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Uplands nation
Uplands nation
Uppsala University
Location	S:t Larsgatan 11; 732 11 Uppsala; Sweden
Latin name	Natio Uplandica
Abbreviation	N/A
Established	1642
Inspektor	Björn Victor
Membership	approx. 2600 (2019)
Website	www.uplandsnation.se

Uplands nation (the Uppland Nation) is a student society and one of thirteen nations at Uppsala University. It has traditionally recruited its members from the province of Uppland, which surrounds and includes Uppsala and stretches down south to the northern part of Stockholm. The nation uses an older spelling of the toponym (but Upplands nation has also been used). As of 2006^[update], the nation has about 2,600 members.^[1]

History and building

In its earliest form, Uplands nation was founded, or may at least first be attested, in 1642, but the current nation is the result of a merger in 1823 with Fjärdhundra nation and a second one in 1829 with Roslags nation, two smaller nations recruiting students from different parts of the province of Uppland (Fjärdhundraland and Roslagen), each of which also date to the early 1640s (the earliest documents from Fjärdhundra nation are also from 1642, while the archives from Roslags nation begin already in 1640).

Uplands nation
(fl. 1642)

Fjärdhundra nation
(fl. 1642)

Roslags nation
(fl. 1640)

Uplands nation
(merger 1823)

Uplands nation
(merger 1829)

Before acquiring the current nation building (1825), the nation held its meetings either in the house of its inspector – the professor who had been appointed by the university to guard over the virtue and behaviour of the students of a particular nation – or in the home of one of its members. The steadily increasing size of the library forced the nation to start renting space in 1763, but as late as 1814, the protocol mentions a meeting in the home of the member "J. Almquist", i.e. the later notable writer Carl Jonas Love Almqvist.

The current building of the nation was built by the master turner Peter Strandman after a fire in 1809, but some of the walls date to sometime before 1770. It was acquired by the nation in 1825. The nation had previously owned the neighbouring plot for a few years, but sold this to Västmanlands-Dala nation.

In the 1950s a new wing was added according to the design of the architect Sten Hummel-Gumælius. The garden of the nation includes sculptures by Carl Milles and Carl Eldh. On the garden wall along the street Sysslomansgatan is a plaque with a medallion (based on the portrait by Johan Tobias Sergel) in the memory of the poet Anna Maria Lenngren, who grew up in a house once standing there. This wing contains twenty student rooms; another thirty are located in a different house two blocks away.

Notable people

Former curators (chairmen) of the nation include the chemist and later Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius^[2] and the later Secretary General of the U.N. and Nobel peace laureate Dag Hammarskjöld. Other members have included the songwriter Prince Gustaf, the Duke of Uppland, a central figure in Uppsala student life in the 1840s who died young in 1852, the philosopher Pontus Wikner, and the writer C. J. L. Almqvist, already mentioned above. The diplomat Hans Blix, who studied Law in Uppsala, was director for the theatre society of Uplands nation for a year.^[3] Among the inspectors (University-appointed faculty members whose task it is to supervise the nation's activities) can be mentioned Nathan Söderblom, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

An important part in the lore of the nation is played by a young boy who never actually matriculated in the nation: Svante Wijkman, who was born in a local bourgeois family and died 1837, during his last year in the Cathedral School in Uppsala. After his premature death, his mother donated scholarships both to the school and to the nation, which her son presumably would have joined in the near future if he had lived. A posthumous portrait of young Wijkman accompanied the donation.^[4]

Ignorance of the – easily verifiable – real identity of the boy in the picture among members has led speculations about his early death being the result of too much partying and he has been claimed to haunt the nation. Besides the Wijkman room (Wijkmanska rummet) where the portrait hangs, other institutions of the nation have been named after him, including a brass band (Wijkmanska blecket), a pub (Svantes källare) and a café (Café Wijkman).^[5]

Inspektors

Roslags nation

Christiernus Ravius 1663–1667
Samuel Skunk 1667–?
Claudius Arrhenius ?–1682
Henrik Schütz 1682–1693
Petrus Hallenius 1693
Julius Micrander 1694–1695
Johannes Olderman 1695–1697
Jesper Svedberg 1698–1697
Johan Esberg 1703–1712
Daniel Djurberg 1712–1736
Magnus Beronius 1738–1746
Engelbert Halenius 1746–1754
Lars Benzelstjerna 1754–1760
Christoffer Clewberg 1760–1776
Eric Hesselgren 1776–1779
Erik Hydrén 1779–1786
Jacob Fredrik Neikter 1787–1803
Erik Jonas Almquist 1803–1808
Johannes Daniel Drissel 1808–1823
Sven Lundblad 1823–1829

Fjärdhundra nation

Petrus Fontelius 1663–1667
Jonas Fornelius 1667–1679
Carl Lundius 1679–1714
Johan Steuchius 1715–1724
Israel Nesselius 1724–1739
Johan Ihre 1740–1779
Erik Hydrén 1779–1786
Erik Kinmark 1786–1794
Andreas Lundström 1794–1805
Samuel Ödmann 1806–1823

Uplands nation

Petrus Hoffvenius 1663
Johannes Jacobi Bureus 1663–1664
Julius Micrander 1678–1695
Johannes Olderman 1695–1697
Erik Ljung 1698–1704
Johan Upmarck Rosenadler 1704–1716
Olof Celsius 1717–1756
Johannes Amnell 1756–1789
Johannes Lostbom 1789–1797
Johan Winbom 1797–1826
Sven Lundblad 1826–1830
Israel Hwasser 1830–1839
Karl Jonas Almquist 1840–1844
Otto Fredrik Tullberg 1844–1850
Lars Anton Anjou 1850–1855
Elof Wallquist 1855–1857
Carl Benedict Mesterton 1857–1887
Tycho Tullberg 1887–1907
Nathan Söderblom 1907–1910
Carl Thore Mörner 1910–1920
Germund Wirgin 1920–1933
Axel Brusewitz 1933–1945
Erik Lönnroth 1946–1953
Folke Knutsson 1953–1967
Clarence Nilsson 1967–1979
Gösta Arturson 1979–?
Karin Dahlgren-Caldwell 1999–2009
Jacob Höglund 2009–2019
Björn Victor 2019–

Notes

^ Uppsala Student Nations Archived 2006-05-06 at the Wayback Machine, information page in English at the Uppsala University website
^ The Svedberg, "Arrhenius, Svante", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, vol. 2, p. 287.
^ Linda Nohrstedt, "Hans Blix, Uppsalaalumn med vana av hetluften Archived 2006-02-08 at the Wayback Machine" (Alumn i fokus 2005-09-19), at the Uppsala University website
^ "Svante Wijkman" , at the Uplands nation website.
^ "Svante Wijkman", at the Uplands nation website.

References and further reading

All references are in Swedish

Eugène Lewenhaupt, Anteckningar om Uplands nation i Upsala före 1830, Upsala, 1877.
Isidor Carlsson, Uplands nation 1800-1914: En skildring, Uppsala: Upplands nation 1915.
Isidor Carlsson, "Upplands nations hus", in Albin Roosval (ed.), Nationshusen i Uppsala. Illustrerade skildringar af flera författare, E. Lundquist: Stockholm 1915, p. 19-36.
Studenten, staden och sanningen: bilder och essayer: utgivna med anledning av Uplands nations 350-årsjubileum, Bengt Erik Rydén (ed.), Uppsala: Uplands nation 1992. (Published for the 350th anniversary of the nation)
Svedberg, Theodor (The), "Arrhenius, Svante", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, vol. 2, p. 287-301.