Norwegian documentary heritage

Three Norwegian documents have been inscribed in the Memory of the World register. These are:

• Henrik Ibsen: A Doll`s House (2001)
• Roald Amundsen's South Pole Expedition (2005)
• Leprosy archives (2005).

Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House
A Doll's House has been staged throughout the world, and still is - one and a half century later. Few plays have had a similar impact globally on social norms and conditions. Few play characters world-wide can claim an equivalent importance as role model as Nora Helmer. Ever since A Doll's House was first published, it has raised debate and controversy, both because of its splendid dramatic structure and because of its broad ideological impact.

The first known draft of the play is entitled "Notes on the Tragedy of the Present Age" (Rome, 19 October 1878). When published in 1879, the play revolutionised contemporary Western drama, both formally and thematically. In the twentieth century, the effect of the play spread to include Asia and the Third World, where its form became symbolic of modern Western drama and its content symbolic of values such as human rights and existential freedom. In the draft material we are given direct access to the playwright's workshop. Here we can follow the development of Ibsen's artistic imagination and the sharpening of ideological content. In the manuscripts, Ibsen expresses his revolutionary ideas more directly and more easily accessible than in the finished work, which for artistic reasons is rendered more ambiguous.

The manuscripts include all material known to exist from the creation and first printing of the play. A Doll's House is an exceptional achievement. In spite of Nora's uncertain future prospects - facing the problems a divorced woman without means would face in nineteenth century society - she has served and serves as a symbol throughout the world, for women fighting for liberation and equality.

Roald Amundsen's South Pole Expedition (1910-1912)
Roald Amundsen and his 4-man team reached the South Pole, with the help of polar dogs, on 14 December 1911. The expedition, and particularly the dog-sled journey to the Pole, is described as daring and with an exceptionally good logistic planning and execution.
The Antarctic and the Arctic Polar Regions, for several centuries, were regarded as the final frontiers for mankind to conquer, and the North and South Poles were for a long period of time the great goals to attain within geographic discovery.

The discoveries in the polar areas contributed, not least in Norway but also internationally, to greater consciousness of, and political interest in, questions concerning sovereignty and rights in these sea and land areas. The original film material of Roald Amundsen’s South Pole Expedition documents a great historic achievement, outside the borders of the civilized world and in an extreme climatic environment.
In his time, Roald Amundsen (1872 – 1928) contributed, through several expeditions and together with his teams, to new knowledge within several aspects of polar research. First and foremost, however, he is remembered as a master of the classic polar expedition's planning and execution. The film collection is unique, as it documents the important events of this first expedition to reach the South Pole. Though the material is incomplete, it is made up of original sequences, filmed between 1910 and 1912, consisting of negative film and first and second-generation print material.

Leprosy archives
Today many people think of leprosy only as a Third World disease. But the sickness has been an all too common element also of European daily life through the centuries, especially in the coastal regions. In Western Norway there were still many people suffering from this disease after it was practically wiped out from the rest of Europe.

This might be one of the reasons why Bergen in the middle of the 19th century became the scientific centre of the efforts to cure leprosy, through the work of Dr. Danielsen and Dr. Armauer Hansen, who discovered the Mycrobacterium leprae in 1873. Today leprosy is practically non-existant in Europe, and although there are still 10-15 million lepers in the rest of the world (where it is often called Hansen’s Disease) the number of new cases is said to have reached almost a standstill.
The Leprosy Archives of Bergen document the breakthrough of the scientific understanding and description of leprosy on a world basis. The documentary heritage from this turning point of the fight against one of the world’s most dreadful diseases is still internationally sought after and used, and deserves both a safeguarding and wider dissemination.