Old Libraries in Vaasa
Greta Ahlskog and Eija Kareno

The library of the Swedish Lyceum in Vaasa

During its last decades the library of the Swedish Lyceum in Vaasa (1872 - 1974) was the biggest school library in Finland comprising c. 52 000 volumes. J.O.I. Ranchen's collection, old academic dissertations and schoolbooks form separate entities. C. 12 000 books have been removed to Turku and Helsinki, but the rest remain in Vaasa. Since the foundation of the Vasa Övningskola in 1974 the lyceum library has been out of use as a school library and visited only by a few scholars.

The Lyceum's collection was started when a trivial school was founded in Uusikaarlepyy 1641. In 1684 the school moved to Vaasa. The library was destroyed during the Great Northern War (1716-1721), but the Ostrobothnian clergy set out immediately to rebuild it. Due to an inventory in 1784, we know that, at the time, the collection comprised 176 volumes, one third of which were books for stydying classical languages and Hebrew.

In 1841 the trivial school was devided into a lower and a higher primary schoool, the library was given to the latter. Vaasa Gymnasium was founded in 1844, and even before it opened its doors donations for a new library started to arrive. In July 1846 this library had 1731 works in 2840 volumes, 90 percent having been received as donations. In the great fire of Vaasa (1852) the library lost 9095 books, only 1015 were saved. The list of the remaining 1015 books includes six books printed in the 16th century, for example, Ovidi's Epistulae Heroidum (printed in Frankfurt 1582) and "A Catalogue of Roman Writers" (printed in Bologna 1559)

After an exile of eleven years in Pierarsaari the Gymnasium returned to Vaasa, and books were collected for a new library. Donations poured in from all over Finland and from abroad.

In 1870-74 the Gymnasium and the higher primary school were united to form of Lyceum. The libraries were combined in 1872 creatig a collection of 6789 volumes. Even today, the books remain organised and catalogued acoording to a unique system developed by J.O.I. Rancken. In 1939 the collection was transfered to its present place on the third floor of the school building, where this piece of unexplored library history still remains.

The library of Vaasa Lyceum

The library of Vaasa Lyceum was founded in December 1880 with a modest sum raised by public appeal, and the collection first grew trough donations. These included some extremely valuable volumes, for example, a Swedish prayer book printed in 1592, donated by Rev. A. E. Ingman and a handwritten compilation of sermons from the mid-1700s donated by tailor J. Lehtonen.

In the autumn 1892 a primary school was annexed to the Lyceum, bringing a library with it, and increasing the number of volumes to 747. Substantial donations in the 1890s and 1910s increased the size of the collection further so that by 1919 it included 6467 volumes. Individual donators are responsible for the various rare and valuable works at the lyceum library.

In 1963 the Vaasa lyceum library had 9520 volumes, of which c. 2500 were printed before the year 1900. The library also has old newspapers. Today; no more books are added but the collection is retained separately.

Libraries at the Ostrobothnian museum and the Karl Hedman collection

Doctor Karl Hedaman (1864-1931) donated his entire library to the Museum society in 1931. Now, Hedman's collection has become mixed with the books of the Museum society so that it can no longer be assessed separately, since no catalogues exist.

The museum library has accumulated quite a few valuable rarities. The oldest book in Vaasa, at the museum, is from the year 1777, and the oldest book in collection is Hebraica Biblia from 1546.

Hedman also collected manuscripts, and there are c. 200 newspaper volumes. A good bibliography of old literature in the museum, entitled Pohjanmaan museon ja Karl Hedmanin kokoelmien kirjallisuus 1546-1799 has been compiled by Virpi Harju.

Today, the museum library is divided into the Library of the Ostrobothnian Museum and the Antiquarian Library. The latter holds books printed in the 19th century and earlier. In 1993 the Antiquarian library had c. 6100 volumes, and the annual increase is rather small.

Translated by Emma Kareno