Nordic Fauna at the Biological Museum, Skansen (Stockholm)

The museum was thoroughly renovated in 1992 but remains intact from all other major aspects thus strongly representing a late 19th century view of nature and its inhabitants. It is presently undergoing a more extensive renovation aiming at presenting the 19th century cyclorama as when inaugurated.Since no catalogue of the museum´s specimens was ever kept, all information regarding the place of origin, time of collection, collector, acquisition and any additional information have been inferred from some (but very few!) specimen labels, and (primarily) from cross-tabulation of the written contents of a great number of successive editions of exhibit´s descriptions (printed booklets), from invoices, from mail conversation between the museum management and taxidermists, from informal notes and from interviews with former employees and informants.All animals were collected in their representative parts of Scandinavia including those found and brought back during a series of late 19th century, and early 20th century expeditions to Svalbard and Greenland (the latter presented in two separate, smaller dioramas.

The latter animals were considered as “Nordic” representing North Atlantic and Polar Sea habitats under Nordic governance, and detailed expedition´s reports provide the most detailed information available on the provenance of these specimens.N.b. The contents of this dataset is simultaneously published by Digitalt Museum (digitaltmuseum.se/), serving Swedish and Norwegian cultural heritage institutions.