Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen
Encyclopedia
Hanna Maria Resvoll-Holmsen (née Resvoll) (September 11, 1873 in Vågå
, Oppland
– March 13, 1943 in Oslo
) was a Norwegian
botanist – a female pioneer in Norwegian
natural history
education and nature conservation together with her sister, Thekla Resvoll
. She was first married to Hans Dieset (divorced 1901), then from 1909 to state geologist Gunnar Holmsen (1880-1976), brother of her sister’s husband.
Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen suffered much from illness in her childhood and school attention after her 12th year was sporadic. She took high school exam 1902, at which time she had also an unhappy marriage behind her. She studied natural history
at the Royal Frederik’s University
in Kristiania
and graduated in botany
in 1910. From 1921, she was docent in plant geography at the same university
, a position she held until her retirement in 1938.
Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen participated as a botanist in the Svalbard
expedition in 1907 lead by the oceanographer
Prince Albert
. The next year she went to Svalbard
alone mainly to take photographs, partly in colour. These photographs constitute a uniqueearly documentation of Svalbard
’s nature. Her botanical
observations were first published as Observations botaniques in Monaco
, later in Norwegian
as Svalbards Flora (1927) – the first flora
of this archipelago.
Using Christen C. Raunkiær
’s quantitative methods, she made a large vegetation survey of Norwegian
alpine
vegetation
, published as Om Fjeldvegetationen i det Østenfjeldske Norge (On the mountain vegetation in Norway east of the Scandes; 1920). She was particularly interested in the subalpine
birch
forests. She published an essay Om betydningen av det uensartede i våre skoger (On the significance of heterogeneity in forests), which made plead for the conservation of natural mountain forest and criticized its replacement by spruce
plantations. This pamphlet caused much animosity against her among foresters.
Together with the geologist Adolf Hoel, she was behind the first designation of a conservation area in Svalbard
. She was a strong advocate for nature conservation in the Norwegian
mountains. She is known in Norwegian
conservation circles as the country’s first green stocking.
The buttercup species Ranunculus resvoll-holmseniae
(Ranunculaceae
) has been named to her honour.
Vågå
Vågå is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vågåmo....
, Oppland
Oppland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration is in Lillehammer. Oppland is, together with Hedmark, one of the only two landlocked counties of Norway....
– March 13, 1943 in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
) was a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
botanist – a female pioneer in Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
education and nature conservation together with her sister, Thekla Resvoll
Thekla Resvoll
Thekla Susanne Ragnhild Resvoll was a Norwegian botanist – a female pioneer in Norwegian natural history education and nature conservation together with her sister, Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen. She was married to mining engineer Andreas Holmsen .Resvoll was born in Vågå...
. She was first married to Hans Dieset (divorced 1901), then from 1909 to state geologist Gunnar Holmsen (1880-1976), brother of her sister’s husband.
Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen suffered much from illness in her childhood and school attention after her 12th year was sporadic. She took high school exam 1902, at which time she had also an unhappy marriage behind her. She studied natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
at the Royal Frederik’s University
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
in Kristiania
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
and graduated in botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
in 1910. From 1921, she was docent in plant geography at the same university
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
, a position she held until her retirement in 1938.
Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen participated as a botanist in the Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
expedition in 1907 lead by the oceanographer
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
Prince Albert
Albert I, Prince of Monaco
Albert I was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 10 September 1889 until his death.-Early life:...
. The next year she went to Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
alone mainly to take photographs, partly in colour. These photographs constitute a uniqueearly documentation of Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
’s nature. Her botanical
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
observations were first published as Observations botaniques in Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
, later in Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
as Svalbards Flora (1927) – the first flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
of this archipelago.
Using Christen C. Raunkiær
Christen C. Raunkiær
Christen Christensen Raunkiær was a Danish botanist, who was a pioneer of plant ecology. He is mainly remembered for his scheme of plant strategies to survive an unfavourable season and his demonstration that the relative abundance of strategies in floras largely corresponded to the Earth's...
’s quantitative methods, she made a large vegetation survey of Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
alpine
Alpine climate
Alpine climate is the average weather for a region above the tree line. This climate is also referred to as mountain climate or highland climate....
vegetation
Vegetation
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...
, published as Om Fjeldvegetationen i det Østenfjeldske Norge (On the mountain vegetation in Norway east of the Scandes; 1920). She was particularly interested in the subalpine
Subalpine
The subalpine zone is the biotic zone immediately below tree line around the world. Species that occur in this zone depend on the location of the zone on the Earth, for example, Snow Gum in Australia, or Subalpine Larch, Mountain Hemlock and Subalpine Fir in western North America.Trees in the...
birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
forests. She published an essay Om betydningen av det uensartede i våre skoger (On the significance of heterogeneity in forests), which made plead for the conservation of natural mountain forest and criticized its replacement by spruce
Norway Spruce
Norway Spruce is a species of spruce native to Europe. It is also commonly referred to as the European Spruce.- Description :...
plantations. This pamphlet caused much animosity against her among foresters.
Together with the geologist Adolf Hoel, she was behind the first designation of a conservation area in Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
. She was a strong advocate for nature conservation in the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
mountains. She is known in Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
conservation circles as the country’s first green stocking.
The buttercup species Ranunculus resvoll-holmseniae
Ranunculus
Ranunculus is a large genus of about 600 species of plants in the Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus include the buttercups, spearworts, water crowfoots and the lesser celandine....
(Ranunculaceae
Ranunculaceae
Ranunculaceae are a family of about 1700 species of flowering plants in about 60 genera, distributed worldwide....
) has been named to her honour.
Selected scientific works
- Les observations botaniques de la campagne scientifique de S.A.S. le Prince Albert 1er de Monaco. La misión Isachsen au Spitzberg 1907. MonacoMonacoMonaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
, 1910. - Om Fjeldvegetationen i det Østenfjeldske Norge. Arkiv for matematik og naturvidenskap 1920/No. 2.
- Svalbards Flora - med en del om dens plantevekst i nutid og fortid. 56 pp. 1927.
- Om betydningen av det uensartede i våre skoger. Tidsskrift for Skogbruk 1932, 40: 270-275.
Sources
- Obituary by Christophersen, E. in Blyttia 1: 100-102 (1943).
- Eckblad, F.-E. (1991) Thekla Resvoll og Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen, to glemte? Pionerer i norsk botanikk. Blyttia 49: 3-10.
- Biography by Bredo Berntsen & Inger Nordal in Norsk biografisk leksikon, Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget (1999-2005)
- Berntsen, Bredo (2006) En grønnstrømpe og hennes samtid: Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen: botaniker, Svalbard-forsker, fjellelsker, fotograf og naturvernpioner. ISBN 82-8030-008-2