In 2014, the late Doctor Dan-Axel Hallbäck, Sweden, donated two photo albums to Grenna Museum. The smaller one was an album with Doctor and photographer Axel Enwalls images from A. E. Nordenskiöld’s expedition to Spitsbergen (1872–1873). The other album was supposed to be from the same expedition, though with captions in English.

Due to his profession and interest in the polar region and history, Hallbäck had previously, in 2005, bought the albums from the council in the Värmland region in Sweden, as they were to close down a minor hospital museum in Kristinehamn—obviously also containing artefacts from Axel Enwall. Hallbäck realized that the albums were to be thrown away if he did not act, since no one else was aware of their content and importance.

Some days after the donation, I more thoroughly examined the albums and found in the English one, the ships Diana and Samson. As a coincidence, P. J. Capelotti had then recently published a biography of Benjamin Leigh Smith (Shipwreck at Cape Flora). It was from there that I recalled Diana and Samson. Capelotti confirmed the album’s origin: Herbert C. Chermside and Benjamin Leigh Smith’s third expedition in 1873. Dan-Axel Hallbäck was happy to know about it and the rareness of its existence.

One may wonder how the album of Chermside ended up in a tiny hospital museum in Sweden. As Anders Larsson tells in a previous chapter, Axel Enwall had a relation to the hospital and city, where he also ended his life. Probably, the two photographers changed albums after coming home. Hence, an album of Enwall’s images, from 1872–1873, still might be somewhere in England. -Håkan Jorikson, Director, Grenna Museum.