Emil och Emilia, Bronze sculpture at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
Emil och Emilia is the nickname for students at Chalmers University of Technology, not a sculpture. The name comes from a student named Emil who was popular with women in the early 1900s; other students began introducing themselves as Emil, and later a female variant, Emilia, was created. Olga Boberg, a cleaner and later porter at Chalmers from 1937 to 1956, was considered the "mother" of Emilia.
Swedish artist Rolf Allan Hakanson created this bronze work in 1979 to mark the 150th anniversary of Chalmers University of Technology. The original version was stolen in 2013, but a new casting was produced using preserved molds and reinstalled on the campus grounds.
Chalmers students are called Emil och Emilia, a name traced to a popular early-1900s student named Emil. Olga Boberg, a cleaner and later porter at Chalmers from 1937 to 1956, was known as Emilia's "mother" and became an honorary member of the student union in 1959. Old students sent her postcards addressed simply to "Olga, Sweden".
The sculpture is freely accessible on the public university grounds and can be visited while walking through campus. Visitors should be aware that the artwork stands outdoors and is exposed to weather conditions, which naturally affects its surface over time.
The name Emil och Emilia refers to Chalmers students, not to the sculpture: it comes from an early 1900s student named Emil who was popular with women, so others introduced themselves as Emil, and Emilia was later coined as the female form. Olga Boberg, a cleaner and later porter at Chalmers from 1937 to 1956, was called Emilia's "mother" and became an honorary member of the student union on 30 November 1959.
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