Silvermuseet Arjeplog

Home Doktorn

The Doctor

The Author

An average day in the life of the young doctor is characterised by hard work: long distances to cover to reach the bedsides of the sick (often done on foot or using skis), meetings with rough local residents, cases of serious illness requiring decisive action – all of which Wallquist portrays in vivid, lively letters to family and friends living in the south of Sweden.After persistent prodding from those who receive his letters, the country doctor reluctantly concedes and sends an inquiry to Bonniers publishing house as to the possibility of having his anecdotes published. The resulting book, Kan Doktorn komma (translation: Can the Doctor Visit?), was published in 1935 and came to be followed by more than 25 fictional works, the majority of which were also illustrated by Wallquist. Wallquist’s works include medical treatises and works of historical non-fiction.

The Doctor in Arjeplog

The year is 1922.
The Spanish flu has just marched across Lapland, leaving a deep and sorrowful impression on the inland population in its wake. In Arjeplog, where there has been no local doctor for a number of years, the plague has taken a particularly heavy toll. Young doctor Einar Wallquist is employed at Sabbatsberg Hospital in Stockholm at the time and has followed the ravages of the Spanish flu with great interest during his studies. His dissatisfaction with big-city life increasing, Wallquist decides he would very much like to, as he puts it, trade his position as an assistant physician in Stockholm for a job as a country doctor. At just 26 years of age and almost fresh out of medical school, Wallquist applies for a provincial medical post in the vast district of Arjeplog seated at the foot of the mountains in the far north.“There was probably an element of the romantic notion of life in the wilderness involved,” Wallquist later said in explaining why he chose Arjeplog and life as a lone doctor in the sparsely populated municipality over the security of working with colleagues at a metropolitan hospital. Preventive health care is a subject dear to Wallquist’s heart. He introduces children’s gymnastics, pleads the case of vitamins and organises a “fruit train” to bring fruit from southern Sweden to the far-northern county of Norrbotten.Einar Wallquist was also to become one of the first doctors to conduct research into the history of the rare hereditary disease porphyria, or släktsjukan, as it was known in Sweden at the time.

The Artist

While his patients are convalescing in the infirmary, the doctor is keen to sit by their bedsides, sketching pad in hand. It is during the course of the small talk that ensues between the two that Wallquist’s highly expressive portraits take shape. Nature is also a source of artistic inspiration for the doctor and his many watercolours depicting the countryside surrounding Arjeplog are both noted and popular. At an early stage, Wallquist decides that art “has to be spontaneous to be good,” and as result, watercolour and gouache become the techniques which best suit his artistic temperament.

The Museologist

The long overland journeys made to visit the sick often involve overnight stays at the most remote farmsteads and villages, giving the doctor the possibility to draw close to his patients and to understand their way of life. His warm-hearted interest in the people he meets and their culture finds expression in his industrious collection of objects and facts from the Arjeplog district. The doctor collects anything and everything – objects, photographs, archival documents and stories. In time, his documentation will come to include everything imaginable; from how to care for newborns, to how to harvest wetland hay, cook meals, and more. After a 40-year career as a physician, the newly retired Wallquist begins on a new project as a museologist in 1962. After just a few years of preparation, he is able to open his Silver Museum in October 1965, filled with cultural artefacts that he insightfully shared with visitors.Einar Wallquist has grand ambitions for the museum’s exhibitions and other activities. The exhibitions should be simple and well thought-out from a visual standpoint. Reconstructed interiors give visitors the feeling of being transported back in time, and provide them with the opportunity to gain insight into life in a settler’s home in the 1930s, for example. Dr. Wallquist places great importance on children’s understanding of the past, and helps young ones foster a positive attitude towards museum visits by occasionally “flavouring” his exhibits with sweets.

Last Updated ( onsdag, 08 september 2010 )