This thesis investigates the debate in the Swedish parliament (Riksdag) and the depiction of the newspapers at the time of the imposition of the Swedish state institute of racial biology in 1921. The thesis also aims to investigate what arguments were used for and against the institute and if the depictions of the newspapers were any different depending of their political standpoints. The investigation is based on material from three national newspapers, a government bill, and the protocol from the debates in the riksdag. The theoretical approach is based on phenomenology and the approach of history of mentalities, in order to see the 1920’s norms and attitudes in the right way. The conclusion of the thesis is that the debate was almost non-existent, both in the newspaper and in the political space. The main argument for an institute was the protection of the Swedish race, whereof the main argument against a state institute were financial and the approach that the institute could be integrated with an already existing department of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The newspapers were quite silent about all this as well and only published the decisions from the riksdag. However, one of them also published an exchange of opinions between Herman Lundborg and C G Santesson, whose debate comprised arguments of the organisation of the institute. The norms and attitudes were found to be more about science and slightly about nationalism, whereas what we nowadays call racism seemed to not be included at all.

This thesis examines the current methodological approaches to digital access and dissemination of eugenics archives. It looks in-depth at four institutions from around the world which provide some means of digital access to a specific eugenics collection that they control: the Wellcome Collection within the Wellcome Library in London, the Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement founded in part by the Cold Springs Laboratory in New York, the Canadian Eugenics Archive, and the State Institute for Race Biology at the Uppsala University Library Special Collections in Sweden. The complexity of archival methodology and thought has evolved over the course of the past few decades, with more and more institutions recognizing the historical bias of their collections and many working towards combating these biases to bridge knowledge gaps and provide more detailed and nuanced understanding of their materials. With the development of the internet, and the pressure for heritage institutions to turn towards more digital methods of dissemination of their collections, there has been fierce debate as to good practices towards implementing these digital means of access and dissemination. Collections which contain historically problematic materials, such as eugenics collections, can make digitization and digital methodologies particularly difficult. This thesis serves as a groundwork for the development of good institutional methodologies in terms of digitization of eugenics-related materials by comparing the available methodologies employed by four institutions holding materials which were particularly significant during the period of legally applied eugenics on their respective populations.

This dissertation examines two daily newspapers’ representations of eugenics from the incipient racial biological investigation 1919 until 1958, and the State Institute for Racial Biology is reorganized. The dissertation also aims to examine whether there are any distinct turning points where the newspapers distance themselves from the ideas and the research of eugenics. The analysis material is based on newspaper articles from two national dailies, i.e., Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter. The theoretical framework and method are based on Fairclough’s discourse theory and analysis to observe and elucidate how eugenics is represented over a longer period of time. The conclusion of the dissertation is that the newspapers continuously designate racial biology as something unique and being the salvation from degeneration until Herman Lundborg resigns as head of the institute. After Gunnar Dahlberg took over the managerial position the activities at the Institute changed course and the research undertaken there became engaged in medical genetics and social medicine instead of racial biology. The main argument for the establishment of the institute was that it would provide protection for the Swedish race. The norms and attitudes were more about the science and somewhat about nationalism, while what we now call racism did not seem to be included at all. The discourses about racial biology that have arisen have been maintained in society through the newspapers, as the recipients have been continuously fed with praiseworthy and warning words. This fits with Foucault’s reasoning and theory which he clarifies the fact that discourses are conditioned by how society discusses about something that over time has been an influence on how people are classified or treated by the newspapers that maintains it.