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New light on old photos Who was Otto Nordenskjöld? A recent book tries to answer that question with the help of photographs, taken by himself or other expedition members, during the spectacular research trip to Antarctica in 1901–1903. Most of the approximately 300 photographs have never been published before. It started four years ago with Sofia
Thorsson, Professor of Physical Geography, looking for material for a lecture on the history of geography in Gothenburg. Mats Olvmo, Associate Professor of Physical Geography, suggested photographs from Otto Nordenskjöld's various rese-
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GUJOURNAL DECEMBER 2021
arch expeditions to Tierra del Fuego in Patagonia, the Klondike, Antarctica, Greenland, as well as Peru and Chile. He knew that a number of them were stored in a cupboard at the Department of Earth Sciences. Through Margit Werner, retired senior lecturer in geography, Sofia later came in contact with Claes-Göran Alvstam, Professor of Economic Geography who knew that there were additional photographs at the School of Business, Economics and Law. – When we went through the material, we found up to 700 photographs, most
of them sciopticon images, i.e. a kind of early slide, says Mats Olvmo. The photographs were of very good quality, despite being taken 120 years ago and in extremely difficult conditions. Some of them were even very skilfully hand-coloured.
Sofia Thorsson formed a small team to look after the material. In addition to Mats Olvmo, Claes-Göran Alvstam and herself, the team consisted of Björn Holmer, Associate Professor of Physical Geography, and Anders Larsson, responsible for the manuscript department at the University Library, who also contributed to the University Library’s Polar Portal. – We had the pictures cleaned and digitized. When the Geographical Association in Gothenburg, which was founded
