His early life

Nils Keyland was born in the spring of 1867 as the youngest of six children. The farm was large, but the family was poor. The mother was of Finnish origin, and it was from her that he later took the name Keyland, a Swedish interpretation of the Finnish “Kailainen”. He showed great interest and talent for studies early on, which is why he was allowed to continue his studies. In 1888 he took his matriculation degree in Karlstad, and then went to Uppsala University to continue studying. This was very unusual for someone of Keyland’s background and required great financial sacrifice. However, he continued to show great academic talent and after only two years he obtained his Ph.D. degree.  

After his studies in Uppsala, Keyland went to the USA. He was 23 years old at the time. His plan was to improve language skills and eventually become a teacher. He took various jobs, including as a worker at the railway, to earn a living and to be able to finance his further studies. He then studied as long as the savings were enough and then took work again. For a time he was employed as a teacher of French and Latin, but at times he lived in great poverty, sometimes on the verge of starvation. He had always had a frail physique and life in America took a toll on his health. How badly he was doing eventually showed up in the letters he wrote to his family, and it became clear that they had to get him back home. The family could not afford it, so instead they organised a fundraiser where many parishioners and acquaintances helped, and with those funds, they could finally pay for the trip home across the Atlantic. 

Trips for collecting items 

If I come now, I’ll come at the eleventh hour…
But the clock has not yet struck twelve.
I must use the minutes.  

Nils Keyland till Arthur Hazelius (Nordiska Museet) 1898

After the time in the USA and the subsequent period of illness, Keyland eventually got a job through an acquaintance at the Nordic Museum. In 1898, he set out on behalf of the museum on a combined study and collection trip. The aim was to collect objects connected to the lives of the Forest Fins. These would then be exhibited at Skansen to depict the life and culture of the forest Finns. During five months he covered 300 miles, mostly on foot. During the days he wandered, talked and collected and during the nights he documented what he learned in text and sketches. It was also around this time that Keyland learned and began recording the music of the area. Arthur Hazelius and the Nordic Museum had free shipping on the state’s railways, so Keyland filled one train car after another with finds and objects that were sent to Skansen – including a whole smoke sauna from Lekvattnet. 

An estimated quarter of the Värmland objects in the Nordic Museum’s collections were collected by Nils Keyland. Both Nils Keyland himself and other employees at the Nordic Museum were children of their time and coloured by the nationalist thoughts and ideas of that time. The narrow delimitation that was made when it came to what was Swedish and what was Finnish would certainly have looked different today.

The documentation trips and his newfound interest in cultural history and ethnology were initially conceived as an intermission in Keyland’s life. From the beginning, his intention was to return to the teaching profession, but instead his career took an unexpected turn. Over the years there were more trips, not only to Finnskogen in Värmland, but also to Hälsingland, Dalarna and Härjedalen. In addition, he wrote several books on the subject and from 1912 he worked as curator at the Nordic Museum, and at that time he was mostly living in Stockholm. 

Photos 

The camera was an important tool for Keyland’s work in Finnskogen, and with the camera he was able to depict life and people in the Finnish districts. FRom the beginning he was an amateur, but eventually developed into a skilled photographer. At first he had a photographer from the Nordic Museum that helped him. What distinguishes Keyland’s photos in particular is that they depict not only buildings and objects, but also the people who used them, something that was unusual at the time. What is even more distinctive about the photographs is that they also portray women.  

Keyland’s photos received a lot of criticism for often being arranged. Some of them are simply staged and depict traditions that were no longer in use, but were described by older generations. In some images there are also people who have been dressed up as Forest Fins.

If you want to see more of Keyland’s photos, you can see parts of the Nordic Museum’s collections here: https://digitaltmuseum.se/021098228097/nils-keyland  

Music  

During his travels in Finnskogen, Keyland came into contact with the local music, but it was probably nothing new to him. Mangskog and especially Bjurbäcken, where he grew up, was strongly associated with the Swedish accordion called “durspel”, and there must have been one in almost every cottage. It was of course also the “durspel” that Keyland himself played, although he is also said to have played and owned a violin (this information is of a more uncertain nature). He and his friend Ludvig Mattsson, who went along on several of Keyland’s later trips during the early 20th century, wrote down and thus preserved much of Värmland’s music from Finnskogen into the present day. Keyland also composed his own music and it is said that he enjoyed dancing a Norwegian dance called “halling”. During his time at the Nordic Museum, it was mostly Keyland that got fiddlers from all over Sweden to come to Skansen.  

Photos from digitalmuseum.se where nothing else is stated, Public Domain.