Kabinettikartastoista koko kansan kartoiksi: Suomen aluetta kuvaavien viranomaiskartastojen kehitys ja muuttuvat yhteiskunnalliset merkitykset vuosina 1776–1960

This dissertation examines the interaction between the map and society, focusing on four institutional mapping projects of the Finnish territory between 1776 and 1960. With a focus on these projects, this dissertation studies the development of mapping and cartographic techniques, and simultaneously examines how the interaction between the map and society has changed. The research method is a deconstructive analysis, enabling a detailed examination of the societal contexts from which the maps emerged and the analysation of the historical interactions between society and the map. Firstly, this dissertation examines the Reconnaissance Mapping of Finland, a military mapping project that began in 1776. It was done on several scales, covering South and Central Finland.The second mapping project examined is the 1:400 000 scale General Map of Finland,which started in 1846 for civil administration and individual citizens to use. The third mapping project is the 1:20 000 scale Topographic Special map that initiated production in 1919. This map formed an excellent technical base for the Basic Mapping project from 1947, which is the fourth mapping project, analysed in this dissertation. Despite their divergences, these four mapping projects form an interrelated series of maps, which enables the development of mapping and cartographic techniques to be studied, as well as the different forms of interaction between the map and society over a course of nearly two hundred years. The study results include an analysis of the development of cartographic techniques, and of the two-way interaction between the map and society within the context of these four institutional mapping projects. As seen in the findings, not only did the development of cartographic techniques create diversity in the map contents and expand the usage of maps, but the interaction between the map and society also simultaneously increased and diversified. In fact, the General Map analysis shows how strongly the map reacted to the societal changes as cartography was utilised during the Russian repressive period. Moreover, my analysis of the four map projects explains the transformation of institutional mappings, going from the maps made for administrative usage to ones that also became available to ordinary citizens. In the discussion, conclusions are presented about the problematic points of institutional map productions, along with the roles of key persons who had an influential position in the execution of the mapping projects. It also demonstrates how all four mapping projects were significant for militaristic purposes, even though not all of them were designed to be used this way. The comparative analysis indicates that all four institutional mapping works had strong connections to the West European map family, especially the Topographic Special Map and the Basic Map in reference to Germany. Lastly, this dissertation has also identified that there are objects of future research regarding Finland’s cartographical history.