Sven Hedin collection

The collection comprises of correspondence by Hedin to Robert Falcon Scott written after the latter's return from the Antarctic on the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904.

Sven Anders Hedin was born in 1865 in Stockholm. He was educated at the University of Stockholm and studied geography and geology at the Universities of Uppsala and Berlin, receiving a doctorate in 1892. In 1890, he served briefly as an interpreter with the Swedish-Norwegian embassy to the Shah of Persia, later travelling throughout Asia and publishing A journey through Asia in 1898.

Between 1893 and 1935, Hedin made four expeditions to Central Asia, and in 1902, received a Swedish knighthood. From 1927 to 1935, he travelled in the Gobi Desert and Turkestan with a team of international scientists. In 1930, he received the first Hedin medal for significant geographic, especially cartographic, research of less known areas. From 1937 to 1949, he worked on numerous volumes concerning his expedition to northern China. He died on 26 November 1952 in Stockholm.

Published work, Von Pol zu Pol. (Neue Folge) Vom Nordpol zum Aquator. (Letzte Folge) Durch Amerika zum Sdpol (German) by Sven Hedin, F.A. Brockhaus, Leipzig (1912) SPRI Library Shelf (#42;2)91(091) and Adolf Erik Nordenskild, en levnadsbeskrivning (Norwegian) by Sven Anders Hedin, Albert Bonnier, Stockholm (1926) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Nordenskild, A.E.]

The correspondence is arranged chronologically.

By appointment.

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Anyone wishing to consult material should ensure they note the entire MS reference and the name of the originator.

The term holograph is used when the item is wholly in the handwriting of the author. The term autograph is used when the author has signed the item.

Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to Robert Keith Headland Antarctic Chronology, unpublished corrected revision of Chronological list of Antarctic expeditions and related historical events, (1 December 2001) Cambridge University Press (1989) ISBN 0521309034 and Books and writers

Clive Holland Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England - a catalogue, Garland Publishing New York and London (1982) ISBN 0824093941.

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