CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Thomas Fredrik Olsen (born 1857)

Norwegian shipping magnate (1857–1933)

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ7789818 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas Fredrik Olsen (15 October 1857 – 29 January 1933) was a Norwegian businessman and ship owner of Fred. Olsen & Co.

Thomas Fredrik Olsen (commonly known as Fred. Olsen) was born in the village of Filtvet in Hurum municipality, Buskerud County, Norway. Olsen was the son of ship owner Petter Olsen (1821-1899), the father of Gösta Hammarlund, and the grandfather of Fredrik Olsen. He took over as the owner of two of his father's sailing ships, and later invested in steam ships. Fred. Olsen took the company from a small business with a few boats into a powerful multinational shipping and ship building business. Olsen was the major shareholder of the workshop Akers Mek. At the time of his death his company, Fred.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Thomas Fredrik Olsen (born 1857)” is norwegian shipping magnate (1857–1933). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Thomas, Fredrik and Olsen, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1857, 1933, 1821, 1899—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1857-10-15, 1857-09-16—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Thomas, Fredrik and Olsen is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “norwegian shipping magnate (1857–1933)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7789818. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1857, 1933, 1821 and 1899.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Thomas Fredrik Olsen (born 1857)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Thomas Fredrik Olsen (born 1857) primary sources, Thomas Fredrik Olsen (born 1857) archive and Thomas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thomas Fredrik Olsen (born 1857)”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Fredrik Olsen (born 1857)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.