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Information services and research

Recording, studying and displaying cultural heritage is one of the core tasks of our museum.

The museum collections lay a foundation both for research work and for information services aimed at the general public, offering all interested parties access to historical data, artefacts and artworks, and photographs and archive materials.

The information service and research work promote the building of a local and regional identity and the sense of communality. Cultural heritage, along with the connected research data, helps us to perceive and understand the local and regional peculiarities and similarities in relation to the surrounding areas.

Information service

The museum’s information service serves all those who are interested in the local cultural heritage and art. The service themes are built on the history of Kokkola and the surrounding areas and on the museum’s own collections.

Information and photograph service requests shall primarily be sent to museo.tietopalvelu@kokkola.fi.

Customers are advised to take note of the delivery period of 2–4 weeks.

  • The local heritage archive of Kokkola is an archive maintained by the City of Kokkola and the K.H.Renlund Museum. The main task of the archive is to receive, store, organise and display local materials. The local heritage archive of Kokkola contains, among other things, archived materials of local associations, businesses and private persons.

    In addition to official documents, it is possible to donate to or store in the archive different recordings and documents related to local traditions. In the case of donations, the ownership of the materials is transferred to the local heritage archive, whereas stored materials remain the property of the party that stores the material in the archive.

    The local heritage archive is a public institution, which usually means that anyone can access the material donated to/stored in the archive to read and take copies, unless the use of the material is limited with specific restrictions.

    The documents stored in the archive can be studied in the research room within the archive’s opening hours.

    Contact information: museo.tietopalvelu@kokkola.fi, tel. +358 (0)44  9576.
    Location: Vaasantie 6, so-called i-Park building.

    Opening hours:

    The local heritage archive materials of Lohtaja are located in the Kokkola local heritage archive. The K.H.Renlund Museum is responsible also for operating the Kälviä local heritage archive. The Kälviä materials are stored in the Kälviä regional office, and the office personnel shall be contacted to study the archive materials.

    Customer service/switchboard of the Kälviä regional office, tel. +358 (0)40 8065 010.

    Local heritage archive of Kokkola, Vaasantie 6, 67100 KOKKOLA

  • The museum is tasked with fostering and maintaining the local cultural heritage for future generations, but also with studying, interpreting and displaying it in the modern society. Research is a part of the museum’s basic collection management work.

    The gathered research data is made available to the public through, for example, the collection and information service, publications, seminars, events and exhibitions. For example, the culture-historical exhibition Kokkola 400 –  Onni suosii rohkeaa (Fortune favours the brave) is based on the museum’s own research, building on the city’s history and the museum’s artefacts and materials.

    Another example of the museum’s research work is the joint project between different museums, Pohjanmaan porvariverkostot (Bourgeois networks in North Ostrobothnia). Since 2013, the K.H.Renlund Museum has collaborated with the museums of the historical Ostrobothnia to study the history of the bourgeois class in Ostrobothnia and the related networks in the 18th and 19th century. The project has resulted in the publication of four article collections on different themes, namely housing and living (2013), trade networks (2016), educational networks (2018) and physical cultural heritage (2020). The museum’s publications are available for purchase in the museum shop.

    The museum has a positive outlook on research collaboration. Many local residents and communities, such as the special information office of local history ETT ry which often complements the museum’s work, take part in the multi-stage research processes. Indeed, the key conditions for implementing top-quality research are openness, transparency, enthusiastic curiosity and hunger for information.

    Contact person for research activities:

    Curator of Research Erik Engberg, erik.engberg@kokkola.fi, +358 (0)44 780 9757.

  • Special information office ETT ry, (ETT in short), supports the work of the K.H.Renlund Museum. The association’s roots are in the open information community established in 2009, which has worked to complement the museum’s research and information service activities for over 10 years. A group of amateur researchers that had worked regularly in connection to the museum established their operation in 2018 by becoming a registered association.

    ETT and the museum

    Since 2009, ETT has been operating as a permanent partner of the K.H.Renlund Museum. Their common goal is to strengthen the knowledge of the complex local history, which is done by both storing and distributing information. ETT’s work adds to the museum’s service selection, and the target group consists of the local residents living in the city and in the surrounding areas.

    ETT promotes the museum’s objectives by lowering the threshold for using the museum services and supports the general public’s abilities to recognise and appreciate cultural heritage. ETT records the stories of the little people and the forgotten, collects memories and photographs and identifies events and persons.

    Thanks to its operating model of open expertise, or “amateur expertise”, ETT has stirred a lot of interest both in Finland and on international platforms.

    “…this compilation work lets us give back to people by offering them experiences through the gathered stories, because our history is something we all share…” (ETT member)

    ETT contact information:

    Chairman Terho Tattari, terho@tattari.fi

    Secretary Elisa Maunumäki, elisa.maunumaki@anvianet.fi