Berit Wallenberg on Flickr Commons

Berit Wallenberg and archaeologists Söderberg and Althin at an excavation in Nälsta, Uppland, Sweden, in May 1930. Photo: Unknown

Berit Wallenberg (1902-1995) was a Swedish archaeologist and art historian. She began photographing as a teenager, and brought her camera on the many travels she made in Sweden and abroad, often on her own and under modest conditions.

She devoted her life to studies of art history, architecture and archaeology, and she used her camera for documentation. Still, many of the photos show other people, family members, fellow students and friends.

The Town Hall in Magdeburg, Germany, in June 1927. Photo: Berit Wallenberg

Most of the photos in the collection on Flickr Commons are from the period 1920-1937, taken at home in Sweden or on travels in Sweden and in ten other European countries: Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom (England), Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

Berit Wallenberg was born into the influential Wallenberg family with bankers, industrialists, politicians and diplomats. Two photos from Sweden show her cousin’s son Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947). Read more about him and see the photos in an earlier post on this blog.

Boy in a courtyard in Ystad, Skåne, Sweden, in July 1930. Photo: Berit Wallenberg

The entire Berit Wallenberg photo collection consists of more than 25 000 photos. About 5000 are today digitized in the Swedish National Heritage Board’s photo database online, thanks to financial contribution from the Berit Wallenberg Foundation.

We wish you all very welcome to Flickr Commons to meet Berit Wallenberg in Sweden and to follow her on her travels around Western Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

Women in Montignac, France, in August 1937. Photo: Berit Wallenberg

>> Anna Boman works with Flickr Commons at the Swedish National Heritage Board