Amos Anderson


Amos Valentin Anderson was the owner of Finland's largest Swedish-language newspaper, Hufvudstadsbladet, and a patron of the arts. He was the son of farmer Anders Johan Anderson and Alina Lindblom.
Amos Anderson grew up in the Southwestern Archipelago of Finland and studied business in Turku. He started his career in insurance, and spent two years in continental Europe studying finance and insurance in Göttingen and London from 1900 to 1902, and in Berlin in 1904. He began as an actuary for the insurance company Teollisuus-Palo from 1902 to 1907.He started in press in 1905 by publishing Mercator, a professional magazine for the insurance sector which he ran until 1946. He was also the publisher for Finsk Tidskrift from 1908 to 1940. His career with daily newspapers started in 1911 with Dagens Tidning, and he was editor-in-chief of Hufvudstadsbladet from 1922 to 1945. In 1909 he founded a printing house together with Viktor Ek and J. O. Wasastjerna.
Anderson was a Member of Parliament in 1922–1927 and a presidential elector in 1937, 1940 and 1943.
The story has it that Amos Anderson had two sides to his personality: by day he was a determined businessman, and by night sensitive and sociable patron of the arts and culture. He sponsored refurbishments of churches in Turku, Pargas and Kimito, and repairs of the Swedish theatre in Helsinki. He collected 250 works of modern art, which he left in his will to a foundation he founded, Konstsamfundet.
In 1913, Anderson commissioned architects Wäinö Palmqvist and Einar Sjöström to design a building on Yrjönkatu. The building would function as both Anderson's private living quarters and office space for his businesses. After Anderson's death in 1961, the building was converted into Amos Anderson Art Museum which opened its doors to the public in 1965.
In the 1920s, Anderson acquired the Tamminiemi villa on the western shore of Helsinki, which he donated in 1940 to the state to act as one of the official residences of the President of Finland. It served in this role until 1986, when, following the death of President Kekkonen, it was converted to a museum.

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