Greta Arwidsson

1906–1998.

Archaeologist.

Greta Arwidsson was born in Uppsala in 1906 and was the daughter of Ivar and Anna, both of whom were academics.

During the 1930s, after studying at Uppsala University, Arwidsson participated together with Professor Sune Lindqvist of the Båtgravsfältet at Vals field, which is located 7 km north of Uppsala next to Fyris creek and is a large burial ground that was used during Iron age. In 1942 she defended her thesis on the findings of the Vals field, which focused on the animal ornamentation of the Vendel period.

She was an associate professor at Uppsala University and later National antiquarian on Gotland and member of Swedish Academy. On Gotland, Arwidsson carried out several important studies. Arwidsson also participated in investigations of Birka and thus contributed to the Birka research, among other things as editor and author for research publications.

In 1956 Arwidsson was appointed professor of archaeology. In addition, she became internationally recognized for her efforts in archaeology. In her name "Greta Arwidsson Friends" was funded, an association for women working in the student nations in Uppsala.

From Greta Arwidsson Book from 1942 concerning the findings in Vals field. The picture shows a helmet found in one of the tombs. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

In 1944, Greta Arwidsson and Gunnar Ekholm examined from Uppsala University six graves on the ridge in Gamla Uppsala. Greta Arwidsson stands by the camera. Photo: Nils Johansson (presumed) / Upplandsmuseet.

Burial site: 0217-1257

Image description: Greta Arwidsson at the Museum of Nordic Antiquities, Gustavianum, Uppsala unknown year. Gunnar Sundgren / Upplandsmuseet. [The image is cropped]
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Gurli Taube

1890–1980.

Librarian, writer.

Gurli Taube worked as an administrative assistant at the university Library, became librarian in 1944, first librarian in 1953 and director of Map and poster department.

Taube published a series of historical works, for example from an Uppsala of the past (1950) and A past Uppsala (1966).

Gurli Taube also wrote the cultural history texts in A photographic work of Uppsala (1954).

 

Burial site: 0217-1214

Image description: Gurli Taube when Gabriela Mistral came to visit, Uppsala 1945. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet . [The image is cropped]
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Gusten Widerbäck

1879–1970.

Artist.

Gusten (Erik Gustaf) Widerbäck is Uppsala's and the plain of the province Uppland own artist, but he was born in southern Vi in Kalmar County.

He began to study music for Ruben Liljefors, but was by Rubens ' brother Bruno encouraged to devote himself to the oil painting that gave him support and help. Widerbäck received his formal education at the Art Academy 1899 and at the Swedish Artist Association's school 1900.

After the art studies in Stockholm, Widerbäck returned to the childhood city of Uppsala. Widerbäck moved in 1918 to Årsta just east of Uppsala and lived there until his death in 1970.

Throughout his career he depicted the plain and the city. Widerbäcks art is characterized by the mood of national romanticism and he dedicated his artistry to the plain, the trees and the houses.

Widerbäck spent a lot of time with Olof Thunman and Manne Ihran and had exhibitions in Uppsala, Gävle, Stockholm and Gothenburg.

Just before his death, he donated a large number of sketches, drawings, watercolours and gouaches to the Upplands Art Museum. Gusten Widerbäck is represented at the National Museum, Kalmar, Uppsala University Library and Uppsala Art Society.

Lithography. A view of the landscape – 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 August 1958. Photo: Uppsala-Bild / Upplandsmuseet.

 

Burial site: 0154-0142

Image description: Gusten Widerbäck, Uppsala 1945. Photo: Gunnar Sundgren / UUB [The image is cropped].
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Svante Arrhenius

1859–1927.

Physicist, chemist.

Svante Arrhenius was born at Wiks Castle outside Uppsala where his father was a trustee.

He was one of the foremost natural scientists of his time and received the first Swedish Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903 for his efforts regarding the electrolytic Dissociation theory from 1887. It changed all the chemists perceptions of acids, bases and salts.

From the mid-1890s, Arrhenius's interest was extended to geophysics and cosmic physics. He regarded himself as a physicist, but his main findings mainly concerned chemistry.

