Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding aid for the Åke Åkerström papers, 1853-1991
940110
No online items
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Åke Åkerström papers
Date (inclusive): 1853-1991 (bulk 1927-1987)
Number: 940110
Creator/Collector:
Åkerström, Åke, 1902-
Physical Description:
11.6 linear ft.
(19 boxes, 2 flat file folders)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The Åke Åkerström papers record the scholarly career of this Swedish classical archaeologist. Åkerström's research interests
and publications ranged from architectural terracottas in Asia Minor to Etruscan tomb typology to Mycenaean pottery in Greece,
and this breadth is reflected in the research notes, photographs, postcards, drawings, correspondence, manuscripts, and typescripts
that constitute the Åkerström papers. The archive also includes a substantial amount of material that originated with Lennart
Kjellberg and Axel W. Persson, earlier scholars whose work Åkerström continued.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language: Collection material is in
Swedish
Åke Åkerström (1902-1991) studied classical archaeology at Uppsala University under Axel W. Persson. After receiving his doctorate
in 1934 with a dissertation on Etruscan tomb typology, Åkerström pursued a long career as an excavator, administrator and
scholar.
Åkerström first excavated as a student with Axel Persson at Dendra, a Bronze Age site in the Argolid in Greece, in 1927. From
there, he moved on with Persson to another site in the Argolid, Berbati, where Persson put him in charge of excavating the
eastern slope of the site, the so-called "potter's quarter." Åkerström worked at Berbati for three seasons from 1936-1938,
and then again after the war in 1953 and 1959. In the intervening period, he also excavated for one season in 1948 at Labraunda
in Turkey, where Persson began excavating after the war.
In the postwar period, however, Åkerström's main focus became administrative. From 1948-1956, he served as Director of the
newly-created Swedish Institute in Athens. The foundation of this institute was a critical step for the continuation and development
of Swedish archaeological work in Greece. Åkerström guided the new institute during its formative years, and would return
much later for a second term as director from 1971-1972.
Upon returning to Sweden in 1956, Åkerström concentrated on scholarship. He was appointed Professor of Classical Archaeology
and Ancient History at the University of Gothenburg. He also continued his production of scholarly publications, which numbered
over sixty books and articles, covering a broad range, both geographically and chronologically, of archaeological topics.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Åke Åkerström papers, 1853-1991, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 940110.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa940110
The Åke Åkerström papers were acquired in 1994.
Ann Harrison rehoused the papers and created the series arrangement and finding aid in 2008.
The Åke Åkerström papers held by the Getty Research Institute represent only a portion of the scholar's archive. Further papers,
"Professor Åke Åkerströms Arkiv," are held by Göteborgs Universitet in Sweden.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Åke Åkerström papers record the scholarly career of this Swedish classical archaeologist. Åkerström's research interests
and publications ranged from architectural terracottas in Asia Minor to Etruscan tomb typology to Mycenaean pottery in Greece,
and this breadth is reflected in the research notes, photographs, postcards, drawings, correspondence, negatives, manuscripts
and typescripts that constitute the Åkerström papers. The archive also serves to document the development of a Swedish national
school of classical archaeology in the early twentieth century. A substantial portion of the material in the Åkerström papers
did not originate with Åkerström, but with Lennart Kjellberg and Axel W. Persson, scholars of an earlier generation whose
work Åkerström continued.
Such earlier material, in fact, comprises most of the first series in the Åkerström papers. This series contains the materials
used by Åkerström to publish the architectural terracottas from Lennart Kjellberg's excavations at Larisa in Turkey. Much
of the material here originated with Kjellberg and was passed to Åkerström after his death. The same holds true for the papers
of Axel W. Persson, which comprise the fourth series of this archive. These include a group of Persson's manuscripts and typescripts,
both published and unpublished, and photographs relating to his excavations at Dendra and Berbati, as well as research on
the work of the early nineteenth-century traveler and antiquarian, Johan Hedenborg.
Further Kjellberg, and possibly Persson, material is integrated into Åkerström's research materials, which, along with a small
group of Åkerström's publication materials, form the second series of his papers. The research material consists of extensive
notes and a small photographic archive. It shows the breadth of Åkerström's interests, but concentrations of material also
signal Åkerström's special interests, including materials related to his work on architectural terracottas in Asia Minor,
such as Klazomenian sarcophagi and vases and Caeretan hydriae, as well as Mycenaean pottery. A small group of reports relating
to the Swedish Institute in Athens forms the majority of the third series of the archive.
Organized in four series:
Series I. Excavations at Larisa am Hermos, 1902-1940;
Series II. Research and publications, 1904-1987;
Series III. Miscellaneous professional papers, 1927-1991;
Series IV. Axel Persson papers, 1853-1941
Hedenborg, Johannes, 1786-1865
Svenska institutet i Athen.
Architectural terra-cotta--Turkey
Decoration and ornament, Architectural--Turkey
Excavations (Archaeology)--Greece
Excavations (Archaeology)--Turkey
Pottery, Mycenaean
Sarcophagi, Greek--Turkey--Clazomenae (Extinct city)
Vases, Greek--Italy--Cerveteri
Vases, Greek--Turkey--Clazomenae (Extinct city)
Argolis Peninsula (Greece)--Antiquities
Etruria--Antiquities
Turkey--Antiquities
Black-and-white negatives
Correspondence
Drawings (visual works)
Manuscripts
Photographic prints
Postcards
Research notes
Typescripts
Kjellberg, Lennart, 1857-1936
Persson, Axel W., (Axel Waldemar), 1888-1951