The establishment of Swedish public libraries belongs to the prehistory of cultural policy. The efforts of the pioneer figure Valfrid Palmgren, have been described in strikingly incoherent way by previous research. We have to consider the significance of her right-wing political affiliation in sufficient detail. The present essay places her library program in the conservative Bildung-aspirations of the turn of the century, and relates her books and articles to the existential challenges that the emergence of modern Sweden posed to society-preserving educational aristocrats. After the dissolution of the Union with Norway 1905, conservatives sought to bring about a national restoration through the formulation of an ideal of Bildung. They acted in accordance with the tradition of national Bildung from Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Faced with the challenges of modernity and industrialization, some reformed-oriented conservative strived for a transformation of the ideals of culture – a democratization – from the few to the many.