Karin Westman Berg

1914–1997.

Literature scholar.

After the master's degree, Karin Westman Berg worked as a grammar school teacher in Luleå and Härnösand from 1943 to 1957.

She received her Ph.D. in Uppsala in 1962 with studies in C.J.L. Almqvist's view on women and edited several anthologies, such as Text analysis from a gender perspective (1976) and Don't cry – research (1979).

Westman Berg was a leading figure in Swedish feminist literary research and was a member of the Fredrika Bremer Association Board from 1945 to 1977.

Westman Berg initiated and led gender roles seminars at the course activities from 1967 to 1977. At that time, women's research seminars were started, which Westman Berg led up to 1979. The seminars became an inspiring meeting place for people interested in women's issues and women's research.

A research post on women's and gender issues gave her the opportunity to start the Women literature project at the Department of Literature in Uppsala in 1978. With women's literature, it referred at the time to fiction which was written by Swedish women authors.

At the retirement in 1982, Karin Westman Berg was awarded the name of professor.

 

Burial site: 0319-1349

Image description: Karin Westman Berg, unknown year. Photo: Inger Harnesk / Centre for Gender Studies, Uppsala University. [The image is cropped]
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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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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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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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Anders Jonas Ångström

1814–1874.

Physicist.

Anders Jonas Ångström is best known as one of the founders of the optical spectroscopy.

Ångström was the first to observe the spectrum of hydrogen, an observation that formed the basis of the Balmers formula and thus constituted the experimental basis for Bohr's atomic theory.

Ångström studied the solar spectrum in depth, especially the lines of Frauhofer. The Recherches sur le spectre sunaire Study (1868) contained a precise determination of the wavelengths of the lines of Fraunhofer. In addition, Ångström made regular observations in several locations to provide a basis for the complete production of magnetic conditions in Sweden.

Ångström was also the first to investigate the northern lights spectroscopally. The unit for light wavelength, corresponding to 0.1 nanometers, was adopted as an international unit and was named Angstrom.

Anders Ångström was Professor of physics in 1858 – 1874 and was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1850.

1996 the Ångström laboratory was inaugurated at Polacksbacken, where a number of science disciplines related to physics and chemistry have been given their research centres.

 

Burial site: 0113-0666

Image description: Professor A.J. Ångström, 1862. Photo: Mathias Hansen / UUB.  [The image is cropped]
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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 page from Elias Fries "Sveriges Ätliga och Giftiga Svampar", Norstedt & Söner, Stockholm, 1860. Photo: Bukowskis Auktioner AB.

Spread from Elias Fries "Sveriges Ätliga och Giftiga Svampar", Norstedt & Söner, 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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Olof Verelius

1618–1682.

Scholar, philologist.

After studies in Dorpat and Uppsala, Olof Verelius worked as a teacher in high noble families and traveled to Holland, Switzerland, Italy and France.

In 1653 Verelius was appointed to economist in Uppsala and came to belong to Olof Rudbecks research circle. On his proposal, Verelius received the newly created professorship in "The Fatherland's Antiques" 1662, as the country's first professor of archeology.

The following year, Verelius performed the first archaeological excavation in Sweden, which occurred in a mound at Broby in Börje Parish.

In the 1670s, he had built a house, which was at the current Martin Luther King's place, a building that was probably designed by his friend Olof Rudbeck.

Verelius was also a prominent linguist and published Icelandic fairy tales and a work about runes.

In the feud with Schefferus about placement of the so-called heathen temple, Verelius argued that it was in old Uppsala and not in the cathedral's place as Schefferus claimed.

Olof Verelius was the first to acquire a burial site in the cemetery for the hospital and the poor, which has since become what is called the Old Cemetery today.

The burial site was purchased by the Hospital board on 26 October 1676 and is the oldest known in the original cemetery for the poor.

The first known funeral took place on February 9, 1682, when Olof Verelius was buried in a grave chamber which still is preserved. Olof Rudbeck conducted the funeral according to Verelius wishes.

 

Burial site: 0112-0615

Image description: Olof Verelius, lithograph by Otto Henrik Wallgren. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. [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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