Anna-Maja Nylén (March 24, 1912 – February 27, 1976) was a Swedish

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

."Anna-Maja Nylén", https://skbl.se/en/article/AnnaMajaNylen, Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (SKBL) iographical Dictionary of Swedish Women(article by Sofia Danielsson, translated by Alexia Grosjean), retrieved 2023-08-31.

Birth and family

Nylén was born on March 24, 1912, in Dalby parish in northern Värmland. Her parents were Johanna Theresia Nylén (

birth name The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Hägglund), and Jakob Theodor Nylén. She had a sister, Karin Laura Nylén, and two brothers, Jan Klas Nylén and Matts Otto Nylén. She never married.

Career

Nylén worked at the

Nordic Museum The Nordic Museum () is a museum located on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden, dedicated to the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden from the early modern period (in Swedish history, it is said to begin in 1520) to the ...

beginning in the late 1930s. She was the first academically qualified female employee there. In 1947, she became the first woman at the Nordic Museum to receive a doctorate in folklife research, which she received from the Institute for Folklife Research. In 1961, she became the head of the Nordic Museum's Etnologiska undersökningen (ethnological investigation section). In 1965, she became head of a recently created costumes and textiles section at the Nordic Museum. She worked in that section until she retired from the museum in 1975. She also did work outside of the museum. In 1957, she became

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

in ethnology at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () 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 operation. Initially fou ...

. In 1963, she became an instructor at

Friends of Handicraft The Friends of Handicraft () is a Swedish association for the education, development, production and experimentation of advanced textiles and design. History The association was founded in 1874 by Sophie Adlersparre. From the outset, the associati ...

’s weaving school. Later, in 1969, her book ''Svensk hemslojd'' (in English ''Swedish Handcraft'') was published; as of the year 2000, it was a standard work on pre-industrial craft. Klein, Barbro. (2000). "The Moral Content of Tradition: Homecraft, Ethnology, and Swedish Life in the Twentieth Century". Western Folklore, 59(2), 171–195. https://doi.org/10.2307/1500158 In 1973, she became the first professionally-engaged woman elected to The Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for Swedish Folk Culture.

Death

Nylén died in Lidingö on February 27, 1976.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nylén, Anna-Maja 1912 births 1976 deaths Swedish ethnologists Women ethnologists People from Torsby Municipality

Birth and family

Career

Death

See also

References