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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Anita Nathorst

1894–1941.

Theologian, writer.

Anita Nathorst was active in the Christian student and high school movement and friends with Karin Boye who called her her "spiritual mother". Boye had love for her, but it was an unrequited love.

Nathorst studied in Uppsala and became the first female B.A.. Lic. In Church history. In 1926 her poetry collection was published.

Nathorst suffered from breast cancer early and was treated by doctor Iwan Bratt in Alingsås. They began a love affair in the mid-1930s. However, the love affair ended and Nathorst got an apartment in Skåne. Until it was free, it was a difficult time for her in Bratt's home and Karin Boye then served as a support for her.

Anita Nathorst died at Malmö Nursing home in the summer of 1941, just a few months after Karin Boye.

The following poem, written by Karin Boye, is called "How can I say..." which is in the posthumously published collection The Seven Deadly Sins and other left over poems. The collection was published in 1941 and the poem is directed at Anita.

How can I tell if your voice is beautiful.
I know only that it pierces me
And make me tremble like a leaf
And tearing me apart and blows me up.
What do I know about your skin and your limbs.
It just shakes me that they are yours,
So that for me there is no sleep or rest,
Until they are mine.


Burial site: 0101-0051

Image description: Anita Nathorst, unknown year. Photo: Unknown photographer / From private collection. [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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Vivi Täckholm

1898–1978.

Botanist, writer.

Vivi Täckholm studied at Stockholm University and conducted botanical studies in Berlin, London and Geneva.

In 1926 she moved together with her husband, Botanist Professor Gunnar Täckholm, to Cairo and together mapped the plant world of Egypt.

After her husband's death in 1933, she completed the work of Flora of Egypt , which was released in four parts, Part 1 (1941), Part 2 (1944), Part 3 (1954) and Part 4 (1966). In 1946 Täckholm became professor of Botany at the University of Cairo and lived there for most of her life.

Täckholm also published a number of popular botanical works, such as the Pharaoh's Flower (1951), Egypt in close-up (1964), the Desert Blossoms (1969) and the Fairytale Minarets (1971).

Vivi Täckholm also wrote children's books, such as the saga of Snipp Snapp Snorum (1926) and Lillan's journey to the Moon (1976). In the 1960s, Täckholm also received a lot of attention through several television programs.

 

Burial site: 0131-1356

Image description: Vivi Täckholm, unknown year. Photo: Staffan Norstedt / Wikimedia Commons. [The image is cropped]
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Olof Thunman

1879–1944.

Artist, author.

Olof Thunman was born in the Imperfectum student house on Västra Ågatan, where the Catholic parish of St Lars now has premises.

He studied between 1902–1906 at the Academy of Arts and its etching school. Thunman then devoted himself to landscape painting, which, like his lyric poetry, is based on the cultural landscape of Uppland. Thunman painted in an impressionist style, often with dusky tones, but later moved to topographically accurate drawings and ink wash paintings.

He moved in 1928 to a house at Noor's Castle in Knivsta and lived there for life. Often, Thunman went out to the landscape, on foot or by bike, with pen and paper in his hand. He was often dressed in grey wadmal suit with leg lindens, and is as such depicted in a sculpture outside the Särsta Inn in Knivsta.

The lyrics are collected in books such as Pan Spelar (1919), Olandssånger (1927) and Fornbygd och färdvägar (1929). The most famous poem is "Vi gå över dew-spotted mountains" to a tune of uncertain origin, possibly from a Hälsingian melody.

In October 1944, Olof Thunman died and after the funeral in Uppsala Cathedral, the funeral procession went through Odinslund past Carolina, via Övre Slottsgatan in through Åsgrändsgrinden. The procession was lined with a crowd of people who, with torches, honored the deceased.

At the grave, members of the choir OD sang "Over the forest, over the lake" with lyrics and music by the composer A.F. Lindblad.

The following stanza is from the poem "Winter Night", Olandssånger, 1927.

There is snow over the bird song
And the waterfall sleeps at the Island Bridge.
In the night a prisoner of winter listens
In vain after the tone of spring.

 

Burial site: 0115-0801

Image description: Olof Thunman ca 1940. Photo: Gunnar Sundgren / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Ida Norrby

1869–1934.

Household educator.

As a child, Ida Norrby was placed with her uncle, Professor Carl Norrby, and his wife, the educator Jane Miller Thengberg in Uppsala.

