheubsequently, Törneros fell ill and died in his home three weeks later in what was described as a form of typhoid. Geijer said:

 

"He had too little ballast, therefore he flew away from us".

 

Burial site: 0112-0557

Image description: Portrait of Adolph Törneros. Unknown master, oil painting from the 1830's. Photo: UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Carl Peter Thunberg

1743–1828.

Botanist, physician.

In 1770, Carl Peter Thunberg, after studying with Carl Linnaeus, went on a nine-year journey abroad that began in the Netherlands. There Thunberg met the most prominent botanist of the time.

Thunberg then pursued medical studies in Paris before being the ship's doctor on a ship going from the Netherlands to Cape Town, to stay for three years to explore the area's nature. The studies were documented in Flora capensis (1-3, 1807 – 1813). Thunberg was the first to describe the flora in South Africa and has therefore been called the father of South African flora.

In 1775 Thunberg continued to Japan, where he collected material for his Flora japonica (1784). The work was epoch-making for the knowledge of Japan's plant world and Thunberg received the honorary name of Japan's Linnaeus.

Poster of Japanese Maple retrieved from Icones plantarum Japonicarum [Poster 5 part V, 1805]. Photo: Uppsala University Library.

Illustration (frontispiece) from Voyages de C. P. Thunberg au Japon [...], tome I, Paris, An. IV [1796]. Photo: Uppsala University Library.

In 1779 Thunberg returned to Uppsala and succeeded in 1784 Carl Linnaeus the younger as professor of medicine and botany.

Thunberg also published the Journey in Europe, Africa, Asia, established the years 1770–1779 (1-4, 1788 – 1793). The collections from the trips were deposited at the University library.

Carl Peter Thunberg's estate Tunaberg, north of the Svartbäcken creek in Uppsala, where he lived the rest of his long life, was known for his prestigious horticulture well into the 1940s.

 

Burial site: 0101-0103

Image description : Carl Peter Thunberg, 1801. Engraver Anton Ulrik Berndes. Photo: UUB. [ The image is cropped ]
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Hans Järta

1774–1847.

Official, politician, author.

Hans Järta (originally Baron Hans Hierta) became a student in Uppsala at the age of 13, an official in the Cabinet of foreign correspondence as an 18-year-old and secretary at the Justice department four years later.

As eighteen, Järta socialized with the men in the conspiracy against king Gustavus III. Järta was present in 1792 when the shot against Gustavus III was fired. Afterward, Järta gave partial misleading information about the shooting but whether or not he was involved in the murder plan itself, there is only circumstantial evidence. He was never accused of involvement in the assassination.

Järta recalled both nobility and his member of parliament at the Riksdag in 1800 in protest against king Gustav IV Adolf and the monarchical autocracy and took the name Järta (the family name was Hierta).

Järta was one of the men behind the coup d'état of 1809 and belonged, after the king's abdication, on of the leaders at the Riksdag the same year. He was secretary of the Constitutional Committee in the drafting of 1809 years of government.

Järta was also governor of Kopparbergs County 1812 – 1822, member of the Swedish Academy 1819 and moved to Uppsala 1825 where he served as a writer. In Uppsala, Järta held a literary salon, which competed with the Malla Silfverstolpes salon.

Later, Järta became head of the Swedish National Archives from 1837–1844.

The high gravestone that adorns the burial ground refers to his son with the same name, which as a young student died in 1825.

 

Burial site: 0112-0588

Image description: Hans Järta. Photo: From Emil Hildebrand,  Sveriges historia intill tjugonde seklet, vol 9 (1910) / Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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Carl Hård

1768–1840.

Major-general.

Carl Hård was born at Jällsta Gård in Viikki Parish and was at 20 years of age lieutenant at Upplands Regement. He participated in the Finnish War in 1788–1790 and distinguished himself in the first Battle of Swedish strait 1789. The following year, Hård participated in the Battle of Fredrikshamn, a battle where King Gustavus III took command.

As major Hård participated in the Siege of Stralsund 1807, of Lier's sconce 1808 in Norway and in the defense of Sävar and Ratan 1809. At the Battle of Leipzig 1813 he acted as Lieutenant Colonel and was then appointed colonel of the Army. He then participated in the march to Brussels and in the campaign to Norway.

Carl Hård became Major-general in 1822 and resignated in 1835. In addition to his military career, he was an a rt collector. In his last years in life he lived in Uppsala near Fyrisån (later Ofvandalska Gården). In Uppsala he spent time in the academic circles around Geijer and Atterbom.

