The civil servant and politician Gunnar Wennerberg (1817-1901), is perhaps better known today as a writer, poet, and composer than as a minister and governor. He was a member of both the Swedish Academy and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. His contemporaries described him as a remarkable person in many ways, immensely versatile and also stylish.

The original Gunnar Wennerberg statue was intended to be erected in Uppsala. The background was a competition between the sculptors Carl Eldh and Theodor Lundberg, announced by the Uppsala Student Union in 1909. Eldh's proposal was rejected by the prize committee while Lundberg was declared the winner. Lundberg received the commission despite protests, and his statue was subsequently erected in 1911 on Slottsbacken in Uppsala.

Knut Nyblom (1870-1949) was a Swedish writer, director, actor, opera singer, composer and lyricist. After graduating from Uppsala in 1888, he studied law at Uppsala University and sang in the Orphei Drängar choir, of which he was historiographer for many years.