Atlas öfver Finland, First Edition

The first edition of national atlas of Finland from 1899 was the first national atlas ever published that met the requirements for national atlases agreed on by the Commission on National Atlases in 1956. At the time of publishing, Finland was seeking a recognition as an independent nation, although it still officially belonged to Russia. Despite the Finnish language has been accepted as an official language couple of decades before this atlas was published, the name of this atlas and the introduction was nevertheless written in Swedish, which continued to be the main language of culture, arts and business in Finland until the second decade of 20th century. Besides Swedish, the map legends were also written in Finnish.

Several maps from this atlas were first presented in the 6th International Geographical Congress in London in 1895. The overall success of these maps led to the birth of this atlas in 1899. This atlas was also simultaneously published in French and Finish language as "Atlas de Finlande" and "Suomen Kartasto".

The atlas contains 32 double pages of maps and charts about physical geography, geology, meteorology, geography of plants, demographics, population, education, hydrography, agriculture, industry, history, communication and more. There is also a list of the largest cities (and their population in 1896) and list of districts with the area and population in this atlas.

One of the most striking maps of this atlas is the map number 26 - Lighthouses, showing position of Finnish, Swedish and Russian lighthouses and the range of their blinking or permanent lights. On the margin of this map you'll find 24 beautiful illustrations the Finnish lighthouses.