Unique Portraits of the Sámi People by Roche/Bonaparte From the 19th Century

In 1884, Prince Roland Bonaparte led an anthropological expedition to Northern Norway (Finnmark) and Sweden to document the Sámi people. The majority of the photography for this project was executed by his expedition photographer, G. Roche.

Unlike contemporary photographers who captured candid lifestyle shots, Roche and Bonaparte used the “en face” (frontal) and profile formula. This was a standardized, quasi-scientific method designed to document physical traits.

The collection includes over 100 portraits of Sámi individuals. Many of the subjects are identified by name in the archives, such as Jol Andersen (a Sea Sámi man from Finnmark), Anna Hurri, and Niels Larsen Pilto.

Subjects often wear traditional gákti (Sámi clothing) but are placed against neutral backgrounds or within rigid frames. Some portraits even include “number plates” or height scales, reflecting the era’s obsession with racial categorization.

While the portraits are the most famous, the expedition also captured Sámi dwellings (lavvu), boats, and the Arctic landscape, providing a broader context of 1880s Northern Norway.

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30 Amazing Vintage Photographs of People Posing With Runestones in Sweden

A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. Runestones served a variety of purposes beyond simply marking a grave. They were not typically placed at a burial site but rather in prominent locations like along roads, at bridges, or near farms to be seen by many people.

The most common purpose was to commemorate a deceased family member, friend, or loved one. The inscriptions often detail who the stone was for, who raised it, and their relationship to the deceased. Raising a runestone also was a way for a family or an individual to display their wealth, social standing, and piety. Some stones were even raised by individuals for themselves, a form of self-aggrandizement.

The surge in runestone creation during the 11th century coincided with the transition from Norse paganism to Christianity. Many runestones prominently feature a Christian cross and a prayer for the soul of the deceased, demonstrating the family's new faith. In some regions, like Uppland, the tradition may have been particularly strong because the conversion to Christianity was more prolonged.

The runestone tradition began in the 4th century, but the vast majority of the over 3,000 extant runestones in Scandinavia date from the late Viking Age (c. 950–1100 CE), with a remarkable concentration in Sweden.

Early runestones (4th–5th centuries) in Sweden and Norway were often placed near graves, but their exact function is debated. They were sometimes inscribed with the Elder Futhark, an older, 24-character runic alphabet.

The tradition became widespread in Denmark around 970 CE after King Harald Bluetooth erected the large Jelling Stone to commemorate his parents and his conversion of the Danes to Christianity. This act sparked a "runestone wave" that spread northward into Sweden.

The runestones from the Viking Age typically use the Younger Futhark, a 16-character runic alphabet. The inscriptions are often arranged within an ornate band, which frequently takes the shape of a serpent, dragon, or other quadruped. When they were first erected, these stones were brightly painted, though the colors have since worn off.

By the 12th century, the tradition of raising runestones faded as Latin letters and church inscriptions became dominant. Many runestones were later reused in churches, bridges, and buildings, though many have since been recovered and preserved.

Research assistant and archaeologist Hans Hildebrand, (Director General of the Swedish National Heritage Board in 1879-1907) sitting beside the Rök Stone, 1872. The runestone – covered with nearly 750 runes – was raised in the 9th century AD by Varin in memory of his dead son Vämod. The Rök Stone is also one of several Historical Sites in trust of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Man at a boulder in the sea at Brantevik in Scania, with a runic inscription from 1873.

The Curman children with their french governess at a runestone at the Antuna estate, Sweden, 1880. The inscription reads, “Gerlak had … in memory of Häming, his son; and Ärnmund in memory of Holmfrid, his wife, and in memory of Una/Unna, (his) daughter.”

Three girls at a runestone on Ströbo meadow at Herrstaberg, ca. 1880s. The inscription reads, “Vibern raised this stone in memory of Solva, his brother.”

Three children at a flat piece of rock with a runic inscription, near Risinge Church, 1893. The inscription was made in 1678 by Eric Bruzaeus, the vicar’s son in Risinge. It says only that the runes were carved in this year.