Apart from a few short stays in the birth city of Kalmar, she spent her childhood and adolescence in Uppsala. After the small school teacher education, Norrby studied home economics, chemistry, physiology and Health Sciences in Edinburgh.

Back to Uppsala in 1894, she was employed at the Department of Home economics at Uppsala Enskilda Grammar School where J. A. Lundell was the principal. The following year the school was formed for the home economy, where Norrby was the director of 1933.

The School of Home Economics, Trädgårdsgatan 14, Uppsala 1938. Photo: Paul Sandberg / Upplandsmuseet.

Graduate of the School of Home Economics, unknown year. Photo: Gunnar Sundgren / Upplandsmuseet.

In 1903, Norrby published the Home Cookbook, 50 editions of which were published (1994), and she was also responsible for the preparation of the Little Cookbook (1926), the School Cookbook (1925) and the Big Cookbook (1926).

She was one of the founders of the Swedish Association of Mistresses Association and was its Chairman 1919–1926 and chairman of both the Swedish school kitchen teachers Association 1913–1926 and the Swedish Crafts Educator Association 1919–1929.

Ida Norrby was also a member of the Uppsala City Council from 1919 to 1930 and became an honorary doctor at Uppsala University in 1927.

 

Burial site: 0134-2143

Image description: Ida Norrby ca 1920–1930. Photo: Ellen Claeson / UUB. [The image is cropped]
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Lotten von Kræmer

1828–1912.

Author, philanthropist.

Lotten von Kræmer grew up in the governor family at Uppsala Castle. There she took part in Uppsala's romantic movement with people such as Malla Silfverstolpe, Atterbom and Wennerberg.

Von Kræmer debuted in 1863 with the Poetry collection and also published travelogues and dramas. She also befriended and got to know Thekla Knös and Ann Margret Holmgren.

Lotten von Kræmer took a radical position in women's and peace issues, took part in the public debate and supported the women's movement financially. She created the first female scholarship for women students at Uppsala University.

She was also generous to the Fredrika Bremer Association, the Friends of the hand work, Östermalms work cabin for poor children and the Association for Women's Suffrage in Stockholm.

Kræmer moved in the 1870s to Östermalm in Stockholm and lived there until her death. The house was donated to the Fellowship of the nine that von Kræmer set up by bequeathing the majority of her wealth to it. The Fellowship of the nine, which still consists, is a literary academy with the task of supporting Swedish literature through prize awards to Swedish authors.

 

Burial site: 0152-0048

Image description: Lotten von Kræmer, unknown year. Photo: From the archives of the De Nios community. [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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Ann Margret Holmgren

1850–1940.

Author, figure in the women's rights movement.

Ann Margret Holmgren was one of the leaders in the women's rights movement for suffrage and peace. In the early 1900s, she was increasingly involved in women's issues through Ellen Kay and Lydia Wahlström.

Holmgren participated in 1902 in the formation of the Association for the woman's political suffrage and traveled around the country, agitated and gave lectures in the suffrage issue until the universal suffrage was decided in the Parliament in 1919.

Holmgren was Vice-chairman of the Swedish Women's Peace Association and one of the founders of the Swedish Men's Association 1921.

She published brochures related to the vocal rights work and also gave life-time drawings in the books Pioneers (1928 – 1930) and memories and Times Pictures (1926).

 

Burial site: 0125-1141

Image description: Ann Margret Holmgren, unknown year. Photo: Unknown photographer / Stockholm City Museum. [The image is cropped]
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Jan Fridegård

1897–1968.

Author.

Johan Fridegård, known as Jan Fridegård, grew up in a state home outside Enköping and debuted in 1931 with the poetry collection the Black lute. Prior to his debut, he worked in several different professions but was in periods unemployed and without income.

Fridegård wrote articles for the revolutionary magazine Brand and his first novel, One night in July, came out in 1933. The liberation motif is portrayed in the autobiographical novel series I Lars Hård (1935), Thanks for the stairway to heaven (1936) and Mercy (1936).

During World War II, Fridegård began to talk about the rebellious thrall Holme in the Land of Wood Gods (1940), The Dawn People (1944) and Smoke of sacrifice (1949).

Fridegård moved several times in his life and lived in the latter part of his life on the Bredmansgatan 7A in Uppsala.

At the Övergran church in Håbo, a museum has been dedicated to Jan Fridegård.

 

Burial site: 0105-0304

Image description: Jan Fridegård in his home, Uppsala 1948. Photo: Paul Sandberg / Upplandsmuseet. [The image is cropped]
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