Rosalie Olivecrona

1823-1898.

Author, women's rights activist.

Rosalie Olivecrona was one of the pioneers of the Swedish women's movement. She made significant contributions as a social commentator and women's rights campaigner.

In 1857, Olivecrona published a number of articles in Aftonbladet under the heading 'En ropandes röst i öknen'. The articles defended Fredrika Bremer's novel Hertha, which was a contribution to the debate on the authority of unmarried women.

Together with Sophie Adlersparre, she founded the Tidskrift för hemmet (Journal for the Home ) in 1859, where she published a number of texts. Internationally, she held several positions in the growing female public sphere.

Olivecrona had the main responsibility for the exhibition on women's handicrafts at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 and had similar assignments in Philadelphia, Paris and Chicago.

Rosalie Olivecrona's literary career began in the 1840s with poems and short stories in Göteborgs Handels- och sjöfartstidning under the pseudonym La Straniera. Her poetry collection Skogsblommor was published in 1855, and later in life she published the study Mary Carpenter och hennes verksamhet (1887) and Spridda blad (1889).

 

Burial site: 0104-0255

Image description: Rosalie Olivercrona, 1874. Photo: Bertha Valerius / Västergötland Museum. [The image is cropped]
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Axel W Persson

1888-1951.

Archaeologist.

Axel W. Persson was born in Kvidinge and was interested in archaeology from an early age.

Persson's studies and interest in the Greek language led him to become an associate professor of Greek language and literature in 1915, and of classics and ancient history in 1921. In Uppsala, Persson became professor of classics and ancient history in 1924.

Persson was the leader of successful excavations in Greece (Asine 1922-1930, Dendra and Midea 1926-1927, 1937 and 1939 and in Berbati 1936-1937) and Turkey (Milas 1938 and Labraynda 1948-1950).

Of particular note was the uncovered dome tomb at Dendra , with treasures from Mycenaean times, excavated in 1926. The discovery was described as the largest archaeological find after Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt. The tomb contained a king, a queen and a princess. In addition, precious grave goods such as gold swords and precious metal bowls were found. The finds from the dome tomb ended up in the National Museum of Athens. Persson's findings were published in scientific monographs such as The Royal tombs at Dendra near Midea (1931). This work is considered a classic.

Together with his wife, he made an important humanitarian contribution to Greece during the Second World War in the service of the Red Cross.

After the end of the Second World War, Persson carried out new excavations. In Labraynda, the aim was to find the origins of the Minoan culture. However, a temple site of classical and Roman times was found. Soon after, Persson died of a stroke.

Between 1924 and 1951, Axel W. Persson was professor of classical archaeology and, through his discoveries, his writing and his lectures, made classical archaeology known and appreciated in Sweden. Persson was awarded the Övralid Prize.

At the time of his death, Persson was considered one of the world's leading archaeologists. He is also the father of Viktor Persson, better known as Bok-Viktor.

 

Burial site: 0310-0273

Image description: Axel W. Persson, probably 1924, photo: Museum GustavianumThe image is cropped]
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Jane Miller Thengberg

1822-1902.

Seminary teacher.

Jane Miller Thengberg was born in Greenock, Scotland, and after the death of her father, her mother moved back to Sweden with her two children.

Miller Thengberg studied education in Sweden and abroad and taught as a governess in Stockholm from 1845 to 1852. She was also a governess in Scotland for a short time.

In 1853 she moved to Uppsala, where she soon met her future husband, the librarian and teacher at the cathedral school Pehr Adrian Thengberg.

Miller Thengberg was strongly committed to the issue of girls' education. With the support of her husband Adrian Thengberg, P. D. Atterbom, Malla Silfverstolpe and Gunnar Wennerberg, she founded a girls' school in 1855 called Klosterskolan.

Teaching took place in the building on what is now Klostergatan. The school quickly gained a reputation as the best girls' school in the country. The building has its roots in the medieval settlement and is located in the block north of the old monastery area.

When Miller Thengberg was recruited eight years later as director of the Higher Teacher Training College, with a training school in Stockholm, 130 girls had been educated in the building.

She was also one of the initiators of the School of Home Economics in Uppsala.

Jane Miller Thengberg is buried at the Västgöta nations Burial site , which was donated by her husband Adrian Thengberg (died 1859) and Jane Miller Thengberg. She paid for both the long iron fence and the casting of the sculpted lion by sculptor W. Hoffman.

 

Burial site: 0119-1013

Image description: Jane Miller Thengberg, Stockholm 1870. Photo: W. A. Eurenius & P. L. Quist / UUB.The image is cropped]
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Eva Andén

1886-1970.

Lawyer.

After graduating from high school, Eva Andén began studying law at Uppsala University and graduated in 1912.

