Editing Oscar II (section)

===Science and the arts===
[[Image:Oscar II of Sweden.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Portrait of Oscar II by [[Anders Zorn]] 1898]]
A distinguished writer and musical amateur himself, King Oscar did much to encourage the development of education throughout his dominions. In 1858, a collection of his lyrical and narrative poems, ''Memorials of the Swedish Fleet'', published anonymously, obtained the second prize of the [[Swedish Academy]]. His "Contributions to the Military History of Sweden in the Years 1711, 1712, 1713", originally appeared in the Annals of the academy, and were printed separately in 1865. His works, which included his speeches, translations of [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]]'s ''Cid'' and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s ''[[Torquato Tasso (play)|Torquato Tasso]]'', and a play, ''Castle Cronberg'', were collected in two volumes in 1875–76, and a larger edition, in three volumes, appeared in 1885–88.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

His Easter hymn and some other of his poems are familiar throughout the Scandinavian countries. His work on [[Charles XII of Sweden]] were translated into English in 1879. In 1881, he founded the world's first [[open-air museum]], at [[Norwegian Museum of Cultural History|Bygdøy]], located next to his [[Bygdøy Royal Estate|summer residence]] near [[Oslo]] (then known as Christiania). In 1885, he published his ''Address to the Academy of Music'', and a translation of one of his essays on music appeared in ''Literature'' in May 1900. He had a valuable collection of printed and manuscript music, which was readily accessible to the historical student of music.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Being a theater lover, he commissioned a new opera house to be built by [[Axel Anderberg]] for the [[Royal Swedish Opera]] which was inaugurated on 19 September 1898. It remains as the home of that institution.
Oscar II once told playwright [[Henrik Ibsen]] that his [[Ghosts (play)|''Ghosts'']] was "not a good play". As he was dying, he requested that the theatres not be closed on account of his death. His wishes were respected.

Oscar was also particularly interested in mathematics. In 1887, he set up a contest, to be awarded on the occasion of his 60th birthday in 1889, for "an important discovery in the realm of higher mathematical analysis".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The scientific legacy of Poincaré|date=2010|publisher=American Mathematical Society|others=Charpentier, Éric., Ghys, E. (Etienne), Lesne, Annick.|isbn=9780821847183|location=Providence, R.I.|pages=165|oclc=426389803}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-11672-8_43 | doi=10.1007/978-3-642-11672-8_43 | chapter=King Oscar's Prize | title=Gösta Mittag-Leffler | date=2010 | last1=Stubhaug | first1=Arild | pages=377–380 | isbn=978-3-642-11671-1 }}</ref> The contest listed four potential areas of research, one of which was the [[n-body problem]] in [[celestial mechanics]], relevant to the stability of the [[Solar System]]. [[Henri Poincaré|Henri Poincare]], a professor at the [[University of Paris]], won by submitting an entry showing that even the 3-body problem was unstable, the seminal result in what is now called [[chaos theory]].<ref>{{Citation|title=Chaos: An Introduction to Dynamical Systems|chapter=Chaos|date=1996|chapter-url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/0-387-22492-0_3|pages=105–147|place=New York, NY|publisher=Springer New York|language=en|doi=10.1007/0-387-22492-0_3|isbn=978-0-387-94677-1|access-date=2 February 2022|series=Textbooks in Mathematical Sciences|archive-date=9 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709112244/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/0-387-22492-0_3|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://www.math.uvic.ca/faculty/diacu/diacuNbody.pdf The solution of the n-body problem] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092935/http://www.math.uvic.ca/faculty/diacu/diacuNbody.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}, Florin Diacu. Mar 2016.</ref>

King Oscar II was an enthusiast of Arctic exploration. Along with Swedish millionaire [[Oscar Dickson, 1st Baron Dickson|Oscar Dickson]] and Russian magnate [[Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Sibiryakov]], he was the patron of a number of pioneering Arctic expeditions in the 1800s. Among the ventures the king sponsored, the most important are [[Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld]]'s explorations to the Russian Arctic and [[Greenland]], and [[Fridtjof Nansen]]'s Polar journey on the ''[[Fram (ship)|Fram]]''.<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.lib.helsinki.fi/tietolinja/0199/nordensk.html | first = Maire | last = Aho | contribution = AE Nordenskiöld Collection included in the Unesco Memory of the World Program | title = Tietolinja News | date = January 1999 | publisher = Helsinki | place = FI | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070707232447/http://www.lib.helsinki.fi/tietolinja/0199/nordensk.html | archive-date = 7 July 2007 | df = dmy-all }}.</ref>

Oscar was also a generous sponsor of the sciences and personally funded the [[Vega Expedition]], which was the first Arctic expedition to navigate through the [[Northeast Passage]], the sea route between Europe and Asia through the [[Arctic Ocean]], and the first voyage to circumnavigate Eurasia.