82 



THE SWEDISH NATIONAL.TYPE EXHIBITION 1919 



ing an account, certainly not less minute, of the products she has created, or 



one has gone on exploring expeditions to foreign lands, to make a careful study 



of people who are still living in a state of nature, and to observe their manner 



/^ of life. On the other hand one has never practically speaking, aimed really con* 



\ sciously at making a study of civilized man, that is to say, of ourselves, or of 



I investigating our own nature and our own disposition. Before discussing the 



question of taking measures in eugenics to improve a people, one must have ob* 



tained an inclusive knowledge of its internal structure, of its good and bad qual« 



ities. In other words, one must make a race«biological inventory of the people, 



so as to ascertain the presence of different types of race and to estimate Jlje vaU^ 



ue of their qualities. The Swedish NationaUtype Exhibition can be regarded as 



a link in this work. 



The collected material consisted for the most part of portraits which had, to 

 a very large extent, been taken for a race^biological purpose, which of course en* 

 hanced their value. The collection was arranged in a manner easy to survey and 

 in an instructive way, and was divided into several different departments. By 

 means of charts and diagrams, the first section gave a genera l survey of the Swe* 

 jig):^ race, with an account, according to height, sliape of skull, and blue eyes, of 

 its distribution in the different provinces. There were also pictures showing the 

 dififerent types of race, for example, the pure Nordic type, Walloons, the Finnish 

 and Lappic types, Jews and Gipsies, as well as other foreign types. To this sec* 

 tion belonged also, a very instructive collection of casts made from living models 

 by Professor G. Backman, for an anthropological purpose, and which represented 

 Dolico*, Meso* and Brachycephalic types. 



After the first section's orientation over the principal National4ypes in Swe^ 

 den, the second and third sections followed with a copious supply of race*types, 

 in which particular attention was given to transition types especially from the 

 most northern part of Sweden, where Swedes, Finns and Lapps live together, and 

 have to a very considerable extent, become blended together. A great many peas* 

 ant types from most of the Swedish provinces were represented. One had now 

 an opportunity of studying a rather plentiful and very interesting collection of 

 gipsies, »tattares», as well as vagabonds and criminal types. Another section show* 

 ed the Swedish race*types grouped according to social status, as workers, stu* 

 dents, sick*nurses, doctors, clergy and military men, higher civil servants, profes* 

 sors etc. There was also a collection of portraits of well*known Swedish men 

 and women, among whom the authoress Selma Lagerlof was to be remarked, as 

 well as the author Verner von Heidenstam and others. A special section gave 

 some characteristic pictures of Swedish race*types from Finland, Aland and Runo. 

 The section for family*groups was perhaps the most weighty in the Exhibi* 

 tion. Here were shown a number of Swedish families, important from a cultural 

 point of view, together with their family trees, and portraits of now living mem* 

 bers of the families. Among the families represented, could be remarked that of 

 De Geer of Finspang, which immigrated to Sweden from Holland in the seven* 

 teenth century, the Jewish family of Josephson, the scholarly families of Petren, 

 Fries, Holmgren, Aurivillius, Key, Santesson*Loven, Retzius»Hierta, Nordensson, 

 Angstrom and others, all remarkable in the field of science. 



