Norway’s Industrial Beginnings: New Life Challenges, Recurring Poverty, and the Path to Tukthuset, Oslo House of Corrections

Loss of identity in nineteenth‐century Norway: Oslo's House of Correction

“…Inhabitants of the HoC were not always there by choice, but were always there as a result of dire circumstance (Hals 2010; Harby 1990). Warehoused in intolerable conditions, they might even be used for anatomical study in death (Madden & Drew 2020). Thus, an individual could possibly be detained for ever.…”

“…Handwritten bag‐tags were thus the only consistently recorded field notes, stored within each of the original boxes of remains. These cards have now been mostly discarded by an intern who re‐boxed the remains in 2016/17 (Madden & Drew 2020: 163); a few document cards were rescued whenever our periodic visits overlapped with the intern. The accession numbers have no relation to the chronological and spatial contexts assigned during excavation.…”

“…Their treatment can be interpreted as a continuation of disregard for unclaimed inmates of the HoC: crowded shelter; subjection to forced labour; unclaimed in death; some sliced during anatomical study; interred in the HoC's churchyard; then slated to one day be dis‐interred by well‐meaning but busy municipal workers. Even a commemorative plaque, placed boldly on an exemplar section (made of pink granite) of the Oslo HoC wall, contains needless errors: the dates the institution was in use are off by 100 years (Madden & Drew 2020: 162), and even the north arrow points northwest (Fig. 5).…”

“…Human skeletal remains from the Oslo HoC churchyard represent approximately 314 individuals who died as inmates, and were not claimed by family. The individuals range from isolated elements and commingled remains to about 100 fairly complete skeletons (Madden & Drew 2020). This assemblage is unique: Norway does not safeguard disturbed remains post-1536 (Harby 1990).…”

“…Eighty-five remains are from females; 123 are from probable males; forty-five individuals, represented by few elements, are categorized as young adult, adult, or older adult; and thirty are not attributable to any age or sex (see Table 1). The above totals include remains used for surgical training and anatomical study: at least nine individuals are represented by 446 skeletal elements from the AI boxes, in which elements have saw marks, or were sawn into sections (Madden & Drew, 2020). AI remains include a non-adult, an adult female, a young adult male, and six possible adult males.…”