Maria Tesch

Hedvig Maria Tesch (23 June 1850 – 5 April 1936) was a Swedish professional photographer who had a studio in Linköping. She specialised in portrait photography, and was successful enough to open a second branch in Eksjö. As a result of her productive and highly successful business, thousands of her photographs remain in the collections of the local museum and county library.

Biography Born in Eksjö on 23 June 1850, Tesch became a photographer and business owner at a young age. It is not clear how she learned her skills. She had spent a month in Stockholm, where she may possibly have trained with established photographer Gösta Florman, and another in Berlin. Tesch moved to Linköping in 1873 where she opened a studio in a building on the corner of Drottninggatan and Nygatan. She ran the Linköping studio until 1917, when she ceded it to Anna Göransson.

By the time she died on 5 April 1936, Tesch had built up a considerable fortune. She left it to the Linköping Association for the Aged and to charities in Eksjö. Today thousands of her photographs are preserved in the local library and the Östergötland County Museum, where some of her equipment can also be seen.