Born: 23 April 1859, Finland
Died: 25 December 1927
Country most active: Finland
Also known as: Elin Oihonna Waenerberg
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Pioneer of women’s gymnastics in Finland. She was born in 1859 Helsinki. Her father was a high-school teacher, and she grew up in a deeply religious home. After finishing school, Elin, at the age of seventeen, graduated as a teacher of gymnastics. She established in Helsinki a women’s athletic club, the first of its kind in northern Europe.
She continued for forty years as the president of this club. After finishing her athletic training abroad, she was appointed teacher of gymnastics at the girls’ high-school in Helsinki, a position she occupied until 1926. In 1886 she married a fellow-teacher, Mr. A. H. Kallio. She died in 1927. The importance of the life-work of Elin Kallio lies in the fact that she extended the interest for gymnastics to the masses of the people, established several athletic clubs for women and prepared teachers for them, and published valuable guide-books on the subject.
Even during her life-time she was generally called the “Mother of woman’s gymnastics in Finland.”