Ossian Edmund Borg

Ossian Edmund Borg
Born	(1812-08-06)6 August 1812 Hedvig Eleonora Parish, Sweden
Died	10 April 1892(1892-04-10) (aged 79) Stockholm, Sweden
Resting place	Norra begravningsplatsen, Sweden
Alma mater	Uppsala University
Spouse	Anna Sofia Karolina Sadelin ​ ​ (m. 1848)​
Father	Pär Aron Borg

Ossian Edmund Borg (6 August 1812 – 10 April 1892) was a Swedish teacher of the deaf and head of the Manillaskolan school for the deaf. He was the son of Pär Aron Borg, pioneer of deaf schooling in Sweden.

Life and work

Borg was born 6 August 1812 in Hedvig Eleonora Parish, Stockholm, Sweden, to Pär Aron Borg, three years after his father founded Allmänna institutet för döva och blinda å Manilla (Manillaskolan), the first school for the deaf in Sweden.^[1]

Borg began his studies in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1832; he had decided on the medical field and was ready to take his bachelor's degree in medicine when his studies were interrupted due to the death of his father in 1839.^[2] Borg was immediately appointed director and first teacher at the Institute for the Deaf and Blind; he had previously run the institute during his father's trips abroad.^[3] Borg would subsequently devote his entire life to the further expansion and development of the institute.

Special grants from King Oscar I and the Riksdag in 1844 enabled Borg to build a completely new department for the blind, which had previously been housed with the others in the main building, and also to erect a new main building on the site in 1864.^[2]

Borg knew Carl Oscar Malm, a former student at Manillaskolan from Finland who had studied there during Borg's time as director. Malm considered him a role model; he exchanged letters with Malm, providing detailed advice and supporting him in founding the first school for the deaf in Finland, which opened in Porvoo in 1846.^[4][5][3]

On 31 August 1848, Borg married his cousin, Anna Sofia Karolina Sadelin.^[2]

On 3 May 1868, Borg, together with artist Albert Berg [sv] and teacher of the deaf Fritjof Carlbom, founded the Deaf-Mute Society/Stockholms Dövas Förening [sv].^[6][7] He retired in 1875,^[2] but continued to assist at the teacher training college he had founded in Manilla and teaching private lessons in sign language.

Borg died 10 April 1892 in Stockholm and is buried in Norra begravningsplatsen.^[8]

References

1. Prawitz, J. "Pär Aron Borg". Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
2. Prawitz, J. "Ossian Edmund Borg". Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
3. Jossfolk, Karl-Gustav (2001). Bildning för alla: en pedagogikhistorisk studie kring abnormskolornas tillkomst i Finland och deras pionjärer som medaktörer i bildningsprocessen 1846-1892 (PDF) (in Swedish). Svenska skolhistoriska föreningen i Finland, (Nord Print). Helsinki: Svenska skolhistoriska föreningen i Finland. ISBN 952-91-3442-8. OCLC 58384770. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
4. Jossfolk, Karl-Gustav (2017). "Carl Oskar Malm, en döv visionär" (PDF). SFV-kalendern 2017 (in Swedish). 131. Svenska folkskolans vänner. eISSN 2243-0261. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2021.
5. "Kuurojen museo". www.tkm.fi (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
6. "Historia". Sveriges Dövas Riksförbund (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
7. "Malmö Dövas förening 'Svenske' (SE-00000000428 - SEMSA01822)". Archives Portal Europe (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
8. "Borg, OSSIAN EDMUND". www.svenskagravar.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 31 July 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2022.