Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen

Hanna Marie Resvoll-Holmsen (née Resvoll) (11 September 1873 in

.

Life

Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen suffered much from illness in her childhood and school attendance after her 12th year was sporadic. She took a high school exam in 1902, at which time she had also an unhappy marriage behind her. She studied

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 led by the oceanographer Prince Albert. The next year she went to Svalbard alone mainly to take photographs, partly in colour. These photographs constitute a unique early 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

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.

Resvoll-Holmsen was first married to Hans Dieset (divorced 1901), then from 1909 to state geologist Gunnar Holmsen (1880–1976), brother of her sister's husband.

The

) has been named to her honour.

Photographs

• 
  Research trip in Troms 1912
• 
  1 January 1907
• 
  Between 1909 and 1912
• 
  15 September 1909.
• 
  Between 15 June 1930 and 15 August 1930
• 
  1933 Mysuseter, Sell
• 
  17 July 1916
• 
  15 June 1923 and 15 August 1923.
• 
  12 April 1927
• 
  1920. Klingsund og Jæren
• 
  21 September 1909
• 
  21 August 1909

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. Monaco, 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

External links

• Norwegian biography with photos
• Norwegian article with photos