The expedition to Lapland, the northernmost region in Sweden, by Carl Linnaeus between May and October 1732 was an important part of his scientific career.
Linnaeus departed from Uppsala and travelled clockwise around the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia over the course of six months, making major inland incursions from Umeå, Luleå and Tornio. His observations became the basis of his book Flora Lapponica (1737) in which Linnaeus’ ideas about nomenclature and classification were first used in a practical way. [2] Linnaeus kept a journal of his expedition which was first published posthumously as an English translation called Lachesis Lapponica: A Tour in Lapland (1811).
In April 1732, Linnaeus was awarded a grant from the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala for his journey. Olof Rudbeck the Younger, one of Linnaeus' former professors at Uppsala University, had made an expedition to Lapland in 1695, but the detailed results of his exploration were lost in a fire seven years afterwards. Linnaeus' hope was to find new plants, animals and possibly valuable minerals. He was also curious about the customs of the native Sami people, reindeer-herding nomads who wandered the vast tundras of Fenno-Scandinavia. [3] [4]
Linnaeus began his expedition from Uppsala in May; he travelled on foot and horse, bringing with him his journal, botanical and ornithological manuscripts and sheets of paper for pressing plants. It took him 11 days to reach Umeå, via Gävle (near which he found great quantities of Campanula serpyllifolia, later known as Linnaea borealis , the twinflower that would become his favourite). [5] He sometimes dismounted on the way to examine a flower or rock [6] and was particularly interested in mosses and lichens, the latter a main part of the diet of the reindeer, a common animal in Lapland. [7]
From Umeå, Linnaeus headed towards Lycksele, a town much further inland from the coast than he had traveled until then, examining water birds on the way. After five days, he reached the town and stayed with the pastor and his wife. [5] He then attempted to reach Sorsele but had to turn around at a place called Lycksmyran ("lucky marsh") due to extremely difficult conditions. [8] In the beginning of June he returned to Umeå after having spent additional days in Lycksele, and learning more of the customs of the Sami. [9] (See e.g. Tablut)
After returning to Umeå, he travelled further north along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, via Skellefteå and Old Piteå, passing Old Luleå where he received a Sami woman's cap on the way. [10] From Luleå he again traveled inland, following the Lule River via Jokkmokk on the Arctic Circle and Kvikkjokk (then Hyttan), into the Scandinavian Mountains, crossing the border into Norway, arriving in Sørfold on the coast and making a trip to nearby Rörstadt. He then returned the way he came, approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi) back to Luleå. [11]
Linnaeus then continued his travel along the coast to Tornio (Torneå in Swedish), from which he made his third and final inland incursion, along the Torne River as far as Vittangi. He spent some time in the Tornio area; in Kalix he received instructions in assaying. In the middle of September he began his return journey. Travelling via Kemi, he followed the Finnish coastline to Turku (Åbo in Swedish), where he sailed via Åland, arriving in Sweden in Grisslehamn and then finally home to Uppsala. [12]
He returned from his six-month-long, over 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) expedition on 10 October, having gathered and observed many plants, birds and rocks. [13] [14] [15] Although Lapland was a region with limited biodiversity, Linnaeus described about a hundred previously undescribed plants. The details of his discoveries became the basis of his book Flora Lapponica . [16] [17]
Linnaeus's account of the journey, Iter Lapponicum [18] was translated into English by James Edward Smith and published in 1811 as Lachesis Lapponica: A Tour in Lapland. Some of Linnaeus' original illustrations:
Carl Linnaeus, also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as Carolus a Linné.
European route E4 passes from north to south through Sweden from the border with Finland, with a total length of 1,590 kilometres (990 mi). The Finnish part lies entirely within Tornio in northern Finland, and is only 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) long. The Swedish part traverses most of Sweden except the extreme north and the west coast region, and is commonly considered the highway backbone of Sweden, since it passes in the vicinity of many of its largest cities and through the capital Stockholm. In particular, it is the mainline road used by most vehicle traffic, both cars and lorries, between the north (Norrland) and south of Sweden or beyond.
Sápmi is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia, also known as the "Cap of the North".
Norrbotten County is the northernmost county or län of Sweden. It is also the largest county by land area, almost a quarter of Sweden's total area. It shares borders with Västerbotten County to the southwest, the Gulf of Bothnia to the southeast, the counties of Nordland and Troms in Norway to the northwest, and Lapland Province in Finland to the northeast.
Malå Municipality is a municipality in Västerbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Malå.
Olof Rudbeck the Younger or Olaus Rudbeckius d.y. was a Swedish explorer, scientist, botanist, ornithologist and rector of Uppsala University.
Norrbotten, known in English as North Bothnia, is a Swedish province (landskap) in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland.
