The Mannerheim Museum is a historical house museum.

Collections

The Mannerheim Museum is a historical house museum. The museum building, Mannerheim’s former private residence in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki, is a culturally and historically valuable ensemble. The building is one of the oldest preserved wooden buildings in Helsinki and is protected by the Building Heritage Act. The museum’s greatest value is linked to the house’s resident, the historical figure Gustaf Mannerheim. The museum collections consist of the household effects of Gustaf Mannerheim and biographical photograph and archive material gained during Mannerheim’s lifetime. The collections tell the story of Gustaf Mannerheim’s multifaceted everyday life, career, travels, interests, and, more generally, the period in which he lived and worked.

The museum collections are maintained and managed according to professional quality standards. The principles of the Mannerheim Museum’s collection activities are defined and aligned in the museum’s collection policy.

Cultural historical collection

The cultural historical collection of the Mannerheim Museum consists of the contents of Gustaf Mannerheim’s home in Kaivopuisto. The items in the home were accumulated during Mannerheim’s lifetime, from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, and each object tells a story about a different stage of Mannerheim’s life. The diverse collection includes art, furniture, functional and decorative objects, gifts, souvenirs, hunting memorabilia, tableware, clothing, home textiles, and Mannerheim’s personal items.

Photograph collection

The Mannerheim Museum’s collections include an extensive photo collection consisting of Gustaf Mannerheim’s own photo albums and individual photographs, as well as photo donations received by the museum. The photo collection includes pictures from Mannerheim’s career, celebrations and public events, private moments and trips, as well as friends and acquaintances. Most of the photo albums were donated to Mannerheim, and many of them are related to his years as Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces.

Photographs belonging to the Mannerheim Museum’s collections can be ordered for use through the museum’s info services. A fee is charged for the use of the images. The charge is €80 per image (per use) for the right to publish images. Some images have also been published for free usage at Finna.fi.

Enquiries: info@mannerheim-museo.fi or liisa.oikari@mannerheim-museo.fi

Library

Gustaf Mannerheim’s personal home library contains approximately 5,300 works. Like the cultural historical collection and the photograph collection, the library was mainly accumulated during Mannerheim’s lifetime through his diverse contacts. The library’s contents focus mainly on military history and biographical literature, but it also contains a considerable amount of fiction. The books are in 14 languages, with Swedish, French, and Russian being the most common.

The museum also has a comprehensive reference library. The reference library contains literature on Mannerheim as well as broader historical research. The reference library is available for use by researchers by appointment.

Digital materials

The accessibility of the Mannerheim Museum’s collections is being improved by regularly publishing digitized materials online. The museum and its collections can be viewed independently through a virtual tour, and additional information about the collections is provided, for example, through videos on the museum’s YouTube channel and social media. Each year, curated sets from the museum’s collections are published on the Finna.fi website.

Finna.fi

Get to know the museum's collections on the Finna site.

Finna