The Seals Collection

The Danish National Archives’ Seals Collection is a special collection, for the most part consisting of original seal impressions removed from or found outside their original archival contexts.

The West Indies

A few wax seals and impressions from government offices in the Danish West Indies in the 19^th century are to be found in the Seals Collection’s residual group, called Other Collections, in which subgroup VIII Dependencies and Colonies and particularly subgroup XXXI The West Indies include a good 50 impressions of seals. They are the seals of the local government, the colonial council, the superior court, the police, the postal service, and the customs office.

It is also possible to find impressions of the private seals of persons with links to the colony in other sections of the Seals Collection.

The separate seals collection of the Military Archives contains eight impressions of the seals of military and civilian authorities on the islands (provenance no. 1076, items nos. 481-488).

Finally, seals are affixed to a good deal of the original documents in the general collections of archival material of public and private provenance.

Finding Aids

A summary survey of the Seals Collection is found in Wilhelm von Rosen, ed., Rigsarkivet og hjælpemidlerne til dets benyttelse, vol. I:2, Copenhagen 1983, pp. 909-916.

Literature

In addition to the text in the general catalogue, edited by Wilhelm von Rosen, there is a brief introduction in Poul Bredo Grandjean, Rigsarkivets seglsamling, in Meddelelser om Rigsarkivet for årene 1921-1955, Copenhagen 1958, pp. 61-68.