Bjarne Kroepelien (born 3 May 1890 in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

, died 28 April 1966 in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

) was a Norwegian

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

merchant who is best known for his large collection of books on the Polynesian Islands. It was this book collection that sparked

Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000&nb ...

's interest in Polynesia and inspired his first theories on the contact between these islands and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Life and work

Background

Bjarne Kroepelien was born in Bergen as the eldest of four children to his parents Jacob Valentin Kroepelien (1863–1926) and Dagny Gran (1867–1932). His father was a wine merchant, and Bjarne ended up in the same line of work. In 1908, he moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

where he worked in the offices of a railway company. When he returned to Bergen in 1909, he took an office job for a commercial office. His brother, Trygve Gran Kroepelien (1891–1969), had become a rich businessman.

Polynesia

As a 27-year old, Kroepelien moved in 1917 to Polynesia, where he lived in

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

for two years. Here, he married Tuimata, one of the daughters of chief Teriieroo. When

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

came to Tahiti in 1918, and took the lives of a third of the population, Tuimata also died. Kroepelien's efforts in helping the sick earned him the French

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

. He returned to Norway in 1919 and moved to Oslo.

Collection

Kroepelien never returned to Polynesia. He wanted to live in Norway with the memories of his dead wife, and did not want to witness the changes the West had brought to the islands. He began instead to collect books from and about the South Seas, a collection that would eventually grow to around 5,000 books. This collection was left to the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

and today is located in the

Kon-Tiki Museum The Kon-Tiki Museum ( no, Kon-Tiki Museet) is a museum in the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway. It houses vessels and maps from the ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books. It was opened in a provisional building i ...

Bibliography

Frankrikes vine
(1922) - illustrated by Sverre Pettersen *
The Tahitian Imprints of the London Missionary Society, 1810-1834
(1950)

References

External links

Pictures from Tahiti
taken by Kropelien 1918–1919.

Thor Heyerdahl tells of his friendship with Bjarne Kroepelien in the research magazine

Apollon Apollon may refer to: * Apollo, ancient Greek god of light, healing and poetry * Apollon (Formula One), Formula One constructor * Apollon Kalamarias, Greek football club * Apollon Athens, a Greek football club from Athens * Apollon Limassol B.C., ...

.
PDF
Catalogue of the "Kroepelien collection" or "Bibliotheca Polynesiana", Oslo University Library 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kroepelien, Bjarne Businesspeople from Bergen 1890 births Recipients of the Legion of Honour 1966 deaths Norwegian bibliophiles