Sophus Tromholt Collection

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sophus Tromholt Collection
World document heritage UNESCO World Document Heritage emblem
Sophus Tromholt- Anna Aslaksdatter Gaup and Anna Jonsdatter Somby 1882-83 UBB-TROM-137.jpg
Portrait of two young Sami women from Kautokeino
State (s): NorwayNorway Norway
Period: 1882-1883
Storage: Bergen University Library
Register link: Sophus Tromholt Collection
Admission: 2013 ( session 11 )

The Sophus Tromholt Collection from 1882–1883 , an ensemble of photos with motifs from the Sámi culture , is an outstanding example of ethnographic photography . It is located in the Bergen University Library and was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013 .

Creation of the photos

The Danish teacher Sophus Tromholt (* 1851 in Husum , † 1896 in Blankenhain ) was a pioneer of aurora research . In 1875 he accepted a position as a teacher of natural science and mathematics in Bergen and was able to evaluate reports of aurora borealis observations in Scandinavia in the winter of 1878/79. As part of the First International Polar Year , the Norwegian Meteological Institute set up an observation station in Bossekop. Tromholt received a five-year grant from the Norwegian state and also financial support from the Copenhagen brewer Jacob Christian Jacobsen . This enabled him to set up a one-man observation station in Kautokeino in northern Norway, about 100 km south of Bossekop. He gave up his teaching post and devoted himself only to aurora research. Tromholt stayed in Kautokeino from autumn 1882 to spring 1883 and lived comparatively comfortably in the local police station. In coordination with the observation stations in Bossekop and Sodankylä, the height of the northern lights should be determined trigonometrically .

Tromholt also planned to take pictures of the northern lights and had brought photographic equipment to his observation station. This project failed for technical reasons: the light was too weak. So Tromholt started taking photos of his surroundings. Kautokeino was a center of the Sámi, an ethnic minority, where they met their reindeer herds , especially around Easter . Most of Tromholt's recordings were made on this occasion. Tromholt's activities were apparently an attraction for the Sámi. They gave him the name Násteolmmái ("star man"); Tromholt described that a group of Sámi always gathered around him when he went outside in the evening for his observations. “You can stand there for hours and look at me in silent admiration. Nothing among my instruments interests them as much as my camera. They come almost every day and ask if I would like to do a govva (picture) of them. "

Tromholt's photo subjects included landscapes, buildings and various aspects of everyday life. His portraits are outstanding. Contrary to what was customary in his time, he did not see any exotic species in the Sami, which is also reflected in the fact that he always noted the full names of the people photographed. Women had a relatively high status in Sami society. Compared to contemporary portrait photos from urban photo studios, the Sami women captured by Tromholt appear self-confident.

During his stay in Kautokeino, Tromholt wrote down his travel impressions for the Morgenbladet newspaper , which he gradually enriched with descriptions of the northern lights and ethnographic observations. In 1885 these texts appeared with 150 illustrations (110 of them photographs) under the title Under the Rays of the Aurora Borealis in London (2 volumes) and received international attention.

Tromholt spent the next winter watching aurora borealis in Iceland. When his scholarship expired, he moved to Germany; but since he could no longer find a sponsor for his scientific activities, he secured his living by writing non-fiction and by giving lessons. At the age of only 45, he died in a Thuringian lung sanatorium.

World document heritage

Illustration from the book Under Nordlysets Straaler

The following objects belong to the world document heritage:

  1. 231 photos on glass negatives;
  2. 189 photos on albumen paper , a portfolio entitled Billeder fra Lappernes land - Tableaux du Pays des Lapons ;
  3. the book by Sophus Tromholt (two volumes): Under the Rays of the Aurora Borealis , London 1885;
  4. the Danish version of the same book (one volume): Under Nordlysets Straaler . Copenhagen 1885.

The glass negatives are unique, while there are other copies of the photo portfolio in two Norwegian museums and one in the Ethnographic Museum in Copenhagen. Tromholt sold the glass negatives to the photographer Knud Knudsen, who used some motifs to print postcards. These glass negatives came to the Bergen University Library with Knudsen's estate.

For today's Sami, Tromholt's photographs are of particular value, as the region was badly destroyed by German troops in World War II.

Web links

Commons : Sophus Tromholt Collection  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Solveig Greve: Sophus Tromholt . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon (Norwegian).
  2. ↑ a b Susan Barr, Cornelia Lüdecke (Ed.): The History of the International Polar Years (IPYs). Berlin / Heidelberg 2010, p. 74.
  3. ^ Asgeir Brekke, Alv Egeland: The Northern Light: From Mythology to Space Research . Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York / Tokyo 1983, p. 81.
  4. ↑ a b c d Susan Barr, Cornelia Lüdecke (Ed.): The History of the International Polar Years (IPYs). Berlin / Heidelberg 2010, p. 75.
  5. ^ A b Memory of the World International Register Nomination Form: Sophus Tromholt Colection (Norway). P. 7.
  6. ^ Memory of the World International Register Nomination Form: Sophus Tromholt Colection (Norway). P. 6.
  7. ^ A b Memory of the World International Register Nomination Form: Sophus Tromholt Colection (Norway). P. 2.