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- The Formation of a Nineteenth-Century Map Collection: A. E. Nordenskiöld of Helsinki
The Formation of a Nineteenth-Century Map Collection: A. E. Nordenskiöld of Helsinki
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 December 1982
- Maps
- Unrated
The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
www.imcos.org
by Douglas Marshall
The story of maps and the relationship between dealers and collectors remains untold. To what extent did the trade influence the nature of research in the formative stages? Some parts of this relationship can be reconstructed from the letters and invoices preserved among the maps, atlases, and documents of A. E. Nordenskiold in the University of Helsinki Library.
FOUR PRINCIPAL TYPES of collectors, identifiable after 1850, were defined by R. A. Skelton' The first category is represented by Edme Francois Jomard, who served as an engineer under Napoleon in Egypt, and who in 1828 organized the map division at the Bibliotheque Royale. He exemplifies the branch of scholar-curators and began to publish, at his own expense. a series of thirty maps on eighty-one plates over a twenty year period? A second type of collector can be found among the specialists of a particular region, for example John Carter Brown, James Lenox, and Edward Ayer. Here we can see a link between the rise of consciousness about the origins of America and an effort to trace them from the documents. The influence of their collections was multiplied in the market response which focused attention on these documents and by the reservoir of material ultimately entrusted to the public in special libraries.
A third type is represented by Sir Thomas Phillips, who could deny himself nothing; the sale of whose collection is still proceeding. The fourth type is described as scholar-collectors and would encompass J.T. Bodel Nijenhuis and Abraham van Stolk from the Netherlands, General von Hauslab in Austria, as well as Nordenskiold in Sweden. These men aimed for more than support of maps to illustrate a topic or point of view but rather came to evaluate maps within the larger context of the cartography itself. We might also add to Skelton's list a fifth class of dealer-scholars headed by Frederik Muller of Amsterdam, who from 1850 until his death in 1881 set new standards of catalogue entries - a tradition carried on under his name by P.A. Tiele, A.W. Mensing, and EC. Wieder.' The diversity of motives generated a more sophisticated interest in maps than the more general categories of 'amateur' and `professional' which had existed until about 1840:' To some degree, the market itself can be seen to raise a new consciousness about preservation, to encourage government support, and to provide a demand for the development of facsimile publication.
C. Koeman's study of the map trade in the Netherlands has indicated another turning point at about 1880. After this, no further large collections are started and the principal government archives had been established. The antiquarian book trade launched into the discovery and voyage market to fuel the American demand and the first archival map catalogues started to appear beginning with the Dutch Rijksarchief and the British Museum? Facsimile compilations of manuscript medieval maps had been brought out by Joachim Lelewel as head of the Polish government in exile at Brussels in an unwieldy study, and by the Second Viscount du Santarem in a large folio without text on the order of Jomard. Both appeared near mid-century and it was this world to which Nordenskiold awakened.
Nordenskiold as explorer and cartophile has been the subject of much recent inquiry.° Yet it is worthwhile to mention that his professional life spans three careers beginning with the post of professor and director of the minerology department at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm at the young age of twenty-six after receiving an academic appointment in his native Finland, which he was unable to keep for political reasons. In the course of his work at the Museum he made ten expeditions to the Arctic, the most celebrated being the voyage of the Vega in 1878-80, north from Stockholm and through the polar sea, eventually to reach Yokahama. His third career took place in an armchair and grew out of collecting literature on the topic of voyages and polar exploration. Two seminal books and several lesser publications emerged from this work — Facsimile-Atlas to the Early History of Cartography in 1899 and Periplus: An Essay on the Early History of Charts and Sailing Directions in 1897.
It is possible to reconstruct the collecting process by working backwards from the books and more precisely the invoices for books and maps which Nordenskiold had accumulated. For this is one of the few collections which has preserved the documents to show how it was formed including correspondence, catalogues and bills.
Read Full Article >>
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COPYRIGHT December 1982 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
The story of maps and the relationship between dealers and collectors remains untold. To what extent did the trade influence the nature of research in the formative stages? Some parts of this relationship can be reconstructed from the letters and invoices preserved among the maps, atlases, and documents of A. E. Nordenskiold in the University of Helsinki Library.
FOUR PRINCIPAL TYPES of collectors, identifiable after 1850, were defined by R. A. Skelton' The first category is represented by Edme Francois Jomard, who served as an engineer under Napoleon in Egypt, and who in 1828 organized the map division at the Bibliotheque Royale. He exemplifies the branch of scholar-curators and began to publish, at his own expense. a series of thirty maps on eighty-one plates over a twenty year period? A second type of collector can be found among the specialists of a particular region, for example John Carter Brown, James Lenox, and Edward Ayer. Here we can see a link between the rise of consciousness about the origins of America and an effort to trace them from the documents. The influence of their collections was multiplied in the market response which focused attention on these documents and by the reservoir of material ultimately entrusted to the public in special libraries.
A third type is represented by Sir Thomas Phillips, who could deny himself nothing; the sale of whose collection is still proceeding. The fourth type is described as scholar-collectors and would encompass J.T. Bodel Nijenhuis and Abraham van Stolk from the Netherlands, General von Hauslab in Austria, as well as Nordenskiold in Sweden. These men aimed for more than support of maps to illustrate a topic or point of view but rather came to evaluate maps within the larger context of the cartography itself. We might also add to Skelton's list a fifth class of dealer-scholars headed by Frederik Muller of Amsterdam, who from 1850 until his death in 1881 set new standards of catalogue entries - a tradition carried on under his name by P.A. Tiele, A.W. Mensing, and EC. Wieder.' The diversity of motives generated a more sophisticated interest in maps than the more general categories of 'amateur' and `professional' which had existed until about 1840:' To some degree, the market itself can be seen to raise a new consciousness about preservation, to encourage government support, and to provide a demand for the development of facsimile publication.
C. Koeman's study of the map trade in the Netherlands has indicated another turning point at about 1880. After this, no further large collections are started and the principal government archives had been established. The antiquarian book trade launched into the discovery and voyage market to fuel the American demand and the first archival map catalogues started to appear beginning with the Dutch Rijksarchief and the British Museum? Facsimile compilations of manuscript medieval maps had been brought out by Joachim Lelewel as head of the Polish government in exile at Brussels in an unwieldy study, and by the Second Viscount du Santarem in a large folio without text on the order of Jomard. Both appeared near mid-century and it was this world to which Nordenskiold awakened.
Nordenskiold as explorer and cartophile has been the subject of much recent inquiry.° Yet it is worthwhile to mention that his professional life spans three careers beginning with the post of professor and director of the minerology department at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm at the young age of twenty-six after receiving an academic appointment in his native Finland, which he was unable to keep for political reasons. In the course of his work at the Museum he made ten expeditions to the Arctic, the most celebrated being the voyage of the Vega in 1878-80, north from Stockholm and through the polar sea, eventually to reach Yokahama. His third career took place in an armchair and grew out of collecting literature on the topic of voyages and polar exploration. Two seminal books and several lesser publications emerged from this work — Facsimile-Atlas to the Early History of Cartography in 1899 and Periplus: An Essay on the Early History of Charts and Sailing Directions in 1897.
It is possible to reconstruct the collecting process by working backwards from the books and more precisely the invoices for books and maps which Nordenskiold had accumulated. For this is one of the few collections which has preserved the documents to show how it was formed including correspondence, catalogues and bills.
Read Full Article >>
[Acrobat Reader required]
COPYRIGHT December 1982 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
