View of Stockholm (Sweden)

Rare view of Stockholm from the dawn of the 20th century.

This enrapturing view of Stockholm, Sweden was drawn by Frank Pezolt and published in Chicago by John Strand and C.A. Youngquist in 1901. The vibrant lithography was performed locally by the Sherwood Lithograph Co., a firm that would pioneer the use of offset lithography just a few years later, in 1905.

The image shows the city, now situated across over a dozen islands, oriented with east at the top of the page. Twenty-one different monuments, important buildings, or other locations of interest are numbered and labeled near the bottom. These include the Royal Palace, Storkyrkan, Riddarholmen Church, and the Riddarhuset (House of Nobility). An interesting variety of ships reflects the city’s rich maritime traditions.

The scene is framed by an elaborate decorative border that attempts to create a visual and political bond between the polities of Europe and America. Flags of Sweden and the United States form a curtain, held back by an allegorical figure representing Scandinavia on the left. A chronological history of Swedish ‘Kings’ (despite the presence of several women) contrasts with the similarly organized American presidents at the bottom. Each corner presents a major political figure(s), including the Royal Family of Sweden, the Imperial Family of Germany, King Edward VII of England, and the American President William McKinley (killed later that year). Portraits of Crown Prince Gustav, King Oscar II, and Christian IX (King of Denmark) are also illustrated, in addition to the flags of leading nations from around the globe.

At the time of publication, Sweden was undergoing a period of modernization and urbanization. Stockholm was the economic and cultural center of the Kingdom (which included Norway) and would host the First Nordic Games (predecessor to the modern Winter Olympics) in 1901. That same year, the first Nobel Prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, and Literature were awarded in Stockholm.

The map is rare, and I’ve been able to find only one other example cited on an online Swedish forum. No entries in OCLC or WorldCat, though there are a few other late 19th-century views designed by Pezolt.

Source.