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The Backstuga: Survival in Sweden’s Forests

Hidden deep in the forests of southern Småland, Sweden, are backstugas – small “hill cottages” built by the poorest people during the 17th and 18th centuries. With three wooden walls and a hillside forming the fourth, these sod-roofed dwellings offered warmth and concealment. Though often just a single room, they provided vital refuge in a harsh environment. Today, they stand as quiet witnesses to a past shaped by necessity and resilience.

A backstuga (literally “slope cottage” or “freeground cottage”) is a Swedish language judicial term, previously used in Finland and Sweden, for a kind of rural cottage.

The basic criterion is that the small building on someone else’s property, often public land, is a finite right that cannot be sold. Unlike pure squatter slums, there was usually some form of legal contract on a backstuga. A small piece of land, suitable for, for example, a potato field, often belonged to the backstuga.

The term has been known since the beginning of the 17th century, but it was only from the beginning of the 19th century that backstugusittare were reported separately from crofters. The estate statistics of 1805 say just over 28 000 backstugor, while in the middle of the 19th century 45 000, and in 1885 50 000 are reported and 1910 down to 22 658.

Additionally, in architecture, a backstuga is a cottage built into the southern slope of a hill, alternatively with a low floor and its walls stretched halfway down into the ground. Such cottages are also referred to as jordstuga (earth cottage) or stenstuga (stone cottage). They were small, typically about 20 square metres (220 sq ft), and only exceptionally found further north than Gothenburg. In the 20th century, the general poverty was mitigated and this kind of homes became less and less used. They were very close in design to Anglo-Saxon Pit-houses.

Backstugas were often inhabited by old, decrepit people and could, for example, be assigned to exceptions contracts, retired faithful servants, or the parish's poor boys instead of for the poorhouse. Exceptions contract is a contractual right for the seller to retain for the remainder of his life the usufruct of a small residence or a small area of land that is exempt from the buyer’s right to dispose of the transferred agricultural property.

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Malmö in the Mid-1960s Through Vintage Photos

Malmö in the mid-1960s was a city in transition. It was a time of rapid industrial growth, urban development, and cultural change. The city was still heavily influenced by its industrial past, with shipyards, factories, and the bustling harbor playing a central role in its economy. At the same time, Malmö was becoming more modern, with new infrastructure projects, apartment buildings, and shopping centers starting to reshape the urban landscape.

The 1960s saw a growing sense of cosmopolitanism, with Malmö increasingly becoming a hub for immigrants, particularly from southern Europe, as Sweden’s post-war economy boomed. This wave of immigration helped diversify the city's population and culture, bringing new ideas and customs, but also creating social challenges.

The city was still very much tied to its industrial roots, but by the late 1960s, Malmö was already beginning to forge a path towards the more multicultural and progressive city it is known as today. These vintage photos were found by Shane Egan that show street scenes of Malmö in 1965.

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55 Wonderful Vintage Swedish Christmas Postcards by Jenny Nyström From the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Jenny Nyström (1854–1946) was a painter and illustrator mainly known as the creator of the Swedish image of the jultomte on Christmas cards and magazine covers, thus linking the Swedish version of Santa Claus to the gnomes and tomtar of Scandinavian folklore.

After the first tomte Jenny illustrated, she made a wide range of charming Christmas cards. She turned her Christmas cards into an idyll of how Sweden’s Christmas traditions should be. She illustrated tomtar, cheerful children, beautiful Christmas trees, St Lucia and everything else that comes with Christmas.

Known as the “mother of tomten,” she has a special bond to this little figure. With her own determination to make the illustrations to Viktor Rydbergs “Lille Viggs äventyr på julafton” (Little Viggs adventures on Christmas eve), they got to know each other. When Rydberg then wrote his well known poem “Tomten,” Jenny made the illustration. At this point a friendship was laid lasting a lifetime between Jenny and the tomte character. A figure and concept she, from that point, would always be associated with.

Jenny herself said that she did not know where the tomte features came up from; she just thought he should look in a certain way. She succeeded in her way, of not making him into a handsome old man nor a monster and the “Swedish kind hearted, gifts giving tomte” was born.