Thank you to the donors of our small scale money collection

Thank you to the donors of our small scale money collection

17.12.2025

Thank you to everyone who donated to the Theatre Museum’s small-scale money collection. The proceeds have enabled the digitization and publication of a total of 129 photographs on the Finna.fi service. The funds were used entirely to cover digitization costs. The images are now available for everyone to view on the Finna.fi platform.

In addition to promoting the accessibility of performing arts cultural heritage, our goal was to improve the quality and quality control of the museum’s digitization process, following the Finnish Heritage Agency’s guidelines for digitization quality management.

The majority of the digitized and published material consists of performance photographs, with some role images also included. Among them are well-known Finnish artists, such as actor Leo Lähteenmäki (1907–1982), who was also famous for his film roles. On stage, he played Macheath in Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. The play, also known as The Beggar’s Opera, was performed at the Helsingin Kansanteatteri in 1938–1939. Lähteenmäki; “London’s greatest villain consistently stuck to his chosen line: parodically refined and tragic, agile and cynical.” (Ilta-Sanomat, 6 October 1938). The production was directed by Eino Salmelainen.

A man in a dark suit, bowler hat and white gloves, holding a walking stick under his arm.
Leo Lähteenmäki as Macheath in Helsingin Kansanteatteri’s The Threepenny Opera in 1938. Photo: Atelier Ortho, Theatre Museum Archive. Photograph on Finna.fi.

Another figure, well-known in her time but later overshadowed by history, is dance artist Hilma Liiman (1872–1937). She trained as a dancer under several teachers, studying in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Central Europe. Liiman worked as an actress and dancer in Finland in the 1890s and early 1900s, and taught dance and plastic movement. From her travels abroad, Liiman brought back the tango, reportedly as the first in Finland.

A photograph in the museum’s collection reflects influences from Isadora Duncan, the pioneer of American modern dance. The dancer, dressed in a Duncan-inspired tunic, included Duncan’s famous number On the Beautiful Blue Danube in her repertoire.

A woman poses in a white tunic-like costume, with long hair loose and arms raised upward.
Hilma Liiman dancing in the early 1900s. Postcard sent by Liiman to Mr. and Mrs. Heikki Niskanen and dancer-choreographer Toivo Niskanen on 25 December 1906. Photo: Theatre Museum Archive. Photograph on Finna.fi.

You can read more about the journey of an individual photograph to Finna in project researcher Aino Kukkonen’s latest blog post.

Johanna Laakkonen