Ragnar Hult and the emergence of geography in Finland, 1880-1900

Abstract

The final twenty years of the last decade were a time of rapid progress in the science of geography. This paper examines its emergence in Finland in terms of a diffusion process comprising two phases, the coming of new ideas to Finland and their spread within Finnish institutions. In addition to ideas reaching the country from outside, attention is also paid to national trends instigated by the Finnish academic community itself. Since one crucial element in this process was the work of Ragriar Hult (1857‑1899), the events concerned are examined here against the background of his life, employing an extensive body of original sources.

Hult's actions were greatly influenced by his journeys abroad for study and research purposes, leading to the establishment of two guiding principles for his work: that geography should be regarded as an independent science, and that it should take into account both man and nature, but with the main focus on the latter, i.e. physical geography. This implied that it should be freed from its traditional connection with history and included among the natural sciences.

Hult worked for the advancement of geography in four sectors. He founded the Finnish Geographical Association and was for many years the driving force behind its activities, he founded and taught in the Department of Geography at the University of Helsinki, he improved the status and content of geography as taught in schools, and he published a great deal of popular information on the subject. This effort, which involved in a sense a confrontation between old and new precepts, called for the removal of innumerable barriers from the path of the new geography. It is concluded that the breakthrough of geography in Fin­land involved such far‑reaching conceptual and institutional changes that it could not have been achieved as quickly as it was without an ardent innovator such as Ragnar Hult.