Föreningen Stockholms Företagsminnen (The Association for Stockholm Business Memories, in loose translateion) is a non-profit association dedicated to preserving archives from Stockholm-companies that no longer are in operation.
Stockholm has a long history of entrepreneurship. Many of the nation’s large companies were born here, while the city always also have been teeming with small companies. A great influence has also come from immigrants who built up operations in different industries. Today, most industries have moved out of the city and service companies and creative industries have moved into old breweries and factories. Other houses built for insurance companies and banks have changed residents and houses today, for example, hotels and malls. The story behind Stockholm’s business development is central to understanding why the city looks the way it does and to be able to look ahead without forgetting the role of business.
The non-profit association Stockholm’s Business Memories preserves documents, pictures and films from companies in Stockholm that are no longer active. Here are, for example, Bolinder’s Mechanical Workshops, Finnboda Shipyards and Shipping Svea’s historical archive, which reminds us that Stockholm was not just Sweden’s largest industrial city but also an important shipping city. The collections also include the smaller companies that characterized the growing capital during the 19th and 20th centuries: craftsmen, tobacco spinners and trades people of all kinds, but also department stores such as MEA at Norrmalmstorg, letterpress and publishing houses.
Stockholm Business Memories publishes books describing various industries and business areas. In the journal Företagshistoria, articles are published based on the archives and on social media we publish pictures and other glimpses from the materials.
The material is available for research at the Center for Business History’s premises in Bromma. Feel free to contact the service desk Bild- och faktasök if you want to research the material so they can give you more information about the archives and what they contain.
Alexander Husebye, CEO of the Center for Business History, is also the CEO of Stockholm Business Memories and Anders Houltz, Head of Research at the Center for Business History, is responsible for research projects related to the association’s material.
Board
- Chairman: Andreas Åström, Almega, elected by the annual general meeting (AGM)
Members:
- Ann-Charlotte Backlund, City of Stockholm
- Lennart Ploom, city archivist, appointed by the City of Stockholm
- Nicole Pluntke, ceo Hantverkarna, elected by the AGM
- Magnus Thulin, City of Stockholm, elected by the AGM
- Alexander Husebye, VD