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494
IV. EDUCATION AND MENTAL CULTURE IN SWEDEN.
enable Swedish scientists to pursue investigation in the country of bis adoption.
O. Nordenskjöld, (born 1869) visited the Magellan Territories in 1895 97 and
directed in 1901/03 the Swedish Antarctic Expedition that made researches in
different parts of the Southern polar regions: South Shetland Islands, Graham Land,
South Georgia, Falkland Islands, etc. The expedition lost its ship »Antarctic» bnt
was delivered by an Argentine relief expedition under Captain Irizar in
November 1903.
In Central and North America. C. V. Hartman in 1896 99 made prolonged
and extensive archeological and ethnographical researches in Central America,
while G. Nordenskiöld (1868 95) did some important archeological excavating
work, in 1891, on the southern borders of the United States.
These and many other scientific journeys undertaken by Swedes during the
latter part of last century were not, as will be seen, primarily concerned
with geographical discovery, but rather with natural history research in manifold
directions. The results arrived at have been made public, partly in special
descriptions of travel, but, as regards their scientific phase, for the most part in
the Transactions and other publications of the Royal Academy of Sciences in
Stockholm. In promoting geographical and ethnographical research, the
Anthropological Society, founded in Stockholm in 1873 and transformed in 1877 into
the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, has been of considerable
service, especially through its journal the »Ymer», which attained its twentythird
year of publication in 1903.
In the domain of the history of geography and cartography, Sweden saw the
production of two original and important works by A. E. Nordenskiöld: the Facsimile
Atlas (1889) and Periplus (1897); another important contribution to the same field is
The French Voyages to the Southern Ocean (1900) by E. IF. Dahlgren (born 1848).
As a pendant to the above summary of contributions rendered by Swedes to
geographical research outside their own borders, it may be well to show how
the home-country and its geography have step by step been more closely and
more scientifically investigated and made known.
It was not until 1611, after considerable preliminary work on his own part
and that of others, that the above-mentioned A. Bureus succeeded in producing
the first map, in a modern sense, of Northern Scandinavia; for that time
his production was very creditable. In 1626, another map appeared, embracing
Scandinavia and adjacent countries. The appearance of these maps denoted a
very great advance in the knowledge of the geography of the country and they
formed the foundation of all subsequent maps of Sweden during the succeeding
century, whether of home or foreign production. Land-surveying, which *as
introduced in 1628, was instrumental in amassing increasingly accurate
information as to the geographical conditions of the inhabited parts of the country.
By the close of the 17th century it may be assumed that the main features oi
Sweden in geographical regard were familiar to the administrators of the country,
though they deemed it desirable for political considerations to withhold the
more detailed maps from the general public. An historical account of the
development of Swedish maps is given by <S. Lönborg (born 1871) in his work »Sveriges
karta, tiden till omkring 1850», published in 1903. For further information oi
maps and mapping work in general, the reader is referred to a special section
Official Maps.
With the dawn of the 18th century, interest began to be very generalb
aroused in the prosecution of journeys within Sweden itself, by men of skill an*
experience who were able to collect observations on a great variety of subjects
The journeys best known are those of Urban Hjärne (1641 1724) and of Olq
Rudbeck, the Younger (1660 1740). As the 18th century advanced, the vata
of the accurate investigation of the country, carried out by specially equipped am
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