Sweden 2016 "Animals and plants from the Palace of Nature"

Issue Date	14.01.2016
ID	Michel: Scott: Stanley Gibbons: Yvert: UPU: N/A Category: pR
Design	Eva Wilsson, Lars Sjööblom (E), Piotr Naszarkowski (E)
Stamps in set	5
Value	BREV = Domestic letter of 20gr Maiasaura flower Queen Silvia Mammoth Quagga Hydroporus figuratus
Size (width x height)	36.6x26.5 mm
Layout	booklet of 10 stamps
Products	FDC x1, MC x5
Paper
Perforation	none
Print Technique	Offset, 4 colours
Printed by
Quantity	N/A
Issuing Authority

On January 14, 2016 Post Authority of Sweden issued a set of 5 stamps: Animals and plants from the Palace of Nature". Stamps issued in a booklet of 10. The Swedish Museum of Natural History celebrate its centennial in the building that is sometimes called the Palace of Nature.

The Swedish Museum of Natural History. Image credit Wikipedia

The decision to construct the building that would house the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Frescati (Inspired by his trip to Italy in the 1780s, King Gustaf III named several areas in northern Stockholm after places in Italy) in northern Stockholm was made in 1901. The idea was that Frescati would become a center of science, and the museum a jewel in the crown of the Royal Swedish Academy. The museum and several other buildings were constructed over the period 1907–1916 based on drawings by architect Axel Anderberg, who also designed the Royal Swedish Academy’s building. The museum’s main building was built to be a monument and has its roots in the Baroque period as well as powerful, geometric Art Nouveau. The facades were dressed in dark red brick. The wings that extend from the main building were initially home to the museum’s departments at that time, zoology, paleontology and geology. The botanical department was given a separate building. In its early days, the museum did not have electric lighting, and the buildings were therefore equipped with large, tall windows to allow daylight to shine on the exhibitions. Over the years, the Swedish Museum of Natural History has been expanded via underground chambers to store its extensive collections. Cosmonova, the museum’s combined planetarium and domed movie theater, was opened in 1992 in a separate building connected to the main building.
The museum is Sweden’s largest, and it contains more than ten million fossils, animals, plants, fungi and minerals. The stamp motifs depict a representative sample from the collections.

The newly hatched dinosaur, a Maiasaura, is a reconstruction of a 75 million-year-old fossil-found in the USA. Fossils from the nest and eggs were also found at the site. In the background is today’s royal fern (Osmunda regalis), a plant that has more or less remained the same since the dinosaurs roamed the Earth.	The evolution of flowers has been mapped by the museum’s own researchers. This flower is an 80 million-year-old fossil that was found in Skåne and named after Queen Silvia (Silvianthemum suecicum). With the flower are shown highly magnified pollen grains from the dandelion, masur birch and amaranth.	Researchers at the Swedish Museum of Natural History were the first in the world to map the mammoth’s entire heritage, thanks to the discovery of a Siberian mammoth. However, the mystery behind why the mammoth as a species died out approximately 4,000 years ago has still not been fully explained.
This fetus of a quagga (Equus quagga quagga) was brought home from South Africa in 1775 by Anders Sparrman, one of Linné’s students. The fetus is invaluable since the quagga, which is a relative of the zebra, is extinct today. The motif also depicts the museum’s large dome, which the visitor can see from the entrance hall.	This predaceous diving beetle (Hydroporus figuratus) was described in 1826 by Leonard Gyllenhaal, insect researcher and student of Linné. Other researchers believed that Gyllenhaal’s discovery was simply a known beetle with different coloring, but more recent DNA research has shown that it is its own species. In the background are diatoms.

Products and associated philatelic items

Official FDC		Maxi Cards
The Info page	Signed by the stamp designers: Eva Wilsson and Lars Sjööblon
EUROPA 2016 - "Think Green" stamp (issued on the same day) and was included on FDC, Collector's Sheet and Maxi Cards set of "Animals and plants from the Palace of Nature" issue.
Circulated FDC
Collector's Sheet	The Booklet

References

Bulletin (Stamp News magazine)

Acknowledge

Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for reviewing the draft page and his valuable comments.