Clas Ohlson company was founded in 1918 by the technically minded Clas Ohlson (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna. Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold, thus allowing people who lived in rural communities to obtain literature that would otherwise be unavailable. He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926, but it was not until 1989, when the company opened a store in a shopping centre in central Stockholm, that it expanded into the retail business. The first store outside Sweden was opened 1991 in Oslo in Norway and in 1999, the
Midsummer Carnival Shaft (Clas) it as they pass by, rather than being viewed for long periods of time. Alfred C. Clas was born in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1860. As Clas was a local architect and city planner at the time, he was a good choice to create the publicly located sculpture. Clas was also a partner of a local architecture firm in Milwaukee, called Ferry&Clas, and the two architects were responsible for much of the city planning and development that was happening at the time. Clas was a member of City Park Board, and designed the Milwaukee Auditorium and other public buildings. The