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