Prince Nikolaus August, Duke of Darlana

A carte-de-visite portrait of Prince Nikolaus August, Duke of Dalarna (1831-1873), the youngest of the five children of King Oscar I of Sweden.

Born in Drottningholm Palace, his eldest sibling became King Carl XV of Sweden in 1859. During parts of 1849-1853, Prince August was a student at Uppsala University. On 10 December 1851, he was made an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

On 16 April 1864 in Altenburg, the Prince married Princess Therese Amalie of Saxe-Altenburg, Duchess of Saxony, the eldest daughter of Prince Eduard of Saxe-Altenburg. The marriage did not produce children.

The Prince was very interested in trains and a locomotive was named after him. Since it was commonly thought the Prince was not very bright, this led to the expression ‘dummare än tåget’ (lit. ‘dumber than the train’), an expression still used in the Swedish language.

Prince August died of pneumonia on 4 March 1873 at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. He was 41 years old.

Photographed by Eurenius and Quist of Stockholm.