Kjerringøy archive

The Kjerringøy archive is extensive and comprehensive . It is 23 shelf meters wide and shows the trading posts business with the main emphasis in the years 1820-1900.

In 2014, this archive became part of Norway's document legacy , along with a selection of other commercial archives from Salten and Lofoten. Norway's document legacy is a selection of archives that constitute Norway's contribution to UNESCO Memory of the world register.  

The archive is important in itself, as an extensive example of a Nordlands merchant's business. In addition, Kjerringøy is currently best preserved by the Northern Norway trading venues. With its 15 conserved original buildings, with its authentic collection of interiors and objects related to its operations, as well as archive material after six traders and women over 150 years, Kjerringøy trading post is a unique cultural heritage in a national context. The trading post is owned, managed and communicated by Nordlandsmuseet. The rich archival material provides unique opportunities for knowledge about the operation at Kjerringøy. Several main subjects / master's theses in history are based on the archive, as well as researchers in and outside the Nordlandsmuseet have researched the material. The trading post is well-visited and a major contributor of historical information of Norwegian coastal culture in general and Northern Norwegian trade history in general.

The Kjerringøy archive consists of correspondence, books and accounting papers for a number of traders who run their business from the Kjerringøy trading post in the years 1801 to 1955. The oldest document in the archive is attached to the merchant Christen Sverdrup, which is a " Main Trading Handbook " which runs from 1801-1829. Sverdrup bought Kjerringøy in 1803 and has thus taken his trade book from his previous residence Hundholmen (now Bodø). There are only a few documents in the archive that are attached to him. Most of the archives are after the merchants Jens Nicolai Ellingsen, Ellingsen's widow, Anna Elisabeth, and K.Zahl , between the years 1822 and 1900. In addition, the archive contains a number of documents for the merchants G.Kristiansen , G.Kristiansen eftf. and A.Amundsen , from the years 1900-1955.

Archive No. 15: Kjerringøy, Bodø (1801-1955)

1. Books (1801-1955)

1.1 The business in general

1.2 Accounting books for fishing, fish procurement, fish shops, fishermen's cabins

1.3 Steamship expedition

1.4 Postal and telegraph books

1.5 Coastal shuttle

1.6 Insurance

1.7 Books regarding the farm Kjerringøy

1.8 Credit and land books

2. Correspondence (1822-1955)

3. Subject-divided correspondence (1820-1951)

4. Accounting / Appendices (1830-1927)

Research based on the archive:

Fulsås , Narve: The guardian and the fall of a Northern Norway trading post

Aas, Solveig Øvergaard: Kjerringøy trading place in a gender perspective. A study of Anna Elisabeth Ellingsen Zahl's life and work about 1820-1879. Master of History, NTNU 2016.

Engen, Arnfinn: Knut Hamsun and Zahl on Kjerringøy. Nordland District College , Report No. 3, 1977.

Moe, Knut: The economic development at Kjerringøy trading place. Information from the Kjerringøy archive at Nordlandsmuseet. Unpublished manuscript, about 1965.