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A Bit of History

Exploring historical thoughts and themes, a bit at a time.

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Victoria Martínez

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All content (exclusive of quoted material) copyright Victoria V. Martínez.

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I found it incredible, though not terribly surprising, that Ester Blenda Nordström (1891-1948), who wrote what has been called "the first democratic girls' book in Sweden" and is hailed as Sweden's first undercover investigative journalist, was virtually forgotten to mainstream history until just a few years ago. Nordström was a pioneer of investigative journalism in Sweden and made history when she became the first journalist of either gender in that country to go undercover. As I wrote in my latest short history for The Local Sweden: "In the summer of 1914, she created a false identity for herself, complete with a fictional fiancé, and took a job as a maid on a farm near Nyköping to investigate the working conditions that were driving young Swedish women in the profession to leave Sweden for North America. Her experience and findings were published in a series of articles in Svenska Dagbladet under the title 'En månad som tjänstflicka på en bondgård i Södermanland' (A Month as a Servant Girl on a Farm in Södermanland)." She also created Sweden's first norm-defying young female character in her 1919 novel "En rackarunge" - a precursor to and inspiration of Astrid Lindgren's "Pippi Longstocking." In researching this article, I read the familiar words "she died virtually forgotten by the public." It was just three years ago that Swedish filmmaker Anna Hylander rescued Nordström from obscurity with her documentary film, "Ester Blenda." This was followed in 2017 by Swedish journalist and author Fatima Bremmer’s book "Ett jävla solsken," which won the Swedish literary award The August Prize for Nonfiction that same year (though not yet published in English, it has been given the English title The Lone Woman). My article, "The woman who introduced undercover journalism to Sweden" can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y2sk8bft (please note that the article is premium content). Photo of Ester Blenda Nordström courtesy Riksarkivet (Sweden's National Archives). #Sweden #history #womenshistory #journalism #writeaboutwomen #EsterBlendaNordström #EsterBlenda #Ettjävlasolsken

If this official poster for the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will. Personally, it's become an almost indelible image in my mind since I've seen it so often while researching recent articles about or related to the early modern Olympics. Designed by Swedish artist Olle Hjortzberg (1872-1959), who is best known (not without irony) for painting religious murals in Swedish churches, the poster as you see it is actually a "toned down" version of his original illustration. According to historian Therese Nordlund Edvinsson: "The poster made by Hjortzberg resulted in a critical storm, mainly because of the male nudity and the placing of the flags. The Swedish Tourist Traffic Association was not willing to distribute the poster. Internationally, the poster was regarded inappropriate and even the placing of the flags was believed to cause envy among the participating countries." Hjortzberg was asked "to paint a more ‘neutral picture’ which should not offend anyone. Ironically, the artist came up with a new image, showing even more male nudity." Ultimately, though Hjortzberg's exceptionally creative use of ribbons preserved the male figure's modesty in the final revised poster, some critics still "claimed that the poster was immoral and should not be used to advertise for the Games." Yet another reason why I love both history and art. Therese Nordlund Edvinsson's quotes are excerpts from her 2014 article "Before the Sunshine: Organising and Promoting the Olympic Games in Stockholm 1912" in The International Journal of the History of Sport. You can read more about the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in my article for The Local Sweden, "The year Sweden organized the Olympics and defied expectations" (subscriber content) at https://tinyurl.com/yxpvwwur. Public domain image, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. #history #art #Olympics #Stockholm #OlleHjortzberg

Researching a recent article about Swedish history, I was reminded of some very significant U.S. history. At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Jim Thorpe (1887-1953), a Native American of the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma, made history when he won two gold medals, one in the pentathlon and one in the decathlon. According to an article in Smithsonian magazine, "When King Gustaf V of Sweden placed two gold medals around Thorpe’s neck for winning the Olympic pentathlon and decathlon and pronounced him the greatest athlete in the world, he famously muttered, 'Thanks'..." (source: https://tinyurl.com/y359szzw) Tragically, the following year, Thorpe was stripped of those titles when it was decided that his previous involvement in professional baseball violated Olympic rules of the time requiring that athletes were amateurs. Thirty years after his death, Thorpe's titles were reinstated, and the official website of the Olympics now features the following statement: "Though he died in poverty, Jim Thorpe is remembered as one of the greatest sportsmen of the 20th century, having won two Olympic track and field golds and played baseball, American football and basketball at the highest level." (source: https://www.olympic.org/jim-thorpe) Image: Public domain image entitled "Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics" and dated July 23, 1912, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. My article about the 1912 Stockholm Olympics can be found at https://tinyurl.com/yxpvwwur (please note that it is subscriber content). #JimThorpe #1912Olympics #Stockholm #history

