[1] Born in Stockholm, he was the son of Bror Emil Hildebrand and Anna Mathilda Ekecrantz.

He worked both in archaeology and numismatics, mainly of the High and Late Middle Ages.

Whilst at the Academy of Letters he contributed to the foundation of the journal Fornvännen.

[3] He gave the Rhind Lectures in 1896, on "Industrial arts of Scandinavia in pagan times".

He was the father of historian Karl Hildebrand (1870-1952) and philanthropist Hedvig Elisabeth Carlander (1875-1961).