She is referred to as the first Swedish woman to have performed scientific studies in zoology.

She was employed as a teacher at the Paulis elementarläroverk för flickor ('Pauli Elementary For Girls') in 1870–81 and at Södermalms högre läroanstalt för flickor ('Södermalm Educational Institute for Girls') in 1881–1907.

From 1880 onward, Carlsson studied zoology at the Zootomycal institute at the Stockholm University.

She produced circa 30 larger and smaller scientific work mainly about the area of comparative anatomy, which was published in Swedish, German and British scientific papers.

In 1884, she shared the award Flormanska priset of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for her German language work Beiträge zur Kentniss der Anatomie der Schwimmvögel (1884).