Not everyone was convinced that Sweden was capable of hosting the fifth modern Olympic Games in 1912. According to historian Therese Nordlund Edvinsson, "critics argued that the country was too undeveloped to arrange a major sport event.” The country not only defied these critics by setting what British sports journalist Frank Keating called in 2012, "the gold standard for the modern Olympics," it also built a main venue that is today the world's oldest Olympic stadium actively in use. For more than a century, Stockholm Olympic Stadium has hosted countless sporting and cultural events, witnessed more than 80 athletic world records, survived a bombing, and simply reminded the world of its important place in Olympic history. I wrote about Stockholm Olympic Stadium, which Swedish architect Torben Grut designed with medieval fortress architecture in mind, in my latest short history article for The Local Sweden (subscriber content): https://www.thelocal.se/20190425/how-swedens-olympic-stadium-defied-expectations-again-and-again Images courtesy Wikimedia Commons: the opening ceremonies of the 1912 Summer Olympics in the stadium; Stockholm Olympic Stadium in 2012, hosting (as it does each year) the start and finish of the Stockholm Marathon (by Wikimedia user Holger.Ellgaard). #Sweden #history #SummerOlympics #Stockholm

Sitting in The Great Hall of the Danish royal Fredericksborg Castle are these two magnificent sculptures known as the empress statues because they depict two Danish princesses - sisters - who both became empress consorts. On the left is the elder sister, Princess Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), who married in 1863 the eldest son of Britain's Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Edward, The Prince of Wales. In 1901, he succeeded his mother as King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, making Alexandra Queen and Empress Consort. Her likeness is by French sculptor Henri Chapu (1833-1891), and was completed in (I believe) 1890. On the right is her younger sister, Princess Dagmar of Denmark (1847-1928), who married in 1866 the eldest surviving son of Tsar (Emperor) Alexander II of Russia, the Tsarevich Alexander. Just prior to her marriage, Dagmar converted to the Russian Orthodox religion and changed her name to Maria Feodorovna. When her husband succeeded his father as Tsar Alexander III in 1881, she became Empress Consort (Tsarina). This statue was created by French sculptor Jean Gautherin, and completed in 1889. Interestingly, the statues were commissioned circa 1885 not by the Danish royal family, but by the Danish art collector and philanthropist Carl Jacobsen, whose father founded the Carlsberg brewery. Jacobsen was also responsible for commissioning the famous sculpture of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. According to the New Carlsberg Foundation, Jacobsen "wanted to add the two empress statues to his rapidly growing art collection in order to make it an even more attractive gift to the City of Copenhagen." (https://www.ny-carlsbergfondet.dk/en/birth-empress-statues) Personal photos taken at Fredericksborg Castle in Hillerød, Denmark, in April 2019. Please credit properly when sharing. #art #history

Esther (sometimes spelled Ester) Ellqvist-Bauer (b. 1880) was a Swedish artist whose life was cut short in 1918, when she, her husband (the artist John Bauer), their young son, and 39 others drowned following a ferry accident on Sweden's Lake Vättern. Esther studied art at the University of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack) and The Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), both in Stockholm. It was at the Royal Academy that she met John Bauer, whom she married in 1906. Following the marriage and the birth of the couple's son in 1915, Esther's career took a backseat to John's, but there is evidence that she was planning to resume her artistic endeavors in 1918, when the family boarded the ill-fated steam ferry Per Brahe bound for a new life in Stockholm. I wrote recently about the sinking of the Per Brahe in an article for The Local Sweden (subscriber content), which can be found here: https://www.thelocal.se/20190404/the-day-swedens-trolls-and-fairies-wept Image: Self Portrait, Esther Ellqvist, 1910, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. #FemaleFriday #EstherEllqvist #art #WriteAboutWomen #Sweden

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