Emma Charlotte Stiasny Jacobsson (1883 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

– 1977) was an Austrian-born Swedish botanist, art historian, knitwear designer, and entrepreneur. She was a founder of the Bohus Stickning knitting cooperative, and the executive director during its thirty years of operation.

Early life

Jacobsson was born into a Jewish family in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Her parents, Franz Clemens Stiasny and Anna Stiasny, were members of an intellectual community in Vienna that included

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

. She earned a doctorate in botany in 1913; her dissertation
Versuch einer histologisch-phylogenetischen Bearbeitung der Papilionaceae
concerned the

phylogenetics In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

of the flowering plant subfamily

Faboideae The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family. This subfamily is widely ...

or Papilionoideae. While studying in Berlin, she met Malte Jacobsson, whom she married in 1912. They settled in Gothenburg, Sweden. Although she did not continue with a career in botany, she published several academic papers on subjects relating to art history.

Career

From 1912 until 1950, Emma Jacobsson was married to Malte Jacobsson, who became governor of the province of Bohüslan,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 1934. As wife of the governor of Bohüslan, Jacobsson used her position to provide community leadership and improve economic conditions in the province by establishing a cottage industry in 1939. It became known as Bohus Stickning, a cooperative that attained international stature and was in operation until 1969 with Jacobsson as its executive director. Bohus Stickning provided economic support for knitters in Bohüslan and became known in Sweden and abroad. Jacobsson was herself a designer for Bohus Stickning, particularly during the cooperative's early years. Many of her designs were inspired by objects on display in museums, such as Peruvian textiles, decorative arts from China, and antique Swedish woven textiles with heraldic motifs. As director of Bohus Stickning, Emma Jacobsson participated in the design process by editing the submissions of other designers, suggesting alterations, and having final decision-making authority. She exhibited in Sweden and internationally, including the

Milan Triennale The ''Milan Triennial'' (Triennale di Milano) is an art and design exhibition that takes place every three years at the Triennale di Milano Museum in Milan, Italy. History The exhibition was originally established in 1923 as a biennial architect ...

, in 1951, 1954, and 1960. Emma Jacobsson’s vision for the company’s fashion brand and guidance led Bohus Stickning to achieve international name recognition. An entrepreneur, Jacobsson forged commercial connections for the Bohus Stickning cooperative with

Nordiska Kompaniet Nordiska Kompaniet (colloquially NK, and literally ''The Nordic Company'') is the name of two luxury department stores located in Stockholm and Gothenburg, in Sweden. The store in Stockholm receives some twelve million visitors annually, with ...

in Stockholm and Gillblads in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, and working through an export trade distributor, sold products to department stores in the United States such as

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus is an American department store chain founded in 1907 in Dallas, Texas by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Abraham Lincoln Neiman. It has been owned by Saks Global, a Corporate spin-off, spin-o ...

. Notable clients included

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cin ...

and

Grace Kelly Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982), also known as Grace of Monaco, was an American actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III from their marriage on April 18, 1956, until her death in 1982. ...

. She led the company for thirty years until it closed in 1969. Jacobsson died in 1977.

Notable Patterns Designed by Emma Jacobsson for Bohus Stickning

Bibliography

* "Emma Jacobsson Put Knitting Needles to Work: She Rescued a Province, Founded a Unique Industry" ''Eugene Register-Guard''. 7 Sept 1966, p. 13. * Åmossa, Karin. ''Du är NK!: konstruktioner av yrkesidentiteter på varuhuset NK ur ett genus- och klassperspektiv 1918-1975''. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2004. * Häglund, Ulla, and Ingrid Mesterton. ''Bohus stickning 1939-1969''. Göteborg: Föreningen Bohus Stickning, 1980. * Häglund, Ulla. ''Bohus Stickning''. Bohuslän Museum, 1999. * Hald, Arthur, and Sven Erik Skawonius. ''Contemporary Swedish design; a survey in pictures''. Stockholm: Nordisk Rotogravyr, 1951. * Keele, Wendy. ''Poems of Color. Knitting in the Bohus Tradition''. Interweave Press 1995. * Overland, Viveka. ''Bohus Stickning: på nytt. The Revival.'' Bohusläns museums förlag 2015.

References

External links

Bohusläns Museum. Bohus Stickning, 1939-1969

Röhsska Museum Collection

Finding Guide to the Bohus Stickning Archive in the Kvinn Samm, the National resource library for gender studies, Gothenburg University Library

Bohus Stickning Recreations by Pernille Silfverberg of AngoraGarnet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobsson, Emma Swedish textile artists People in knitting 1883 births 1977 deaths Women textile artists Artists from Vienna Swedish Jews 20th-century Austrian botanists Austrian women botanists Swedish women botanists Swedish fashion designers Austrian fashion designers Austrian women fashion designers Women art historians Swedish women fashion designers Austrian women historians Swedish women historians Austrian emigrants to Sweden