Gahn is a Swedish family, one member of which was ennobled in 1809 with the name Gahn af Colquhoun. The family has claimed an unverified origin in a Scottish family Colquhoun, a claim which was confirmed 1781 in a letter by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, but on dubious grounds, as later research has shown. A claim that the Swedish noble family Canonhielm is a branch of this family has also been shown to lack genealogical substance. Arms of the Office of the Lord Lyon The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that kingdom, issuing new grants of arms, and...

Notable members of the family include:

• Johan Gottlieb Gahn (1745-1818), chemist and mineralogist who discovered manganese in 1774, and after whom the mineral gahnite was named.
• Henrik Gahn (1747-1816), physician and student of Linnaeus, who pioneered the use of vaccine against smallpox in Sweden in 1803.
• Carl Pontus Gahn, ennobled with the name Gahn af Colquhoun (1759-1825), military officer who participated in the war in Finland in 1788-1789, the campaign in Norway in 1808 and the invasion of Norway in 1814. He became major-general in 1814 and president of the Martial Court of Appeals (Krigshovrätten) in 1824.
• Henrik Gahn (1820-1874), chemist and industrialist, who invented the first antiseptics to be used in Sweden, which he named aseptin and amykos. In 1867 he founded the company Henrik Gahns AB, sold in 1964 to Barnängen (the latter was bought and is now a brand owned by Henkel Norden AB). The brand Gahns was sold to a different company and is still used for hygiene products in Sweden and the other Nordic countries.
• Henrik Gahn (1820-1901), industrialist and politician, member of the Burghers' Estate of the Swedish parliament 1856-1866, and of the First Chamber of the new two-chamber parliament 1874-1892.
• Wolter Gahn (1890-1985), architect, modernist pioneer and co-author of the Swedish modernist manifesto acceptera ("accept!", intentionally with a lowercase initial, 1931). He was one of the two men behind the new Government Chancery building (Kanslihuset) in Stockholm, completed in 1936, but designed earlier and in a classical style adapted to the context of the Stockholm Old Town.

Johan Gottlieb Gahn discovered manganese in 1774. ... General Name, Symbol, Number manganese, Mn, 25 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 7, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Atomic mass 54. ... Gahnite, ZnAl2O4, is a rare mineral belonging to the spinel group. ... Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as  , (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[1] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ... A vaccine is an antigenic preparation used to establish immunity to a disease. ... Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) was a highly contagious viral disease unique to humans. ... Carl Pontus Gahn (1759–1825), ennobled with the name Gahn af Colquhoun, was a Swedish military officer who participated in the Russo-Swedish War in Finland in 1788-1789, the Finnish War campaign in Norway in 1808 and the unsuccessful invasion of Norway at Eidskog in 1814. ... An antiseptic solution of iodine applied to a cut An antiseptic (Greek αντι, against, and σηπτικος, putrefactive) is a substance that prevents the growth and reproduction of various microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses). ... The Henkel Group is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. ... Political map of the Nordic countries and associated territories. ... The parliament building from outside. ...   (IPA: ; UN/LOCODE: SE STO) is the capital of Sweden, and consequently the site of its Government and Parliament as well as the residence of the Swedish head of state, King Carl XVI Gustaf. ... Panoramic view of Gamla stan from the harbour. ...

Trivia

• "Gähn" is German for "yawn".

References

• Nordisk familjebok, Vol. 9 (1908), col. 563-565
• Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon, Vol. 1, p. 378 f
• Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, Vol. 16, p. 728-740.