The Åke Åkerström papers record the scholarly career of this Swedish classical archaeologist. Åkerström's research interests and publications ranged from architectural terracottas in Asia Minor to Etruscan tomb typology to Mycenaean pottery in Greece, and this breadth is reflected in the research notes, photographs, postcards, drawings, correspondence, negatives, manuscripts and typescripts that constitute the Åkerström papers. The archive also serves to document the development of a Swedish national school of classical archaeology in the early twentieth century. A substantial portion of the material in the Åkerström papers did not originate with Åkerström, but with Lennart Kjellberg and Axel W. Persson, scholars of an earlier generation whose work Åkerström continued. Such earlier material, in fact, comprises most of the first series in the Åkerström papers. This series contains the materials used by Åkerström to publish the architectural terracottas from Lennart Kjellberg's excavations at Larisa in Turkey. Much of the material here originated with Kjellberg and was passed to Åkerström after his death. The same holds true for the papers of Axel W. Persson, which comprise the fourth series of this archive. These include a group of Persson's manuscripts and typescripts, both published and unpublished, and photographs relating to his excavations at Dendra and Berbati, as well as research on the work of the early nineteenth-century traveler and antiquarian, Johan Hedenborg. Further Kjellberg, and possibly Persson, material is integrated into Åkerström's research materials, which along with a small group of Åkerström's publication materials, form the second series of his papers. The research material consists of extensive notes and a small photographic archive. It shows the breadth of Åkerström's interests, but concentrations of material also signal Åkerström's special interests, including materials related to his work on architectural terracottas in Asia Minor, such as Klazomenian sarcophagi and vases and Caeretan hydriae, as well as Mycenaean pottery. A small group of reports relating to the Swedish Institute in Athens forms the majority of the third series of the archive.
