Clas Jonas Theodor Odhner (17 June 1836 in Alingsås, Sweden – 11 June 1904 in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

historian, and director of the

Swedish National Archives , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , seal = Riksarkivet_myndighetsvapen_-_Riksarkivet_Sverige.png , seal_width = 150 , seal_caption = , logo = , logo_width = , logo_caption = , picture ...

(''Riksarkivet''). The son of a clergyman, Odhner's mother was a sister of

Nils Ericson Nils is a Scandinavian given name, a chiefly Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Latvian variant of Niels, cognate to Nicholas. People and animals with the given name * Nils Bergström (born 1985), Swedish ice hockey player *Nils Björk (1898–1989), ...

and

John Ericsson John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which com ...

. Odhner went to school in

Skara Skara is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Skara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 18,580 inhabitants in 2013. Despite its small size, it is one of the oldest cities in Sweden, and has a long educational and ecc ...

and matriculated at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

in 1851, completing the degree of ''

filosofie magister A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

'' and becoming a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

of History in 1860. He taught at

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

1894–1897. He was elected Member of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...

in 1885, and was member of several other learned societies. Odhner was a productive writer, and the schoolbooks he authored were influential. He was the main mover in the introduction of the new organisation of the archives for government agencies with a number of provincial archives (''landsarkiv''), to some extent subordinate to the National Archives. He was father of the zoologist and explorer Teodor Odhner. The engineer Willgodt Odhner was the son of his first cousin.

References

*Herman Schück, "Odhner, Clas Jonas Theodor", ''Svenskt biografiskt lexikon'', vol. 28. 1836 births 1904 deaths Members of the Swedish Academy Swedish archivists 19th-century Swedish historians Uppsala University alumni Academic staff of Lund University Burials at Norra begravningsplatsen {{sweden-historian-stub