Paper short abstract:

My paper focuses on how a new elite, the ironmasters of Bergslagen in Sweden in their autobiographies create and recreate a common collective identity. At the same time, other sources tell other stories and by combining different types of sources it is possible to discover other conflicting, images.

Paper long abstract:

In 1828, one year before his death, the merchant, politician and ironmaster Johan Niclas Schwan (1764-1829) wrote an autobiography, a short text in which he describes his life from childhood to old age. Similarly, other ironmasters have written autobiographies that are preserved in various archives.

The autobiographical texts are of course all different. They are of different lengths; they are intended for different audiences and sometimes they are written down as short stories on pieces of paper while others are carefully rewritten on thick folio sheets. However, the content shows many similarities. They all follow a pattern that describes their existence from the cradle to the grave. It is an image of the self-made man, successful and with definite goals. Mistakes, failures and setbacks shine with their absence.

Contemporary sources such as diaries, letters and documents from different courts tell a different story. Here it is possible to follow the people almost in real time.

This paper focuses on these autobiographies and the common identity that the ironmasters carve out in their stories. In a sense it is about the tension between these images, these positions and these narratives.

By combining different types of sources, it becomes possible to clarify this tension between the image they themselves wanted to show and the image that emerges in other sources. It is a tension that arises between different sources but also between different intentions in the authorship.