Leikki, the Museum of Play – A Collection That Tells the Story of Toys, Play, and Childhood

The collection of Leikki, the Museum of Play, includes objects, photographs, and archival materials from the latter half of the 19th century to the present day. Approximately 13% of the collection has been digitized and is available online through the Finna collection service at museoleikki.finna.fi.

The museum also actively documents contemporary aspects of childhood and toy culture. Through this ongoing documentation, the collection is enriched with interviews, photographs, audiovisual materials, and objects.

The museum’s main focus is on childhood: the play history of toys, authentic childhood stories, and both the light and the shadows of growing up. Leikki is especially committed to preserving knowledge about Finland’s most beloved toys and Finnish-made toys throughout the ages.

The Object Collection of Leikki, the Museum of Play

The object collection of Leikki, the Museum of Play, consists of an estimated 13,000 items. The total count can vary significantly depending on how it’s calculated—for example, whether a fully furnished dollhouse is counted as one item or as hundreds of individual objects. Only a small fraction of the collection is on display at any one time.

Most of the objects in the collection are toys or other items and playthings essential to childhood. The collection includes, for instance, dozens of Martta dolls, mechanical tin toys, stuffed animals, large and small toy furniture, kick scooters, sleds, children’s magazines, Advent calendars, LEGO worlds, classic board games, Finnish wooden toys, and collectible items popular among children, such as matchbox labels, die-cut images, paper dolls, stickers, scrapbooks, and Kinder Surprise toys.

These objects offer a rich portrayal of the history and everyday life of Finnish childhood—typically ordinary childhoods—and of Finnish toy production from the mid-19th century to today.

The museum actively participates in the national museum collections collaboration network TAKO and operates within its Everyday Life (Arki) pool. Leikki holds the national responsibility for collecting Finnish-made toys and Finland’s most beloved toys. For Leikki, it is vitally important to preserve not just the objects themselves, but also their contextual information, memories, and stories—these are what reveal the broader significance of each toy within the larger narrative of childhood history.

The museum also documents contemporary life. In the 2010s, this included documentation visits to the Plasto toy factory in Åland, the former Niemi toy factory in Sastamala, families with children in Vantaa, and a Frozen-themed birthday party in Helsinki.

The object collection includes many individual items as well as larger, coherent sets. These include a collection of Soviet toys donated by the Lenin Museum, the interior and furnishings of a playhouse from 1930s Eastern Finland, a Star Wars toy collection from the 1970s–80s, a giant dollhouse mansion with hundreds of pieces of furniture and details, and a Barbie doll collection spanning from the late 1970s to the 1990s.

Among the museum’s treasures are handmade toys deeply cherished by their original owners—objects filled with memories. The collection also includes some rare items, such as a wooden doll designed by Kaj Franck in the 1940s, the rag doll AnnaMolla designed by Birger Kaipiainen in 1967, the board game Travelling in Finland from 1885, a doll once owned by composer Erkki Melartin from the late 19th century, and Moomin and Fauni trolls made by Atelier Fauni from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Childhood Phenomena

The Childhood Phenomena website presents key games, childhood activities, and favorite toys through digitized materials from the museum’s collection.

The site initially features ten colorful phenomena, with more to be added as research progresses. Each phenomenon is showcased with images, descriptions, and authentic childhood memories. You’re also welcome to share your own memories of familiar toys in the captions!

The pages are available in Finnish, Swedish, and English.

Start exploring the world of childhood collections at: https://museoleikki.finna.fi/Content/lapsuuden_ilmioita?lng=en-gb

The website was created as part of a project supported by the Wihuri Foundation and the Finnish Heritage Agency’s grants for innovative initiatives during 2020–2021. Sincere thanks to our supporters!

Photograph Collection

The photograph collection of Leikki, the Museum of Play, comprises approximately 560 images dating from the early 20th century to the present day. The collection has been built through private donations, photo collection campaigns, and documentation projects. In 2016, the entire photograph collection was catalogued and digitized as part of a project supported by the Wihuri Foundation, and most of it is available for browsing through the Finna online collection service.

The collection includes photographs of children in various settings, children with toys, and scenes of play. Efforts have also been made to include images depicting everyday life in families with children.

In addition to the actual photograph collection, high-quality digital images exist for parts of the object collection as well. Both archival photographs and object images are used in publications, magazine articles, exhibitions, research, and the museum’s own communications.

Donations

Leikki, the Museum of Play, accepts donations of objects, photographs, and archival materials on a selective basis. All donations must be agreed upon in advance with the museum director, who makes the final decision on what will be added to the collection. The museum only accepts donations that in some way complement or fill gaps in the existing collection.

A key priority for the museum is preserving Finnish-made toys, as there is little to no domestic toy production in Finland today. Items accepted into the collection should ideally be used and played with, and it is important to also document their story and context. The museum is less interested in the collectible or monetary value of an object, and more focused on its history and the stories connected to it.

Where is the toy from? Who played with it? What kinds of play did it inspire? Where was it made? Has it been important to multiple generations? What memories does it evoke?

You can offer a potential donation by sending photos of the items or images along with a short description. The museum does not provide financial compensation for donations.

For photographs, the museum is especially interested in images that capture play in different environments, various expressions of childhood, and toys from different time periods. If donors prefer not to part with original paper photographs, the museum can create high-quality reproductions or digital scans. When donating photographs, it is important that the donor holds full rights to the image (including copyright and personal data protection). Upon donation, the museum receives full rights to the donated materials.

Objects and photographs are used in the museum’s exhibitions, publications, communications, and research. The photo archive is also made available to external users.

Expert services and research assistance

If you have any questions about our collections, don’t hesitate to ask! Contact Johanna Rassi, p. 050 5767677 or johanna.rassi(a)museoleikki.fi. If you wish to use our images in your publication, please request permission from our information service: info(a)museoleikki.fi. You can also order print-quality images through our information service.The museum offers expert services and research assistance related to its field, but does not provide monetary valuations of objects. The museum lends items from its collection to other professionally managed museums and similar institutions for exhibitions. By separate agreement, the museum has also loaned collection items for use in films and other productions. There is no separate loan fee for object loans, but the working hours required to process the loan will be billed.