Nordenskiöld's return to Stockholm in April 1880

The Vega in front of the Royal Palace in Stockholm in April 1880.

The Finnish-born scientist and explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, who lived in exile in Sweden after 1857, made his most famous journey through the Northeast Passage between the years 1878 and 1979. 

Nordenskiöld started his journey from Karlskrona on June 22, 1878 aboard the steamship Vega, a 43 meters long whaling ship, which had a 60 horse-power steam engine. The crew consisted of 21 men. In addition there were a number of scientists and officers. Swedish naval lieutenant Louis Palander was  commander on the Vega.

The Vega crew.

On September 2, 1879, Nordenskiöld reached reached Yokohama in Japan, and was celebrated as a hero all over the world. Although the voyage did not open the Northeast Passage through the Bering Strait for commercial traffic, it attracted people's imagination. This was the time when Jules Verne had published his book Voyages Extraordinaires and Stanley had found Livingstone  in the African jungle.  

The famous painting of A.E. Nordenskiöld by Georg von Rosen.

On April 24,1880, Vega finally arrived in Stockholm. Nordenskiöld was duly feted, and King Oscar II, the financier of the voyage, made him a baron. 

The return of the Vega in Stockholm on April 24 was a spectacular event. 
(image by wiki)

Nordenskiöld described his journey in several books, which were translated into 11 languages. His collection of maps and geographical works, consisting of over 24,000 maps and thousands of volumes of early geographical and cartographical literature, is by UNESCO considered to be one of the world's most important collections of documents. 

After Nordenskiöld's death in 1901, the collection was according to his wish returned to his old home country Finland. Since 1902 it belongs to the University of Helsinki Library.