Austin, Travis County
Swante Palm, (1815 - 1899) vice consul to Texas for Sweden and Norway from 1866 until his death, built a small house on Ash Street (now 9th Street) in the 1850s. It was a repository for palm’s extensive book collection and served as the Swedish Consulate, where Palm gave assistance to Swedish immigrants. To accommodate his ever-growing library, Palm enlarged the house in 1879. He donated his 10,000 volume collection the University of Texas in 1897, increasing the school’s holdings by over sixty percent. Palm’s house was razed in 1958. (1991)