Collections as Donations

 

The collections of the Forestry Museum of Lapland have been growing for over fifty years. After the large donations received from forestry companies and other organizations at the time of the museum’s establishment, the volume and size of donations have leveled off.

During the mechanization transition of forestry in the 1950s and 1960s, there was no shortage of donations. Various items were donated by the Kemi Company, Metsähallitus (Government Forestry Corporation), Rauma-Repol, Veitsiluoto, and the Kemi and Tornio River floating associations. Among the most significant early donations were the Koivu log floating cabin from the Kemi River Company and one of the Sandberg locomotives owned by the Kemi Company. By the 2010s, the museum’s collections included about 3,000 objects, 43,000 photographs, archival materials, and the museum's own reference library.

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Cataloging Development

 

During the museum’s early years, contextual information about the materials was not always recorded or documented. This lack of information has later caused additional work for those cataloging the collections. Initially, cataloging was done using an index card system. In the early 2000s, the Lapland Forestry Museum joined a museum consortium that developed the EKuva cataloging program and created the Kantapuu collection browser.

The shared digital collection database Kantapuu Finna, which includes material from Lusto - The Finnish Forest Museum, The Forestry Museum of Lapland, Pielinen Museum, Nurmes Museum, Möhkö Ironworks Museum, Verla Factory Museum, and the Finnish Hunting Museum, allows browsing and searching museum collection information and ordering images. Kantapuu also enables feedback and additional information about the materials. Copyrights for the collections presented in Kantapuu belong to the museum preserving the material.

Kantapuu contains tens of thousands of photographs, artefacts, and literature, most of which relate to forest culture. The database is rapidly growing as digitization progresses.

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Artefacts

 

The Forestry Museum of Lapland's artefact collection primarily consists of items related to logging, transportation, living conditions, and floating from the late 19th century to around the 1960s. This period includes handcraft-based forestry work, the horse era, large logging operations and floating, and the time before mechanization.

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Photographs

 

The Forestry Museum of Lapland's photo archive contains about 43,000 images. The photograph collection includes old logging and floating images from Lapland, the Kemi River Floating Association’s photo collection, and the Savotta magazine collection. Only a fraction of the photographs have been cataloged in Kantapuu. You can browse cataloged photographs in Kantapuu.

The photo archive is housed at the Lapland Provincial Museum, which also handles photo orders. Contact the photo archive curator for inquiries.

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Archival Materials

 

Our archive includes, among other things, ledgers, plot maps, and drawings from the logging era. Some archival materials have been cataloged in Kantapuu. Cataloged materials include documents from the Kemi River Floating Association and Metsähallitus, such as ledgers, timebooks, and notes. Newer documents include labor agreements and payroll lists, as well as related contracts or minutes. Cataloged archival materials can be browsed in Kantapuu.

The museum also has a small reference library, which is expanded as needed. The reference library materials are intended for the museum’s own research use.

Donations

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The Lapland Forestry Museum’s collections are expanded through donations related to its field — Lappish forest history, logging, floating, and forest management — or by proactively acquiring new artefacts. Donations can include artefacts, photographs, or archival materials. Collection matters are handled by Heidi Pelkonen, the curator at the Lapland Provincial Museum. If you wish to donate to the museum or have questions about the museum’s collections, contact: heidi.pelkonen (at) rovaniemi.fi / 050 315 1481. Donations should always be arranged in advance; please do not leave items at the museum's gate or doorstep.

When receiving donations, a form is completed to confirm the museum’s ownership of the items. The museum does not accept items "for storage" without ownership rights. When receiving donations, efforts are made to record background and usage information. Poor condition and entirely contextless (background-less) donations are not accepted into the museum’s collections. Generally, multiple copies of the same artefact, photograph, or archival material are not stored.