Timeline

by Sofia Häggman (translation Katarina Trodden)

1890 Hilma Natalia Granqvist is born in Helsinki on July 17. She is the first child born to Karl Oskar Granqvist and Ida, née Storck.

1892 Hilma’s brother Valter is born on February 18. Hilma and Valter were close all their lives.

1895 Hilma’s youngest brother, Gunnar, is born on August 7.

1911 In May, Granqvist passes her baccalaureate at Svenska fortbildningsläroverket in Helsinki. She enters the Ekenäs teachers’ college for women in the autumn.

1912 In June, she is contacted by the author Helena Westermarck who is looking for someone who can make a fair copy of her manuscripts.

1914 Granqvist graduates from the teachers’ college and embarks on a brief career as a private tutor and school teacher in Helsinki.

1917 In the autumn she begins to study a number of subjects including pedagogics, psychology and practical philosophy at the University of Helsinki.

1921 Granqvist earns a Master of Arts degree with her thesis Skolan och religionen (Religion in Schools). She is also writing a pamphlet entitled Det religiösa problemet i nutiden (The Problem with Religion in Our Time). Gunnar Landtman, pro tempore professor of practical philosophy, encourages her to write a dissertation on the women of the Old Testament.

1922 Granqvist briefly attends the Friedrich-Wilhems University in Berlin where she is introduced to a new approach to conducting research. She starts thinking about travelling to Palestine in order to research the lives of women mentioned in the Bible by studying local communities there.

1925 The first journey to Palestine. In the summer Granqvist attends a course in cultural history at the German Institute in Jerusalem. She then conducts field studies in the village of Artas where she lodges with Louise Baldensperger. She changes course and embarks on an in-depth study of the village community with an emphasis on marriage traditions.

1927 She leaves Paris in February, and after an extended stopover at Leipzig she returns to Finland. Back in Helsinki, she is faced with opposition from the university professors.

1929 In March, after years of disputes, her supervisor Landtman announces that Granqvist will not be allowed to defend her dissertation at the University of Helsinki.

1929 In spring, Granqvist participates in Edward Westermarck’s seminars at the London School of Economics where she mixes with other scholars, including Bronislaw Malinowski.

1929 In the summer, her friend Leonhard Rost volunteers to translate Granqvist’s dissertation into German. In November he announces that he wants to be cited as co-author of the work. Granqvist breaks with him and arranges for it to be translated into English instead.

1930 The second journey to Palestine. Granqvist arrives in January and spends about one year in the country. She collects more material, writes newspaper articles and travels in the area.

1930–31 Over Christmas and New Year, Granqvist travels to Egypt with her friends. While struggling with the history of the pharaohs, she is fascinated by the everyday lives of the local population.

1931 Granqvist leaves Palestine in March and returns to Finland.

1932 Granqvist defends her dissertation Marriage Conditions in a Palestinian Village on January 13 at Åbo Akademi. She becomes Finland’s first female Doctor of Practical Philosophy.

1933 Granqvist applies for the position of director at the Ekenäs women’s teachers’ college, but it is given to a less qualified applicant. She appeals without success and has to abandon the idea of a career in education.

1935 Publication of the second volume of Marriage Conditions.

1935 In February, Granqvist hands in her application for a readership at the University of Helsinki. It is assessed during the course of a whole year at the department of history and philology. She improves her qualifications by publishing her early pamphlets. Publication of Det religiösa problemet i nutiden (The Problem with Religion in Our Time).

1935 An exhibition of Granqvist’s photographs of Palestine opens on April 15 at the Stockman department store in Helsinki. In September, several of her photographs are shown at a conference in Göttingen.

1936 On February 1, it is decided that Granqvist qualifies for the position of lecturer at the University of Helsinki. She delivers her inauguration lecture, on February 22 she receives official acknowledgement of her ability to teach, and on June 23 it is announced in the newspapers that Granqvist is now a docent.

1936 On September 29, the University Chancellor, Hugo Suolahti, disallows Granqvist’s appointment.

1936 Publication of Skolan och religionen (Religion in Schools).

1938 Granqvist’s friend Helena Westermarck dies.

1939 Granqvist wins third prize in a Swedish popular science contest. Her entry, Arabiskt familjeliv (Arabian Family Life) is published.

1939 At the end of May, she is informed of the death of Louise Baldensperger.

1939 Granqvist vacations in Germany with her brothers. She hears Hitler speak at a rally in Munich, and she can see similarities between Nazism and the biblical stories about the ancient Israelites.

1939 At the outbreak of the Winter War in Finland, Granqvist moves from Helsinki to Sibbo. During the war she works on a book about the Swedish Jerusalem Colony.

1940 Granqvist visits the village of Nås in Dalarna province, Sweden, where she interviews relatives of the villagers went to Jerusalem. She fails in her efforts to sell her book about them to a number of publishing houses in Stockholm.

1940 Her brother Valter is married in August, and Granqvist moves to a flat of her own for the very first time. During the Continuation War she works on her extensive material on Arab children.

1944 When the war ends in Finland in September, Granqvist volunteers during the evacuation at Sjundby farm at Porkala.

1947 Publication of Birth and Childhood among the Arabs.

1950 Publication of Child Problems among the Arabs.

1959 The last journey to Palestine. In Jerusalem, Granqvist encounters a city devastated by war and she makes a nostalgic visit to Artas. The desperate situation in the refugee camps prompts her to raise awareness of the Palestinian situation in Finland.

1960 Valter dies suddenly during a business trip to Paris. Granqvist remains in the family home on Ulfsbyvägen where she shares her tranquil existence with Dagmar Eklund.

1965 Publication of Muslim Death and Burial.

1970 Granqvist contacts the British anthropologist Shelagh Weir. Their shared interest in Palestine leads to an intense correspondence.

1972 In January, Shelagh Weir receives a travel grant, so she can meet with Granqvist who is looking forward to handing over her research to a student.

1972 On February 25, Granqvist passes away at home. Shelagh Weir never gets a chance to meet her, but she participates in the dividing up of her archive. Part of it is now in the collection of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London; another part is administered by the Åbo Akademi University Library.