On 13 January 1899, the newspaper Jämtlandsposten published a peculiar article, which it described as a “a treatise that will make a stir throughout Scandinavia, if not in the whole of the civilised world”. Entitled The Storsjön Lake Monster: a report on the facts and investigation, it was written by the senior master of science at the secondary grammar school in Östersund, Peter Olsson, and was soon published as an offprint. In the article, senior master Olsson scientifically explains the reports of a mystical lake monster reputed to live in Storsjön in Jämtland that reached an almost feverish intensity in the summer of 1899. Today, such a report would be justifiably classed as “cryptozoology” and pseudoscience, but as far as can be determined it was taken very seriously in its time. And the article becomes even more interesting when you consider that Peter Olsson was not only a secondary grammar school senior master, but also associate professor of zoology at Lund University.
Peter Olsson in academia and Jämtland
Peter Olsson was born in Hörja, a small town north-west of Hässleholm, on 11 December 1838. His father, Ola Nilsson, was a tenant farmer, who in return for rent cultivated land that was owned by someone else. Peter’s mother was called Bengta Nilsdotter. However, the family was not so poor that the family could not send the son off to study, and on 11 September 1858, Peter Olsson was enrolled at Lund University and in the Skånska student nation’s sixth – Kristianstad – section. Peter would spend nearly seven years at Lund University, but on the other hand he gained his degrees in quick succession; he was awarded his Degree of Bachelor in Philosophy on 15 March 1865, publicly defended his doctoral thesis on 31 May with the title Observations on the digestive organs of some species of the mouse family, and his PhD was conferred on June 7 the same year. Olsson’s grades, however, were somewhat mediocre, and his thesis merely gained a pass. |
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