Returning the pens

We have had some pretty intensive political turbulence in the last couple of days over here in Sweden. I am not even going to try to explain it all to you because I seriously wonder if I have understood it all myself. .

I want to concentrate on a certain non-political aspect of the whole ordeal in this blog entry though. All the ministers that had to leave have on social media posted photos of them returning pens. To the right you can see the former Interior minister Anders Ygeman's photo of this. I chose this one because it was the first one I saw and beause it provided me with important information to research the origins of this peculiar action. Aparently there are some different versions to the story, but I found a blog post (in Swedish) from 2009 from the blog Faktoider which is my main source for the background story to this.

After one of our former prime ministers Tage Erlander had left the Swedish parliament in 1973, his wife Aina apparently felt a need for return all of the pens and pencils marked that they belonged to the estate that had ended up in their home during her husband's long time in office between 1946 and 1969 to the Swedish parliament.

As an archaeologist I always get very excited for stories like this and also about the reactions from people seeing the former ministers's pen-photos on social media. Even in a world that gets more and more digital, materialities effect us even if these pens come in the form of digital photos for most of us. Small anecdotes tied to objects like the one about the Erlanders and the pens and pencils often creates a very symbolic value to similar objects. Ygeman writes in his tweet that he returns the pens with a warm smile thinking about Aina Erlander. He knows the anecdote and the symbolical nature of what he is actually doing. But it is not only the ones who know that that reacts to it. There have been lots of people asking about it on social media since all the photos started to occur. People seem to realise there is some kind of symbolism and/or tradition to this, but it is not common knowledge to someone not involved in the Swedish Social Democratic party. This causes curiosity and from what it seems also a sense of "I need to know what this is all about". Perhaps a little curisosity also comes from the fact that it is such a seemingly insignificant (and rather cheap) object that most of us does not really reflect so much on.

What Aina Erlander thought when she decided to return them to the parliament we will never know (She died in 1990 so it is a bit hard to ask.). Perhaps she had a strong sense of what is mine and what is yours and she could overlook having all of the parliament's pens and pencils in her home when he worked for it (I can imagine a prime minister always having to be ready to head into work if something happens.), but not when he retired. Or perhaps it was purely symbolic to her as well. Her husband had worked in the parliament for such a long time and been a very public figure as the prime minister for 23 years after all and she was relieved that it was all over. Anyway I am really glad that the former ministers invited us all to be part of the symbolism and tradition and I had a lot of fun doing the research for it. You learn something new every day after all.

Historical Women - Eva Ekeblad

Eva Ekeblad was the daughter of count Magnus Julius de la Gardie and his wife Hedvig Catharina Lilje and born on 10 July 1724. In 1741, when she was 16, she married statesman (riksråd) and count Claes Claesson Ekeblad. The castles Mariedal outside of Götene and Lindholmen outside of Lidköping where her husband also owned the mansion Stola herrgård, all of them in the Swedish province Västergötland. In Stockholm, the family owned Ekebladska huset at Arsenalgatan. Together with her husband, Eva had seven children (one son and six daughters) of which six survived into adulthood. Claes died in 1771. As a stateswoman and a friend of queen Lovisa Ulrika, she was present at the birth of the crown prince Gustav (later Gustav III) in 1778.

Because Claes were so often absent, she had to handle the family properties all by herself and also had to step in for him in the local politics where she is said to have been strict, but fair and often defended the peasantry against abuse from the authorities.

Eva was a scientist and made a lot of experiments on potatoes. It had been brought to Sweden and cultivated in the Botanical Garden in Uppsala by Olof Rudbeck in 1658 and was popularised by Jonas Alströmer who lived in the town Alingsås in Västergötland, not too far from Eva. But Eva discovered that potatoes could be used to make bread, starch and powder. However, it was her realisation that the plant could also be used to make alcohol that had her earning a place in Vetenskapsakademien (Royal Swedish Academy of Science) in 1748. She was the first woman to earn the place there, but there are no indications that she was ever invited to be part of the meetings and the memberships seems to have had more of an honourary status. However, the academy did encourage her and other women to continue with inventions and experiments that would benefit the household.

She died on 15 May 1786

Female Archaeologists - Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born on this day (14 July) into a wealthy family in Washington New Hall in County Durham, England in 1868. Her mother died in childbirth three years later and Gertrude was very close to her mill-owning father Sir Hugh Bell who had held several government positions.

Her family's wealth gave her access to the universities and she studied at both Queen's College London and Oxford university. Her studied history which was one of the few subjects that was opened to women at the time. In two years she recieved a first class honours degree.

After graduating, she spent a lot of time travelling the world. During this time she developed a passion for archaeology and languages. Beside English, she spoke Arabic, Persian, French and German, Italian and Turkish.

Her heart lay in archaeology, but she was also a linguist, writer and the best woman mountaineer of her age. She gained interest in the Arabic world and its culture and made extensive journeys across the Middle East. Her knowledge about the Arabs also led to a position as a British secret agent during the First World War after first having volontered as a nurse in France.

After the war, she became focused all her research on Mespotamia and supported an independent Iraqi and became active in their politics. She supported Lawrence of Arabia's protege Faisal and used her connections to have him crowned king. After this, she acted as his advisor. In Iraq, she got the nickname Kathun which means fine lady or gentlewoman.

‘I’ll never engage in creating kings again; it’s too great a strain,’ 

 ~ Gertrud Bell in a letter to her father

In 1923, she opened Bagdad Archaeological Museum (later renamed the Iraqi museum). Unfortunately, the museum was plundered during the Iraqi war in 2003.

On 12 July 1926 Gertrud was found dead after taking an overdose of sleeping pills. It is unclear if it was deliberate or not.

Historical Women - Greta Johansson

The Olympics were held in Stockholm in 1912 and for the first time, women were allowed to compete in swimming and diving. Star of the games was 17-year-old Greta Johansson, but lets take it from the beginning.

Anna Theresa Margareta (Greta) Johansson was born in Stockholm on 9 January 1895, the youngest of four siblings in a working class home. Her father was the janitor at the steam-driven mill Eldkvarn (situated where the Stockholm town hall is today). She got her education in Klara folkskola and is said to have been a pretty good student. When she was not in school, she spent a lot of time at the Stockholm muncipal bath Strömbadet where she learned to both swim and dive. 

She won her first competition in 1908 and went on to compete for Sweden in the Stockholm olympics in 1912 where she won the diving competition. With her victory, she became the first ever female Swedish Olympic gold medallist.

Left: Stockholm City Hall; Upper right: Strömbadet;
Lower right:Eldkvarn

In 1912, she also met the Swedish diver Ernst Brandsten. He had emigrated to the US where he was part of a dare devil diver's team called The Flying Vikings. Greta fell in love with him and would join him in America two years later where they married and started training new swimmers and divers at Standford university in California for some years developing the sports to what they are today. They worked side by side, but of course Ernst was the one gaining most fame. (Even though Greta was the only won out of the two who had won the Olympics. Ernst only came on 6th place in Stockholm in 1912.)

In 1923 they started up their own swimmer's paradise, Searsville Lake Park in Searsville Lake in California, USA. Greta's husband was also appointed to train the American swimming and diving team for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics where they won every medal.

Greta was elected into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1973 and died peacefully in her sleep in 1978.





Photos from Wikipedia and Stockholmskällan.