Calla Curman

Curman with fan and two unknown men on the Alhambra palace grounds, in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. Calla Curman (; 12 November 1850 – 2 February 1935) was a Swedish writer, salon-holder and feminist. She was also the founder of Stångehuvud nature reserve and one of the five founders of the women's association Nya Idun.

Family Calla Lundström was born on 12 November 1850 in Jönköping, Sweden, the only child of wealthy industrialist and his wife Sofie Malmberg (1830–1897). She received in-home tutoring from a private tutor. At the age of 17, she married Adolf Liljenroth (1836–1874), a battalion physician, with whom she had two children, and .

A few years after she was widowed, Lundström's parents took her on a trip to Italy. The educated Carl Curman, whom she had met on a visit with her mother to Lysekil during a few summer weeks in 1864, was invited to join them as a guide for the Italian trip. In 1877, she returned to Lysekil, then as Professor Carl Curman's guest. The following year they were married. He had worked as a spa doctor in Lysekil since 1859. With Curman, she had children , Ingrid Fries, Nanna Fries and Carl G. Curman.

Activity Curman was the initiator of the founding of the Nya Idun women's society in 1885; it was founded together with Ellen Fries, Hanna Winge, Ellen Key, and Amelie Wikström.

Curman was also involved in several other issues. Among other things, she was a member of the board of the Friends of Handicraft, founded in 1874, a member of the Swedish Dress Reform Association, a member of the board of the Stockholm Reading Room on Kungsholmen 1898–1900, a member of the board of the ('Society for Unison Singing') 1908–1915, and was on the local board in Stockholm of the ('National Association for the Preservation of Swedishness Abroad') 1918–1924. She became honorary president of the latter association in 1928. She was also an accomplished pianist, publishing her booklet of compositions in 1897 and was one of those calling for the establishment of Mother's Day in 1919. She was awarded the Illis quorum and the Friends of Handicraft Medal.

The Curman villas and the Stångehuvud nature reserve

Curman indignantly points to petroglyphs mistreated by stonecutters in Brastad, Sweden ca. 1907.

In 1878–1880, the Curmans built two villas in the Dragestil style, also known as the , which are characteristic features of Lysekil's townscape.

Works