Hård's art collection, consisting of about a hundred oil paintings, was later donated to Uppsala University. The donation laid the foundations for Uppsala University's art museum.

 

Burial site: 0103-0177

Image description: Portrait of Carl Hård painted by J.G. Sandberg. Photo: National Archives / Swedish Biographical Dictionary. [The image is cropped]
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Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom

1790–1855.

Author, literary historian, philosopher.

Already at the age of 17, Atterbom became one of the leaders in the company Musis Amici (later Aurora Federation) who wanted to reform the Swedish literature in a romantic spirit.

The literary revolution that Atterbom wanted to lead began in 1810 with the critical and satirical journal Polyfem. Together with V.F. Palmblad, he started the journal Phosforus, which claimed the poetry as a spiritual power with the ability to transform life.

With the friends Geijer, Palmblad and Törneros, Atterbom had a lovely and soulful family company, and in Malla Silfverstolpes salons, Atterbom and other romantics for decades were intimately at ease.

Atterbom became professor of theoretical philosophy 1828, professor of aesthetics and modern literature 1835 and was also a member of the Swedish Academy from 1839.

Among his works are Bird Blue (1814), Happiness Island (1824–1827) and the Collected Poems (1837 – 1838). In Swedish seers and Poets (1841–1845) he portrayed Swedenborg, Ehrensvärd and Thorild. It also depicts Stiernhielm, Dahlin, Kellgren and Bellman.

 

Burial site: 0152-0060

Image description: Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom, painting by Johan Gustaf Sandberg 1831. Photo: Nationalmuseum / Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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Malla Silfverstolpe

1782–1861.

Author.

Magdalena (Malla) Silfverstolpe became an orphan early in her life and grew up with the mother's relatives on the family estate Edsberg. She and her husband David Silfverstolpe moved to Uppsala in 1812 and quickly found themselves in the stimulating academic and weathered environment.

After the death of her husband in 1819, Silfverstolpe began "keeping a salon" on Friday evenings for the higher society of the times where people from the cultural and scientific circles participated. The salon was held in the home at the main square, where among other romantics Geijer and Atterbom gathered.

It offered the opportunity to listen to literature read aloud and music. It was debated, songs were sung and letters read. Both Malla Silfverstolpe and Thekla Knös, who also held salon, have described these meetings in their respective diaries.

Malla Silfverstolpe had an ability to gather and invite talents and in the home several celebrities was received, such as Jenny Lind, H.C. Andersen and C.J.L. Almqvist. Malla Silfverstolpe participated in the feud around Almqvist's book and published a book as a response.

 

Burial site: 0104-0249

Image description: Malla Silfverstolpe 1850's. Photo: Unknown photographer / Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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Erik Gustaf Geijer

1783–1847.

Historian, philosopher, author and composer.

Erik Gustaf Geijer, one of Uppsala's most important cultural personalities, was born at Ransäter in Värmland and came as a student to Uppsala in 1799. As a tutor he resided in 1809–1810 in England, where he attentively observed social and cultural life.

Geijer's understanding of the intellectuals' criticism increased during a trip to Germany in 1825 and against the fantasies of romance he began to take a more realistic stance. This he expressed in memories (1834).

Geijer recognized the importance of the middle class in society and the legitimacy of its requirements for freedom, and as a result of the changed social analysis, a political reorientation was removed from conservatism. This "waste" he announced in 1838.

Geijer's ability to see and formulate essential contexts in his contemporaries made him a strong voice in formation of opinion. His most important works include Svea Rikes Hävder (1825), which portrays Sweden's oldest history and the history of the Swedish folkets historia (1832–1836).

Geijer was a full-gloss lecturer, in-depth scientist and one of the leaders in the literary circles in Uppsala in the 1830s. He was also the center of Music life, and composed songs, piano sonatas, string quartets and other instrumental music.

Erik Gustaf Geijer was professor of history in 1817–1847 and became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1824. He lived on Svartbäcksgatan 17 and then moved to the Övre Slottsgatan 2. In 1846 Geijer moved to Stockholm.

The following is taken from the poem "Night sky" from the Collected Writings, vol. 1-13 1849–1855.

Alone I proceed forth on my path,
Longer and longer stretches the path;
Ah, in the distance, my goal is hidden.
The day itself lowers. Space becomes nocturnal.
Soon only the eternal stars I see.

But I do not complain the fleeing day,
Not me the night terrifies;
For of the love that goes through the world,
Fell also a streak into my soul.

 

Burial site: 0104-0248

Image description: Erik Gustaf Geijer, lithography from the 1840's. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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