Special Collections
National Library of Finland
A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection
Collection materials in format
Analogue
Digitised
The A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection contains maps, geographical literature, travel accounts and book rarities collected by researcher and explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld in the end of the 19th century.
Collection description
The A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection contains maps, geographical literature, travel accounts and book rarities collected by researcher and explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld in the end of the 19th century. In 1997, the collection was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World registry.
The collection includes a vast range of early cartographic and geographic literature, around 3.870 titles, a few manuscripts and around 24,000 maps. The collection has plenty of literature concerning the Arctic areas, a nearly perfect series of Ptolemy's Atlases and a wide range of literature on the discovery of America. The collection illustrates the growth of geographic information in the West. It is is one of the most perfect collections in the world illustrating the development of modern cartography.
Collection languages
Material type
journals
Maps
Books
Accrual status
Completed
Temporal coverage of the collection
Antiquity the Middle Ages beginning of the modern age modern age (turn of the 18th and 19th century to the 20th century)Main collection
Special CollectionsParent collection
Private libraries stored as separate entitiesRestrictions of use
The material's use is restricted, please contact the customer service Only for Special Collections Reading Room as e-material for remote accessCollection themes
Cataloguing principles
N.
N. Mscr.
N. Kt.
N. Ink.
N. Nord.
N. Diss.
N. Bibl.
N. Rar.
Catalogue information
Paper catalogue made of the collection
The collection has been described in the reference database
The collection has been only partially catalogued
More information about cataloguing
A printed catalogue has been made of the maps in the collection:
The A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection in the Helsinki University Library. Annotated Catalogue of Maps made up to 1800. Vol. I-III. Compiled by Ann-Mari Mickwitz, Leena Miekkavaara and Tuula Rantanen. Vol. IV. Compiled by Tuula Rantanen. Vol. V:1–2. By Cecilia af Forselles-Riska. Helsinki 1979–1995.
The collection has been partly catalogued into the National Library Search.
More information about format
The collection has been partly digitized into Doria.
Publication links
J. M. Hulth, Nordenskiölds-bibliografi: förteckning öfver A. E. Nordenskiölds s… (opens a new tab)Collection sizes
3870
titles of publications
396
linear metres
More info
A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection in UNESCO's Memory of the world register:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-pro…
Signum
H N.
Provenance
Naturalist, mineralogist, explorer of Arctic regions, navigator of the Northern Sea Route and researcher of history of cartography Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld accrued his collection in the end of the 19th century. The collection reflects Nordenskiöld's research interests, as he mainly collected the library for his own use – for the needs of his mineralogical and geographic research, for his research of Arctic areas, but also largely for his later cartographic studies. At first, Nordenskiöld purchased books from Sweden, but already in the 1870s he was contacting antiquarian booksellers e.g. in Italy, Portugal and Japan. Nordenskiöld wished that his collection would find a place in Finland and be preserved intact. After Nordenskiöld died in 1901, the University bought the collection with funds granted by the Senate of Finland.
Collector
A. E. Nordenskiöld