Where’s Father Christmas? A look at the Atlas de Finlande, the first national atlas

This post examines the 1899 French-language Atlas de Finlande, widely regarded as the first national atlas. Its thirty-two plates use innovative thematic maps to present scientific, economic, and statistical information about Finland while asserting Finnish cultural and national identity under Russian rule; its treatment of Finland’s border even prompted an official Russian protest. Celebrated at the 1899 International Geographical Congress and the 1900 Paris World Exhibition, the atlas nevertheless fails the author’s playful search for Father Christmas’s Lapland grotto.