Ellisif Wessel

Ellisif Ranveig Wessel, née Müller (14 July 1866 – 28 November 1949) was a Norwegian writer, trade unionist and politician for the Labour Party.

Biography She was born in Østre Gausdal Municipality as a daughter of district physician Wilhelm Jacobi Müller (1830–1909) and Hansine Pauline Ross (1830–1907). The family moved three times before she was ten, but she finished middle school at Nissen School in 1882. In March 1886 in Dovre Municipality she married her first cousin Andreas Wessel (1858–1940), a newly educated physician. The couple moved to Kirkenes, where Wessel had been hired as district physician of Sør-Varanger Municipality. They had seven children, but all died young.

She started a documentary effort, especially as a photographer of the scenery and human life. Her documentation of the Sami culture, among others in the 1902 book Fra vor grændse mod Rusland, has been deemed "invaluable". When travelling around she also became more aware of the widespread poverty in the region, and became a political activist. Having voted Liberal in her early adulthood, she aligned with the Labour Party from 1904. After the Russian Revolution she and her husband supported the Soviet Union, but never joined the Communist Party.

She died in 1949 at Kirkenes, and was buried in the town, where her grave is visited by a parade on May Day.