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Allhem Small Prints Collection

The collection consists of some of the titles issued by Allhem publishing. It was founded by Danish-born Einar Hansen and remained in business from 1932 to 1981.

About the collection

A small amount of ephemeral prints from Allhem publishing. The material varies widely and includes many things, such as lottery tickets sold for the benefit of the Swedish Defense during the Second World War, exhibition catalogues, Allhem's own catalogues, and programmes from the staff parties of the publishing house. The collection provides rare insight into the lesser known print production of Allhem.

Allhem

Allhem publishing was founded in 1932 by Danish-born Einar Hansen (1902—1994). Initially, the business involved publishing magazines; the Allas veckotidning and Hemmets veckotidning, whose respective first syllables were combined to form the brand name of their publisher: All-hem. Among many other things, Einar Hansen was a distinguished book collector. In 1983, he donated his collection on the history of books, spanning some 5 000 volumes, to the Einar Hansen library foundation. This collection is now held by the department for the history of books at Lund University. The first chair of the history of books and libraries was established in Lund through a donation from Einar Hansen.

The initial years of publishing magazines made it economically possible to engage in the kind of book publishing that Allhem would later pursue: works of excellent quality in terms of materials, photos and illustrations, paper and bindings. In 1936, Allhem issued its first book, Sverige i färg och bild, edited by E. Wrangel and A. Gierow. Even more significant for the early years of Allhem was the publishing of a work on cultural history, Svenska folket genom tiderna (1938—1940). The subtitle of the work, Vårt lands kulturhistoria i skildringar och bilder also describes Allhem's general field of publishing, as much of it was centered on culture, art and geography, always with great attention to the photographic materials and illustrations.

The two works that can be considered the peak of the Allhem endeavour are, on one hand, the books on Swedish provinces (read more below) and on the other, the Svenskt konstnärslexikon: Tiotusen svenska konstnärers liv och verk in five volumes with 4 200 pages in total. When it was issued, it was the most lavish encyclopedia ever published in Sweden. Perhaps it still is.

The Allhem series on Swedish provinces began in 1950, with a book on the city of Lund. This was well received, and followed by a second volume, on the province of Scania. When the last book on the province of Ångermanland was published in 1976, the series amounted to 30 volumes which apart from the 25 Swedish provinces included books on five cities: Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Lund and Uppsala. The books each had a section on cultural history, and a contemporary series of newly made photographs. Overall, a tremendous effort went into the illustrations and photographs. Together, the 30 volumes include over 17 000 pages, with 22 643 pictures. The photographs came mainly from the cameras of the publisher's full-time photographer Erik Liljeroth.

Allhem issued 15 different series with a focus on aviation, geography, art, historical figures, architecture and museums. Among these, some are particularly worth mentioning, such as Slott och herresäten i Sverige in 18 volumes (not to be confused with the series Svenska slott och herresäten vid 1900-talets början). Apart from these, Allhem published a great many other books, consistently with a focus on culture, history and photos. Among these are Cicero's Samtliga brev (1963) in four volumes, Ovid's Metamorfoser (1969) in two volumes commissioned by the Swedish Academy, Saint Bridget's Himmelska uppenbarelser (1957—59) in four volumes, Molière's Komedier (1965) in five volumes, Svenskt skeppsbyggeri (1963) and Svenska Ostindiska Compagnierna 1731—1813 (1974) by Sven T. Kjellberg. In total, Allhem published 651 titles.

Allhem ephemeral prints

Beyond the prints that were made commercially available, Allhem also produced a wide range of ephemeral prints. These include, among other things, programmes for exhibitions and conferences, offprints of journal articles, Christmas greetings, advertising material, memorial publications, songbooks and many other things. The editions were often small, and the material ephemeral in nature. The prints preserved by the Humanities Library are almost exclusively examples of this production, and represent materials from 1939—1992. The collection amounts to 96 ephemeral prints. These include catalogues from Allhem, as well as promotional material for some of the publisher's own individual titles. In this way, the collection provides insight into Allhem's printing and publishing history. The promotional material and catalogues show how Allhem chose to market their publications, and make it evident that the publisher explicitly sought to issue handsome books of the very finest kind. Further, the collection hints at some of the material that contributed to the economic foundations of Allhem through the revenue from the publisher's own printing house, such as the title Frekvensanalys av electroencephalogram beskrivning av en optisk metod jämte två tillämpningar, or the 1940 printing of lottery tickets for the benefit of the Malmö air defence.

Acquisition history

The Allhem Small Prints Collection was donated by Kjell Peterson, founder of Atlantis publishing. Kjell Peterson acquired the Allhem photo archive and took over the sales of some of the publisher's products when Allhem closed down in 1981. The Manuscript archives of the Humanities Library includes the personal archive of Kjell Peterson.