Kemi is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio and the Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is 105 kilometres (65 mi) to the south and to Rovaniemi is 117 kilometres (73 mi) to the northeast. It was founded in 1869 by a decree of the Emperor Alexander II of Russia because of its proximity to a deepwater port.
Lars Levi Laestadius was a Swedish Sami writer, ecologist, mythologist, and ethnographer as well as a pastor and administrator of the Swedish state Lutheran church in Lapland who founded the Laestadian pietist revival movement to help his largely Sami congregations, who were being ravaged by alcoholism. Laestadius himself became a teetotaller in the 1840s, when he began successfully talking his Sami parishioners out of alcoholism. Laestadius was also a noted botanist and an author.
Lapland, also known by its Swedish name Lappland, is a province in northernmost Sweden. It borders Jämtland, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten, Norway and Finland. Nearly a quarter of Sweden's land area is in Lappland.
The Bothnian Bay or Bay of Bothnia is the northernmost part of the Gulf of Bothnia, which is in turn the northern part of the Baltic Sea. The land holding the bay is still rising after the weight of ice-age glaciers has been removed, and within 2,000 years the bay will be a large freshwater lake since its link to the south Kvarken is mostly less than 20 metres (66 ft) deep. The bay today is fed by several large rivers, and is relatively unaffected by tides, so has low salinity. It freezes over each year for up to six months. Compared to other parts of the Baltic, it has little plant or animal life.
Lappmarken was an earlier Swedish name for the northern part of the old Kingdom of Sweden inhabited by the Sami people. In addition to the present-day Swedish Lapland, it also covered Västerbotten, Jämtland and Härjedalen, as well as the Finnish Lapland. As a name, it is related to Finnmark, an old Norwegian name for the Sami area. "Finn" and "Lapp" are mutually exchangeable old names for the Sami people, although the latter is sometimes deemed offensive.
The Main Line Through Upper Norrland is a 626-kilometre (389 mi) long railway line between Bräcke, Jämtland County and Boden, Norrbotten County in Sweden. For military and regional policy reasons, it was built in very sparsely populated areas, far away from the more densely populated coast. The line has several branches to settlements on the coast, the ones to Umeå and Luleå being considered part of the line itself. Today the three largest settlements along the line are Boden, Älvsbyn and Vännäs.
Sámi schools, which were referred to as Nomad schools or Lapp schools before 1977, are a type of school in Sweden that runs parallel to the standard primary school system. Sámi schools are part of the Swedish public school system, and as such are governed by the same curriculum that primary schools are. Sámi schools are state-owned educational institutions that are open to all children whose parents identify as Sámi. Each school has its own dormitory that many students live in for large parts of the academic year due to the long distances in the north of Sweden.
The Apostles of Linnaeus were a group of students who carried out botanical and zoological expeditions throughout the world that were either devised or approved by botanist Carl Linnaeus. The expeditions took place during the latter half of the 18th century and the students were designated 'apostles' by Linnaeus.
Flora Lapponica is an account of the plants of Lapland written by botanist, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1788) following his expedition to Lapland.
The forest Sámi are Sámi people who lived in the woods and who, unlike the reindeer-herding Sámi people, did not move up into the fells during the summer season. Historically, there have been forest Sámi in Sweden in the area ranging from northern Ångermanland to the far north. In the early 1600s the term granlapp was also used to refer to the Sámi people who paid taxes only to Sweden, compared to the semi-nomadic fell Sámi, who, since they worked in the fells that straddled the Swedish-Norwegian border, had to pay taxes to both countries. When Ernst Manker studied the life of the forest Sámi in the early 20th century, nearly all of their habitations had been abandoned. Only one forest Sámi village remained, in Malå in Västerbotten, an area known as Stenundslandet in Anundsjö. There is a modern-day group who consider themselves forest Sámi in Finland, but they are not part of the Sámi parliament, for example.
Samuel Liljeblad was a Swedish botanist and economist. At school in Vimmerby and at Linköping's Gymnasium, Liljeblad studied natural history. He became an avid plant collector encouraged by, among others, a physician in Linköping, Johan Otto Hagström (1716–1792), who was one of the Apostles of Linnaeus. Liljeblad matriculated in 1782 at Uppsala University, majored in economics, and graduated there with a master's degree in 1788.
The Swedish Mission Society, was a Swedish Christian organization to promote mission work among the Sámi in Sweden.
Phebe Maria Fjellström née Lindgren (1924–2007) was a Swedish ethnologist. She is remembered for her pioneering research into the culture of the Sámi peoples of northern Sweden, including their relationship with those in neighbouring Nordic counties. In particular, she took a special interest in Sámi silverware. She went on to research the Swedish colonization of the San Joaquin Valley in California. In 1981, she was appointed professor of ethnology at Umeå University where she remained until her retirement in 1990, both teaching and undertaking further research.