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Crafting a Legacy

The life and work of

Olof Althin

by Erica Lome, Ph. D.

oday, few people outside of the antiques trade recognize the
name Olof Althin (1859-1920), a Swedish-born cabinetmaker
Tactive in Boston at the turn of the twentieth century. Known
primarily for his beautiful carved furniture and his accurate reproductions Olof Althin
of antiques, Althin was also responsible for restoring two of the great in his workshop

collections of Early American furniture, now at the Metropolitan photo: private
Museum of Art, New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. collection
To the delight of this historian, Althin left behind his business records,
furniture designs, objects, woodworking tools, and personal effects, in
addition to his workbench. These rare survivals will be featured in the
upcoming exhibition, American by Craft: The Furniture of Olof Althin,
at the American Swedish Historical Museum this summer. Together, they
help to tell the story of a creative, industrious immigrant working at the
peak of America's craft revival.
Boston was also far more welcoming to immigrant cabinetmakers,
Across the Pond professionally speaking, than other American cities. While large
factories and industrialized production in the Midwest had all but
Olof Althin’s story began as
a familiar tale of immigration obliterated the small cabinet shop in places like New York or
Philadelphia, Boston retained a strong local furniture market, reflecting
to America. Born in Sweden, the tastes of its wealthy, socially elite community. These customers
Althin trained as a cabinetmak- preferred quality, handmade furniture – and by the end of the 19th
er through a traditional century, most American-born workers lacked the training to produce
apprenticeship, learning to them. Skilled foreign craftsmen quickly moved to fill this vacancy and
make furniture by joining, came to dominate the high-end furniture trade in Boston and elsewhere
turning, and carving wood by
hand. Rather than remain in in the United States.
the farming village of Despite fierce competition from his fellow Swedes and other
Nobbelov, the potential for immigrant groups, young Olof Althin secured employment at
upward mobility brought 22- the cabinetmaking firm
year-old Althin to Boston in Evans & Toombs
1881. The location and timing before becoming the
were auspicious: by the late foreman at Doe,
nineteenth century, Boston Hunnewell & Co,
had emerged as a center of the which made furniture
American Arts & Crafts move- A sample of furniture in
ment, home to a cohort of Althin’s Showroom

designers and educators look-
Olof Althin with his wife Beata ing to reform society and man- The Winthur Library,
and their daughter Bessie Joseph Downs Collection
ufacturing through the promo- of Manuscripts and
photo: Winterthur Library tion of traditional handicrafts. Printed Ephemera

12 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles