The Centre for Business History is conducting a book project where the life of Per Olof (Pelle) Söderberg (1836-1881) is told and highlighted in its industrial history context. The purpose of the project is to document and tell Per Olof Söderberg's biography based on new research. He is one of several successful entrepreneurs who shaped the Swedish business community in the 19th century, as well as a leading figure in the Söderberg family and one of Sweden's first commercial agents at the national level. The project also aims to fill a gap - Sweden's economic development in the 19th century has been studied from a number of perspectives, but biographies of individual entrepreneurs, in which the role of individuals is analyzed in a larger historical context, are all the more rare.

The project is divided into two stages, the first of which is research focusing on a number of primary sources, identified within the framework of a research preparation project in 2017 with the support of the Torsten Söderberg Foundation. These sources (private material, public archives, various utility archives, newspaper material, etc.) have largely not been analyzed before. In connection with the research work, text production takes place. The second stage of the project is book production with editorial work, image research, layout and printing. During the project, two seminars will be organized with representatives of CfN and other stakeholders to evaluate sources and manuscripts. The book about Pelle Söderberg will be published by Förlaget Näringslivshistoria and will be presented at the Gothenburg Book Fair in 2019.