The multifunctional role of fieldwork in Sweden in the eighteenth century is here elaborated upon. Linnaeus’s methods for teaching outdoors in the early modern period are explored, as also are the significant overlaps between using the field for the purposes of education and for exploration. Alternative, extra-scientific motives for studying nature outdoors are also discussed, including the social implication of fieldwork, the formation of a scholarly community and the enhancement of careers, as well the connection between politics, economy and the outdoors in eighteenth-century Sweden and elsewhere.