From 1905, Arrhenius was the director of the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry (Academy) in the same year.

Also as a popular science writer, Arrhenius was internationally known among other things through the release of the development of the Worlds (1906), Man in the face of the World Riddle (1907), Smallpox and their suppression (1930), The Fates of the Stars (1915) and The chemistry and Modern Life (1919).

 

Burial site: 0152-0062

Image description: Svante Arrhenius, unknown year. Photo: Unknown photographer / Technical museum. [The image is cropped]
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Rutger Sernander

1866–1944.

Botanist.

Rutger Sernander became Associate professor in Plant Geography 1895 and later professor of plant biology from 1908 to 1931.

His research areas included plant spreading biology, lichen biology, forestry research, dendrology, archaeology as well as the development of the climate and plant world in Scandinavia after the ice ages.

Sernander was an internationally recognized scientist, and his works include The spreading biology of the Scandinavian Vegetation (1901) and the Zur Morphologie der Diasporen (1927).

Sernander also wrote about important sites from a natural and cultural point of view. In particular, Uppland and old Uppsala, Rickebasta swamps, Flottsund and also the publication about Uppsala Kungsäng that Gustav Sandberg completed and published.

Sernander conducted an intense fight to preserve unique plant communities, such as Fiby Forest and Uppsala Kungsäng. The Platform for the conservation work was the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, which Sernander was a co-founder of in 1909, and was its chairman from 1917–1930.

Professor Sernander with students before 1944, Uppsala University. Photo: Paul Sandberg / Upplandsmuseet.

Professor Sernander at Upplands Ancient Monuments Association spring excursion, Uppland 1936. Photo: Paul Sandberg / Upplandsmuseet.

Burial site: 0149-1955

Image description: Rutger Sernander, Uppsala ca 1895. Photo: Heinrich Osti / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Adolf Nyman

1866–1921.

Bicycle manufacturer

Adolf Nyman's father Anders Nyman started in 1873 a fine mechanical workshop at Dragarbrunns street 25 in Uppsala and started to repair bcycles with high front wheels in the 1880s.

The first bicycle was built in 1888 and can be considered Nymansbolagets first bicycle. After the death of the Adolf Nyman's father in 1889, the movement was taken over by his widow, who ceded the workshop to her sons Adolf and Janne, who began manufacturing bicycles of the brand Hermes and Crescent. The bicycle production developed into one of the city's largest industries.

The workshop that was made into a limited company 1889 with the name Nymans AB moved to the block at S:t Pers Street 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 1960 merged with the the bicycle factory Monarch in Varberg. The factory in Uppsala closed down 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.

Bicycle assembly, AB Nyman's workshop, Noatun block, Uppsala 1939. Photography: Östlings Photography / Upplandsmuseet.

Burial site: 0146-1838

Image description: Adolf Fredrik Nyman, Uppsala, 1885. Photo: Heinrich Osti / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Karl Gustaf Lennander

1857–1908.

Doctor, surgeon.

Karl Gustaf Lennander became a student in Uppsala in 1875 and later associate professor and professor of surgery and obstetrics in 1891.

With him, the modern abdominal surgery began in Sweden and in 1889 the first operation at peritonitis (peritoneal inflammation) outcome from the Appendix (worm appendage) was performed. The results Lennander presented in 1902 when he also advocated early surgery at appendicitis (appendicitis). 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 Academy of Sciences in 1905. Lennander's large fortune was bequeathed to a scholarship fund at Uppsala University and to the Swedish Medical Society.

A course in surgery, autumn term 1890. Professor Karl Gustaf Lennander (sitting closest to the operating table) with the students Lindblad, Segerstedt, Floderus, Strandman, Kaijser, Olsson, Wennerström, Didriksson, Bodinsson, Nilsson. Photo: Uppsala University Library.