After graduating from law school, she traveled around the country lecturing on marriage, child welfare and poor relief laws. Andén also led courses in legal knowledge for rural women, organized by the National Association for Women's Political Suffrage (LKPR).

In 1915, Andén took over a law firm for female clients, Kvinnliga juristbyrån, and three years later she became the first woman to become a member of the Swedish Bar Association.

Andén specialized in family law and mainly assisted clients in connection with divorces, inheritance, alimony, custody issues and division of property in divorces. His clients included Selma Lagerlöf and Astrid Lindgren.

Eva Andén was also a member of a committee that served as the Swedish Bar Association's referral body for family law legislation, where she occasionally had great influence.

From 1950 to 1962 she was also President of the Society of Nine. Andén practiced law until her death in 1970.

 

Burial site: 0106-0343

Image description: Eva Andén, year unknown. Photo: Atelier Hedström, Uppsala / KvinnSam, Gothenburg University Library. [The image is cropped]
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Alfred Dahlgren

1861-1908.

Photographer.

Alfred Dahlgren learned photography in Germany and from photographer Dahllöf in Stockholm. In 1890 he established his own studio at Dragarbrunnsgatan 48 in Uppsala where he worked as a portrait photographer.

In 1901, the Uppsala City Council decided that the city should be photographed, and Dahlgren was commissioned to take the 350 pictures to be delivered in two bound albums.

On weekdays he worked in his studio and early Sunday mornings, when the city was empty, he went out to take his pictures. After a year, the photographs were handed over in albums to the city council.

Nybron in Uppsala, decorated in connection with the Linnaeus Jubilee in 1907. Photo: Alfred Dahlgren / UUB.

Tobogganing through King John's Gate at Uppsala Castle, ca 1890. Photo: Alfred Dahlgren / UUB.

In 1908 he was commissioned to supplement the documentation with pictures of the city's outskirts and farm interiors from old city farms. In the same year, however, Alfred Dahlgren died and his last pictures were therefore handed over by his widow.

A total of 540 glass negatives are in the possession of the Uppland Museum and the two albums with the photographs are in Uppsala City Library. The photographs are a remarkable cultural and historical treasure.

 

Burial site: 0125-1150B

Image description: Alfred Dahlgren ca 1900. Photo: UUBThe image is cropped]
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Emma Schenson

1827-1913.

Photographer, watercolor painter.

Emma Schenson was probably the first female professional photographer in Uppsala and also one of the first women in Sweden to take photographs professionally.

She first trained as a watercolor painter, but from the 1860s she worked in parallel with both painting and photography. In the early days of photography, it was unusual for women to take photographs professionally, but after the 1864 Freedom of Trade Act, it became possible for women to enter the market and establish themselves as entrepreneurs and photographers.

Schenson was active in Uppsala from the 1860s onwards and had a permanent studio at Östra Ågatan 25 (between Nybron and Dombron). In 1888, the Fotografiska föreningen, which organized photographers, had three female members out of a total of 65. These women were Anna Hwass, Wilhelmina Skogh and Emma Schenson.

During Schenson's active period, the business card photograph and the larger cabinet photograph (format approx. 12×16.5 cm) became very popular in all social classes. It is very likely that there are pictures of older Uppsala families made by her.

The Domen quarter, Fyristorg and Uppsala Cathedral, Fjärdingen, Uppsala before 1885. Photographer: probably Emma Schensson, Uppsala / Upplandsmuseet.

"Svartbäcksgubbar" in Kvarnfallet at Akademikvarnen, Holmen district, Uppsala 1880s - 1890s. Photographer: Emma Schenson / Upplandsmuseet.

Between 1885 and 1893, Emma Schenson documented the major restoration of Uppsala Cathedral. Through her pictures we can follow the restoration from start to finish.

No negatives of Schenson's photographs are preserved today, but some photos have been preserved and are now in the Map and Image Collections at Uppsala University Library.

There is also an album showing the transformation of the cathedral during the time of the great restoration. The value of this photographic documentation was recognized early on, as can be seen in an inscription in Schenson's album, which concludes "unique of its kind and important for the future". The photographs that have been preserved are a remarkable cultural and historical treasure.

 

Burial site: 0101-0031

Image description: Emma Schenson, ca 1865-ca 1875. Photo: UUBThe image is cropped]
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Sven Lilja

1887-1951.

Music teacher, conductor, singing leader.

Through Hugo Alfvén's mediation, Sven Lilja was accepted at the Stockholm Conservatory of Music and studied there from 1912-1917.

After a few years as an actor, he worked as a singing and music teacher in Sundsvall, music teacher at Stockholm folk high schools, cantor in Sofia parish and conductor for the Stockholm Workers' Singing Association and the Stockholm Singers' Association. Sven Lilja introduced modern singing and turned it into a popular movement.

