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Collection services and cultural environment

Miniature of tram model Karia-Strömberg No 301

City Museum collections

Helsinki City Museum records and studies Helsinki and life in Helsinki. The collections feature items ranging from plastic bags to square pianos, from business cards to trams and from works of art to building parts – and a treasure trove of a million photographs from Helsinki.

Collections
packing collection objects

Loans and collection services

The City Museum lends archive materials, items, works of art and original photographs from its collections to professionally managed museums. Objects and works of art can also be examined and photographed.

Collection services
Lyyli Kannisto examines negatives through a magnifying glass in 1943

Picture Browsery

Are you looking for a picture of your street during your grandmother’s days or a snapshot of the playground where you used to play? You can browse the pictures online or visit the Helsinki City Museum at Aleksanterinkatu 16.

Picture Browsery
Old rusty oil reservoir on Vasikkasaari island

Cultural environment

One of the tasks of the City Museum is to make sure that buildings of different ages, interiors and distinct districts are preserved for posterity.

Cultural environment
Celebrating May Day by the fountain statue Havis Amanda in 1950s

Historical photos of Helsinki online

The Helsinkiphotos.fi service provides Helsinki-themed photographs from the collections of the Helsinki City Museum. You can download the photographs to your own device with high resolution or as smaller images more suitable for web use.

Helsinkiphotos.fi
Cover of the book Helsinki in color – color photographs from the 1950s to the 1970s

Publications

Helsinki City Museum publishes books, records and other products telling stories about Helsinki and its past both for adults and children. The most extensive collection of museum publications is available in the Museum shop.

Publications