Alma Söderhjelm

Alma Söderhjelm was a Swedish-speaking Finnish historian and the first female professor in Finland. She was the daughter of the procurator Werner Woldemar Söderhjelm and Amanda Olivia Clouberg.

Academic career

After gaining an M.A. in history from the University of Helsinki in 1894, Söderhjelm spent three years in Paris, preparing her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Alphonse Aulard. This was a study of journalism during the French Revolution and it was published as Le Régime de la presse pendant la Révolution française.
She was awarded a doctorate in 1900.
On the basis of this thesis, the university unanimously proposed to award her a lectureship. This appointment was delayed until 1906, because of political concern over her father, the procurator Werner Woldemar Söderhjelm, and her brother. The Emperor was also concerned that if a woman became a lecturer in Finland, the same demand would be made in Russia.
In 1906, she finally became the first female lecturer in Finland, a position she held until 1926. In 1927, she became chair and Extraordinary Professor of General History at Åbo Akademi University, and thus the first female professor in Finland, a role she held until 1938.
Her major academic works on the revolutionary period include Sverige och den franska revolutionen. Her academic work also involved editing the correspondence of the French Queen Marie Antoinette with the Swedish nobleman von Fersen, published as Fersen et Marie-Antoinette, and with some French revolutionaries, such as the correspondence with Antoine Barnave published in Marie-Antoinette et Barnave. Correspondance secrete. She also edited and published the diary of Axel von Fersen in three volumes. Later in her career, she co-authored a biography of Oscar I with Carl-Fredrik Palmstierna and wrote biographies of Georg Carl von Döbeln and Carl Johan.

Other activities

Söderhjelm worked as a journalist, contributing to several newspapers and writing a column for the newspaper Åbo Underrättelser. She also wrote novels such as Unga träd, poetry, including the collection Tjugu små dikter, and a five-volume memoir which included the titles Min värld and Minä sju magra är.
She co-wrote the screenplay for The Blizzard, directed by Mauritz Stiller. She was awarded the Granberg Prize in 1919, 1928, 1932, 1935, and 1942.
Söderhjelm was politically active. She smuggled journals into Finland from Sweden, and helped military volunteers to move from Sweden into Germany.