Tidaholm

Historically, the city was known as Agnetorp. Tidaholm was detached from Baltak parish as a merchant town (köping) in 1895. It was established as the city of Tidaholm in 1910, and it has servd as the seat of the much larger Tidaholm Municipality since 1974. In 1997, its county name changed as well, when Skaraborg County merged with the counties of Gothenburg, Bohus and Älvsborg to form Västra Götaland County.[3]

Up until the early 19th century, Tidaholm was primarily a farming community but, in 1799, an ironworks factory (Tidaholms bruk) was established on the site of the Holmagarden forge, which had roots dating back to the Middle Ages, and merged with several other business to manufacture furniture, wagons and agricultural implements. Nearly a century later, one of the bicycle-making Lindstrom brothers spent time in the United States, studying the early car industry. Once he returned to Sweden, the Tidaholmsbilen (the Tidaholm car) was the result, with most of the parts made at Tidaholms Bruk. Between 1903 and 1934, the factory produced about 1,000 cars, including trucks, buses, fire trucks and other heavy vehicles, known as "Tidaholmarna,"and seen as far afield as Oslo and St. Petersburg.[4]

In 1868, the Vulcan match factory (Tändsticksfabrik AB Vulcan), was founded on Vulcan Island one of Tidaholm's islands in the Tidan River. Although they started with a little over 100 workers, by the early 1900s, it had become the largest manufacturer of matches in the world, and was employing more than 1,000 workers.[5] Nowadays, Vulcan Tidaholm is the only remaining match factory in Sweden, with roughly 200 employees. Although the Lithographic Art Workshop has taken over its former headquarters, it carries on Tidaholm's tradition of the lithographic arts that began with the design of intricate matchbox labels.[5]

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  The city's first fire trucks, in the late 1920s.
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  A Tidaholm steam locomotive, 1906.
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  A Tidaholm truck from 1927.
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  A Tidaholm bus from 1925.
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  Tidaholm delivery trucks, n.d.
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  Tidaholm fire engine from 1929.
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  A Tidaholm mail truck from 1912.
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  A Vulcan poster, from 1894 to 1907.

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  Tidaholm's town square.
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  The City Hall, designed by Gotthard Ålander. Photo by Harri Blomberg.
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  Rudbeck High School (Rudbecksgymnasiet) in Tidaholm, along the Tidan River.
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  Tidaholms Church.
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  The Vättaks Church belfry.
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  Varola's old general store was donated to the Tidaholm Museum.
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  Site of Agnetorps Parish ruins in Tidaholm.
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  Agnetorp Parish ruins in Tidaholm.

• Litografiska Muséet
• Tidaholm Museum
• Swedish matchbook design
• Västergötlands museum