Malin Lundell, Master student in Early Modern History and intern at Gustav’s Hand Part 1 – The Notes The 1767-1769 ‘diary’ of Gustav is not one filled with his innermost personal thoughts, but simply notes he took during council meetings he attended as crown prince. As expected, it is filled with matters of state, various colonels,…

Malin Lundell, Master student in Early Modern History and intern at Gustav’s Hand When you run a page of handwritten text through an HTR-recognition program such as Transcribus, you are not instantaneously provided with a prefect transcription of said text. There will be a few hiccups here and there which all have to be manually…

Johan Sjöberg, Ph.D., Archivist at Uppsala University Library, Project Archivist The university library and the Department of History at Uppsala University started the project Gustav’s Hand because, in 2019, it was decided that Gustav III’s private archive – the Gustavian collection – would no longer be available for research. Generations of intensive use by historians…

Mikael Alm, Professor of History, Project Manager Volume F. 413 in the Gustavian Collection holds a collection of documents by Gustav III’s hand regarding various ceremonial and festive occasions, ranging from his coronation and royal weddings to tournaments and everyday court etiquette. Among these documents are three lists of Christmas presents for the royal family and…

Gustav Duberg, Project Bookbinder & Carl Krantz, Project Conservator The first step is to dismantle the volume. This is done by cutting the endpaper near the inner edge of the cover to gain access to the spine. Subsequently, the leather spine is separated from the bookblock. A bone folder or spatula is used to loosen…

Johan Sjöberg, Ph.D., Archivist at Uppsala University Library, Project Archivist Gustav III’s private archive – the so-called Gustavian Collection – consists partly of Gustav’s own writings, partly of letters and other documents sent or given to the king. Especially the first mentioned part, i.e., letters, speeches, memoirs, etc., written by the king himself, has been used extensively…

Sebastian Cöllen, Ph.D., Librarian & Researcher, Project HTR-Coordinator Nu är HTR-läsningen (Handwritten text recognition) av kung Gustav III:s brev i full gång! Projektet använder sig av Transkribus, en plattform som använder sig av AI för att läsa den handskrivna texten. I ett första steg lär vi upp en så kallad ”modell” som skall kunna läsa…

The note is one of the smallest but also one of the more symbolically condensed items in the Gustavian collection. As King Gustav III prepared to leave for the Russian front in June 1788, he made all necessary arrangements.

For fifty years, Gustav III’s archives – the Gustavian Collection – were kept at Uppsala University Library in two locked chests, one huge, the other more like a suitcase. When the collection was opened on the 50th anniversary of Gustav’s death, the German newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung noted that the locked chests had attracted the attention of all…

“Building Research Infrastructure: Digitisation, Digital Enhancement, and Dissemination of the Gustavian Collection”: Project participants Mikael Alm, Sebastian Cöllen, and Johan Sjöberg present the project at the recently started Seminar for Digital History (Digitalhistoriska seminariet), Tuesday 25 April, 1-3 pm. Online (see News–>Programme for zoom link).