Russia and Finland: Petrographic collections of N. G. Nordenskiöld in the collection of the Mining Museum

Abstract

The collection of the Mining Museum of the Mining University in St Petersburg contains a variety of minerals, ores and rocks from almost all corners of the globe. Mineralogical and petrographic collections collected by the outstanding Finnish scientist Nils Gustaf Nordenskiöld are always of particular interest. His petrographic collection, which was received by the museum in 1836 and 1841 from Finland, remained for a long time without due attention. The first collection was delivered to the Mining Museum from N. G. Nordenskiöld in 1836. Now there are 80 items in the petrographic collection of the Mining Museum (two items are missing): basically, these are minerals, various rocks, distributed by the places of finds — the provinces of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Some complexity of linking the sample to a specific place is due to the fact that it is difficult to make out the spelling of a particular locality on the label due to poor handwriting, as well as the use of Latin and Cyrillic letters in one word. Besides, in Finland, many localities still have equal Finnish and Swedish names. It is impossible to predict which option will be used for naming a particular place. There are slightly more than half of petrographic samples in the collection — 49 items, the rest (31 samples) are minerals and ores. It is actually a mixed, combined, author’s collection. The second petrographic collection from N. G. Nordenskiöld entered the museum in 1841. The research of the collection recorded as “Finnish marbles” including 23 items was carried out. The “marbles” were selected on a regional basis. Materials were taken for the manufacture of grinds in order to more thoroughly study their petrographic composition. As a result of the research of the grinds, it was not possible to unambiguously determine the “marble”. The collection identified: 10 items of marble, 9 items of limestones, 2 items of sandstones. Single samples of dolomite and slate were also identified. The author concludes that the collections of N. G. Nordenskiöld, the father of Finnish mineralogy, the founder of the Finnish Scientific Society, head of the Mining Department, must be preserved in the Mining Museum in its entirety, “without fragmentation”.