Picture collections

The Society’s culturally historic picture collections currently contain around 250,000 pictures from the 1860s to the present day. The photograph collections mostly date from the 20th century, and there are only a few examples of material from the 19th century. The Society’s oldest picture series is the series of five pictures by Eugen Hoffers of the ramparts of Häme Castle from 1869. However, many family history archives, such as the Krohn family, contain collections of pictures from both centuries. Privacy is characteristic of the material in the Society’s image archives; a significant number of the pictures are from the picture collections of private individuals. The picture collections contain photographs, negatives, drawings and bookplates. The Finnish Literature Society continually collects and stores visual material.

The ethnological photograph collection has grown up from donations and as a result of documentation work by the Folklore Archives. The collection contains collections of pictures on peasant culture and life, working communities, folklore narrators and scenes of folklore being recorded. The collections are divided as follows:

• The topographic collection (which also includes the accession collection)
• The photographer collection
• The field work collection
• The collection on folklore collecting, and
• The collection of drawings

The card indices and cataloguing methods relating to the different collections are presented in the guide Arkiston avain (only in Finnish).

The literary history picture collection comprises picture collections from the personal archives of Finnish writers and cultural figures that have been donated to the Literary Archives, and picture collections from literary societies, events and associations, together with pictures relating to the history of the Finnish Literature Society. The Society’s archives contain comprehensive materials on the following writers: Ilmari Kianto, F.E. Sillanpää, L. Onerva, Aaro Hellaakoski, Eila Pennanen and Aleksis Kivi.

• The literary history picture collection has information on both public Finnish cultural life as well as private family histories.
• A separate Ex libris catalogue has been compiled of bookplates from different archives.

The Biographical Centre of the SKS is putting together an image database of well-known figures from portraits and photographs contained in various Finnish archives The database can be used to search and order some of the photographs in the literary history picture collection of the SKS.

The SKS publishes scholarly literature in its core fields in languages other than Finnish. The Publications Department actively takes part in international book fairs and cooperates with several foreign partners in research, publishing and marketing.

Guidelines for users