He led a sing-along movement in the countryside and on the radio, but above all at Skansen, where he led the movement for the first time in 1935. In the following years, the sing-along evenings at Skansen became a permanent institution.

Sven Lilja also plays himself in the movie 'Love and Singing' from 1944.

 

Burial site: 0132-1384

Image description: Sven Lilja wearing the classic singing costume, year unknown. Photo: From private collectionThe image is cropped].
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Sven Anders Hägg

1817-1904.

Master shoemaker, politician, author.

Sven Anders Hägg started as an apprentice shoemaker at the age of 10 and received his journeyman's certificate in 1840. Between 1845-1848, Hägg lived in Stockholm, St. Petersburg and Paris, where he witnessed the February Revolution.

Hägg came to Uppsala in 1848 and became a master craftsman for cobbler Lindgren's widow at Östra Ågatan 45. Hägg took over the workshop in 1852 and became a citizen of Uppsala. In the same year he founded the Allmänna sjuk- och begravningshjälpen in connection with the Hantverksföreningen and was a member of the city council from 1862-1866.

Hägg was a devoted teetotaler but liked to go to the theater, which was said to be "his only pleasure". As an author, he published The History of Footwear, Market Trade in the Cities and Description of the Old Cemetery in Uppsala.

On his 67th birthday, Hägg was presented with the King's gold medal of the 5th magnitude for civic merit by County Governor Adolf Hamilton.

Hägg had his farm at Gräsgränden next to the current mouth of Bangårdsgatan at Fyrisån. In the book about Upsala cemetery he writes about his children: "Two children, a boy close to two years and a girl at the age of four, are buried here".

 

Burial site: 0156-0253

Image description: Sven Anders Hägg, Uppsala ca 1850. Photo: Karl Ågren / UUBThe image is cropped]
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Henrik Gahn

1820-1874.

Chemist, industrialist, inventor.

Henrik Gahn attended Falu mining school from 1841 to 1842 and was a student at Jernkontoret from 1842 to 1848. He later became director of a lead and silver works in Boda (Rättvik) and devoted himself to forestry, agriculture and chemical experiments.

In 1867, Gahn started a chemical-technical factory at Stora torget in Uppsala with ink, black ink and the disinfectant Aseptin, invented by Gahn, as products. Gahn's inventions played a major role in the company's success.

The company had many other chemical-technical products and was known for its soap range. From 1899, the factory was located in the Gudrun district, at Kålsängsgränd 4 in Uppsala.

The company continued after Gahn's death under the name Henrik Gahns AB in other premises and in 1964, the company was bought by Barnängen who closed the factory in 1968.

Soap packaging in the factory, Uppsala 1917, photo: UUB.

Factory staff, Uppsala 1917, photo: UUB.

Burial site: 0140-1608

Image description: Henrik Gahn, 1870s. Photo: Heinrich Osti / UUBThe image is cropped]
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Sixtus Janson

1883-1957.

Manufacturer, sports leader.

Sixtus Janson helped to form the Thor sports association and several other local associations in Uppsala, such as the Uppsala Canoe Society and the Uppsala Sailing Society. Janson was also involved in the formation of the Upplands idrottsförbund in 1912 and was its chairman for five years.

Together with Albin Lindqvist and J. E. Friberg, he took over the Uppsala office book factory at Drottninggatan 6 in 1906. In 1917, the business was moved to Svintorget, today's Kungsängstorg, where Janson lived with his family.

At the national level, he was elected to the boards of several specialized federations within the Swedish Sports Confederation, such as the Cycling Federation, the Athletics Federation, the Ice Sailing Federation and the Swedish Ski Federation, where he was chairman from 1922 to 1948. Sixtus Janson was also a member of the Swedish Olympic Committee and leader of the Swedish ski team during five Olympic Winter Games, from Chamonix 1924 to St. Moritz 1948.

Sixtus Janson led an active life beyond his work at the factory and his sport. His passion was sailing and he was also a keen photographer.

IF Thor's athletes in 1906 lined up at their sports ground south of Uppsala Castle. Sixtus Janson third from left. Photo: Folkrörelsearkivet för Uppsala län.

Upsala office book factory, probably 1950s, Kungsängstorg in Uppsala. The Janson family had an apartment at the top of the factory. The building was demolished around 1970. Photo: Folkrörelsearkivet för Uppsala län.

Burial site: 0108-0417

Image description: Sixtus Janson in the Royal Swedish Sailing Society's cap 1907. Photo: Östling, Uppsala / Folkrörelsearkivet för Uppsala län. [The image is cropped]
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