Doctors at the University Hospital in 1889. Around the portraits are photographs of the Fyris creek, the University Hospital, the harbour with the pump house and the Department of Anatomy, Uppsala University, the stairwell in university building, the Botanical garden, view towards the University Hospital and the castle and the cathedral, Flustret. Photo: Heinrich Osti / Uppsala University Library.

Burial site: 0134-2133

Image description: Karl Gustaf Lennander, Uppsala ca 1880-ca 1890. Photo Heinrich Osti / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Mathilde Wigert-Österlund

1873–1943.

Artist.

Mathilde Wigert-Österlund studied at the Academy of Arts in 1896–1902 and conducted studies in Paris in 1903–1904. During her studies, she met her husband, the artist Johan Österlund, and the couple moved to Uppsala in 1908.

Wigert-Österlund's early paintings was characterized by romantic mood pictures to later become more expressive and emotional. A motive circuit that increasingly became characteristic of her later art direction was those of emotional tension embossed church interiors.

Wigert-Österlund painted, among other things, a suite of headstones in Uppsala Cathedral, interior from Rasbo Church and church interior from Bro on Gotland.

Later in life, Mathilde Wigert-Österlund suffered several severe psychiatric disorders and was cared for during periods at Ulleråker Hospital. She also published books and committed herself to improving the conditions of the mentally ill.

Mathilde Wigert -Österlund at Staffliet. John Österlund and Lilly Wigert At the parasol. The picture was taken about 1905, Vaxholm. Photo: Unknown photographer/UUB. Provenance: Christina Backman.

Female pupils in the Academy of Fine Arts 1897-1898. Mathilde appears at the front standing on his knees. 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.

 

Burial site: 0113-0742

Image description: Mathilde Wigert-Österlund at the easel about 1900. Photo: Unknown photographer / UUB. Provenance: Christina Backman. [The image is cropped]
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Helena Nyblom

1843–1926.

Author.

Helena Nyblom was one of the most prolific and appreciated fairytale poems at the turn of the century.

She was born in Copenhagen in 1843 and was the daughter of Jørgen Roed and Emilia Amanda Kruse. The father was a painter and professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and the mother had an interest in ancient art and literature. Helena Nyblom thus grew up in a home characterised by intellectuality and aesthetics.

She met her future husband in Rome and they moved to Uppsala where their home soon became a focal point for artistically oriented people from all over the Nordic region.

He published a series of short stories and poetry collections, but her real literary breakthrough was at the end of the 1890th century with her fairy tales.

Nyblom converted to Catholicism in 1895, which was both noted and criticized in the media.

Helena Nyblom was an active debater in the women's movement and also a cultural writer in magazines, such as Nordic Magazine, new Swedish magazine, Word and image and Idun.

In 1922 the autobiographical work My Memories of life was published.

John Bauer's illustration from 1913, to Helena Nybloms "Bortbytingarna" in "among gnomes and trolls". Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The verse house at Östra Ågatan 65 in Uppsala. The Nyblom family lived in the house from 1864. Photo: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia Commons.

Burial site: 0112-0574

Image description: Helena Nyblom, Stockholm ca 1870-ca 1880. Waldemar Dahllöf / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Henri Osti

1826–1914.

Photographer.

Heinrich Osti, known as Henri, was born in Berlin and was the son of a band weaver from Italy.

Osti emigrated to Sweden at the age of 26 and in 1856 he began his photographic career in Stockholm. Three years later he opened a photo studio on Kungsgatan in Uppsala. The studio later moved to shoemaker Sven Anders Hägg's farm between Östra Ågatan and Gräsgränd (the park at present Bangårdsgatan) and eventually to Jervingska gården at Kungsgatan 55.

Heinrich Osti was for many years the city's leading photographer and won several prizes for his photographs and together with meteorologist Hugo Hildebrandsson he also photographed cloud formations for scientific purposes.

His collection of glass negatives with 16,000 images provides a broad record of the urban settlements of the time and the population of the city. The collection is a remarkable cultural-historical treasure that is preserved at Uppsala University Library.

 

Burial site: 0108-0450

Image description: Heinrich Osti, Uppsala 1860. Photo: Heinrich Osti / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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