Bread bought on April 18, 1918. Photo: Markku Haverinen / Picture Collections of the Finnish Heritage Agency. Objektinumero: H7388

The Finnish Heritage Agency helps schools in need of images – 700 pictures on Flickr of Finland in the 1900s

The Picture Collections of the Finnish Heritage Agency have published approximately 700 pictures of Finland in the 1900s on Flickr for school use. The images have been saved in a high quality jpg format, and they can be used at schools for any assignments in any subject. Imagination is the only limit.

The themes of the images include technology, transport, the exercise of power, housing and everyday life, fashion and design, art, migration and multiculturality, professions, work and food from 1900 to 1999. The themes have been selected in cooperation with teachers.

Schools need pictures for purposes such as presentations and assignments for different subjects. Students often look for images online, but there is usually a dearth of good quality historical images that are free to use. The images published by the Finnish Heritage Agency on Flickr can be used in art lessons in collages, in handicraft lessons in illustrated works, or in Finnish or Swedish lessons for pupils creating their own newspaper. Imagination is the only limit.

The pictures are not completely free, however. They cannot be used for commercial purposes. The pictures have been published with the licences CC BY-NC-SA (the picture can be shared, copied and altered; the licence must be mentioned if the picture is shared) and CC BY-NC-ND (the picture can be shared and copied, but it cannot be altered; the licence must be mentioned if the picture is shared). The Finnish Heritage Agency, the collection, and the name of the photographer, if known, must always be mentioned as sources in connection with the pictures.

The criteria for selecting the pictures included that the pictures should include movement and that they should represent as wide a variety of the different aspects of life as possible. The intention was for the selection to depict issues that were clearly related to the lives of the schoolchildren as well as the key events in Finland during the century, but that were not limited to political decisions and wars. In addition to themes, the pictures have also been grouped by decade.

The Finnish Heritage Agency produced the set of pictures with a grant from the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The Picture Collections of the Finnish Heritage Agency’s set of pictures from Finland in the 1900s can be found on Flickr at the address:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/museovirastonkuvakokoelmat/albums