 hen the swedish Society of Medicine and the Karolinska Institutet decided to gather their old, rare and important collections of books and manuscripts under one roof in a special medico-historical library, they were proud to name this new institution after one of their most prominent early personages, Anders Johan Hagströmer (17531830), as a mark of his generous donations and self-sacrificing work in the care and development of their libraries. 
Anders Johan Hagströmer The decades of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century represented a turning point in Swedish public administration, the medical profession included. After years marked by war and political disarray in the domestic arena, as well as turmoil in foreign policy, the country now entered a calmer phase. It was during this period that the foundations were laid for the country's current public administration and new institutions were established. A number of physicians took an active role in this development by building up an effective health care system and an educational system that responded to the needs of the time through the establishment of the Royal Caroline Medico-Chirurgical Institute [Karolinska Institutet]. The problems that had to be tackled were overwhelming: epidemics, poverty, poor educational standard, while at the same time methods and means were lacking. Anders Johan Hagström, ennobled Hagströmer in 1812, was a central figure of this period. In his short autobiography with its additional supplements (the original manuscripts are preserved in the Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library), and in an extensive correspondence as well as in the portraits of contemporary biographers we can read about how all this emerged.  In his youth, due to economic difficulties Hagströmer was forced to break off his medical studies at Uppsala under Carl Linnaeus and others, and instead pursued a training as a barber-surgeon in Stockholm. While his days were occupied with monotonous chores at the barber's Hagströmer took advantage of every opportunity to improve himself and read and wrote in his "justus dolor". As a seventeen year-old he published anonymously Förslag till ett Bättre och Lindrigare Lärosätt uti Chirurgien, 1770, a pamphlet that caused a stir, as it severely criticized the surgical training of his time. Essentially self-educated he was conferred a doctor's degree at Åbo [Turku] without having to write a dissertation. Later he became professor of anatomy and surgery in Stockholm a position he held for 42 years, 17821823. He presided over the Chirurgiska Societeten (Society of Surgeons) during its final years from 1795-97 and was a member of the Collegium Medicum from 1785. In 1816 he was named Medical Director of the reorganized National Health Board, the Sundhetskollegium, where he was in charge of the military division. He was named director-general for the Swedish district hospitals in 1808. Hagströmer was a regimental surgeon and had a sizeable practice in Stockholm. He was a physician at Danviken hospital for grown-ups and children as well as lunatics for 31 years and served as a physician for the poor at various periods. He was one of the physicians summoned to the Royal Opera following the shooting of Gustav III and cared for the dying king on a daily basis thereafter.  During the wars against Russia 1788-90 and 1808-09 Hagströmer was in charge of the hastely arranged emergency educational programmes for army surgeons. He was a co-founder of the Royal Caroline Medico-Chirurgical Institute, the predecessor of today's Karolinska Institutet, and he became its first inspector. Hagströmer was particularly keen on raising the competence of army surgeons. With fresh memories of his own study experience, he was particularly sympathetic to his "poor and diligent pupils". Hagströmer began collecting books, anatomical preparations and surgical instruments at an early age for educational purposes. He donated his collections in 1807 that they would be available for students and colleagues at the "Theatrum Anatomicum". When the Medico-Chirurgical Institute moved to its new premises in Stockholm's Kungsholmen district in 1816, Hagströmer took up residence there, wall to wall with the library and the anatomical and surgical collections, a great part of which was donated by himself. In the autumn of his life, physically handicapped, he kept himself occupied by listing the collections. In 1825 he published at his own expence a catalogue of the books, manuscripts and instruments the first and only published catalogue of the Karolinska Institute Library. At the same time, he continued to exchange letters with his former students on their travels abroad requesting the purchase of books and instruments. Throughout his life Hagströmer was a prolific writer and disseminator of knowledge. Even as a "chier studiosis" he wrote a compendium of the newest scientific results for the benefit of himself and his fellow students. This filled a gap created by the lack of textbooks for many years. His many papers were published primarily in the transactions of the Swedish Academy of Science (member 1788, president 1791 and 1795), and the Patriotic Society (member 1780, chairman 1769), and in the Weckoskrift för Läkare och Naturforskare, a weekly journal started by Hagströmer and Johan Kraak in 1781, which came to find a broad readership. Hagströmer was one of the seven co-founders of the Swedish Society of Medicine (Svenska Läkaresällskapet) and took an active role in its activities as well as he was a generous donator. Hagströmer was noted for his generosity and was esteemed by colleagues and students. Equipped with a sturdy physique, sound judgement, and a burning desire, he lived up to the demands of the time with exceptional decisiveness. His duties continued to mount throughout his lifetime, but as Hagströmer stated in his own words: "My tasks gave me a great pleasure". 
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by Anne-Sophie Gadd
Stockholm, Hagströmer Biblioteket, 1999