Hertonäs Manor's Blog

In this blog the curator and other employees of Hertonäs Manor Museum publish texts about the history of the museum, the history of Herttoniemi and other things we do. Welcome to follow us and read more in our blog!

Blog

A contract for one of Hertonäs manor's crofter

A contract from the first of December 1858 is preserved at Hertonäs manor, which Stjernschantz drew up for a crofter named Gustaf Eklund. A crofter is a farmer who works on a small area of land leased to him, usually by a burgher. Through this contract, one can get a better picture of what a crofter's life was like in the mid-1800s, especially what was required of him. Read more about this in this blogpost!Read more »
Mikael Lindholm
03.10.2023 hrs 13:42

Cronstedt in the American Revolutionary War 1776–1779

The young officer Cronstedt had a successful start to his career, when he had already at the age of 19 been promoted to lieutenant of the artillery. However, he wanted to continue advancing, so he decided to go into service abroad. Read more about this in this blogpost!Read more »
Mikael Lindholm
03.10.2023 hrs 13:31

Stuffed turnips from a manor-house kitchen

Our board member Janica Hindle has adapted a food recipe from Hedvig Charlotta Cronstedt’s food recipe book. Read more in this blogpost!Read more »
Janica Hindle
16.09.2023 hrs 12:26

Julle – the Stallion of Hertonäs Manor

In the 18th and 19th centuries, there were many active crofts on Hertonäs manor. Landowners usually also cultivated their own land and specially during the Bergboms time at Hertonäs the agriculture was greatly developed at the manor. When John Bergbom took over the responsibilities of running the farm from his mother Helena Bergbom in the 1880s, he started modernizing the agriculture by acquiring newly developed machinery for farming. The machines were mostly pulled by horses, so it was important to increase the number of working horses on the farm. In the late 18th hundreds John Bergbom bought a stallion for working on the farm and more importantly to produce foals.Read more »
Sten Selin
03.04.2023 hrs 10:32

Bengt Gabriel von Spången – one of the less Well-known Owners of Hertonäs Manor

Before Bergbom and Cronstedt Hertonäs estate had many ambitious and influential owners who left their mark on its history, some way or another. Mayor Abraham Wetter, merchant Johan Sederholm and field marshal Augustin Ehrensvärd are some of the most well-known owners of the estate during the 18th century but for the development of the estate, Bengt Gabriel von Spången was probably the most significant owner. He owned Hertonäs manor from 1761 until 1777 but in that short time he brought about many improvements on the estate and even founded the first joint stock company in Finland.Read more »
Sten Selin
03.04.2023 hrs 10:02

Royal Visit in Helsinki 1952

There are a lot of different objects and pictures in the archives of Hertonäs Manor Museum that have interesting stories behind them. Most of the objects and pictures relate to Hertonäs Manor in some way, but there are a few that have nothing to do with the Manor. When I was going through the picture archives, I stumbled upon a few photos that showed the king of Sweden visiting Finland during the 1950s. The photos lacked closer descriptions and when I catalogued the photos, I had no idea of exactly when the king of Sweden was in Helsinki during the 1950s. I did some detective work and discovered that the photos were taken in 1952 during the visit of the king of Sweden Gustaf VI Adolf and his wife in Helsinki. The king was not visiting because of the Olympics the same year. Read more down below!Read more »
Karl Heikkilä
26.08.2022 hrs 15:14

Signe Brander at Hertonäs Manor

Signe Brander was a famous Finnish photographer. In 1911 she took several pictures of Hertonäs manor. Read more about it in this blog post!Read more »
Sten Selin
13.08.2022 hrs 18:16

The old Uniform of Karl Zachris Bergbom

There are many items at Hertonäs Manor Museum that have belonged to the Bergbom family, who was the former owner of the manor. As a trainee I and fellow trainee Sten Selin have worked with taking photographs and conserving these old items. Most of the items are old clothes and among these clothes we found a uniform that is not from Hertonäs. According to the item catalogue of the museum the uniform belonged to John Bergbom’s brother Karl Zachris Bergbom, who used it when he worked as deputy governor for the Bank of Finland. Read more down below!Read more »
Karl Heikkilä
30.07.2022 hrs 18:21

Preservation and Digitisation at the Hertonäs Manor Museum

During the summer Helsinki city museum visited Hertonäs manor museum. You can read more about the visits here and more about the everyday work of the trainees at Hertonäs manor museum!Read more »
Sten Selin
03.07.2022 hrs 11:01

Internship at Hertonäs Manor

The last week in April the museum was visited by an intern. Read more below!Read more »
Ebba Randelius
29.04.2022 hrs 13:10

Our New Curator Presents himself

In April 2022 a new curator started at Hertonäs Manor Museum, MA Ted Hellsten. Read more about him belowe!Read more »
Ted Hellsten
21.04.2022 hrs 14:42

Young Interns for a Day at Hertonäs Manor Museum

Two pupils from Hoplaxskolan’s junior high in Munkkiniemi spent a day as interns at Hertonäs Manor Museum to get a glimpse of work at a museum. During a few hours they tried various light tasks under the watching eye of the curator. Read more about their day below! Read more »
Eva Ahl-Waris
16.03.2022 hrs 14:27

The Lady and her Maids - not Always in a good Relation

Many servants of Hertonäs Manor have been working here during the centuries, but the cooperation was not always so smooth between the lords and the labourers. In one case the lady of the house gav her maid bad grades and in another case the maid disappeared without a trace. Read more below! Read more »
Eva Ahl-Waris
08.03.2022 hrs 14:28

Hertonäs Manor as a Museum for Professor Topelius 1925-1958

From the 1920’s to the 1950’s Hertonäs Manor had a museum för the writer and professor Zachris Topelius (1818-1898). The first curator, Paul Nyberg, was the grandchild of the writer and created the exhibition in 1925 together with his relatives. Today we still have a few objects from this phase in the exhibition at the museum. Read more below!Read more »
Eva Ahl-Waris
13.02.2022 hrs 14:32

Looking back at the Museum’s Year 2021

The year 2021 is over and the museum has a break during the winter, but in any case we can have a look at what occurred in the past year. The corona pandemic continued with restrictions, but we still enjoyed a big crowd and many groups, like back in 2020. In 2021 the Christmas Path with DOT became a huge hit. We also had pupils and interns at work. And we arranged an exhibition in cooperation with the University of Helsinki as well. Read more below!Read more »
Eva Ahl-Waris
29.01.2022 hrs 14:35

Exposition Universelle 1889

Today Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. The capital of France has a long and rich history from the medieval period to the French revolution and to the modern age. There are many famous attractions in Paris such as the Louvre, Notre Dame de Paris, Arc de Triomphe, Palace of Versailles and of course the Eiffel Tower. The Exposition Universelle (world’s fair) 1889 is known for introducing the Eiffel Tower. But what has Paris 1889 and the Eiffel Tower got to do with Herttoniemi Manor Museum? When I went through different photo albums at Herttoniemi I discovered that Helene Bergbom (born Gripenberg) has left behind an album with pictures from the world’s fair 1889 and there were many interesting pictures in the album. Read more down below!Read more »
Karl Heikkilä
12.01.2022 hrs 14:40

Retirement Contracts – On Aging as a Farmer and a Burgher II

The signings of retirement contracts (Swe. sytning) remained important up and into the 20th century – a fact that proves their importance to the denizens of the Finnish countryside. The last people living as so called sytningshjon lived to experience the birth of the national pension system in the 1930s, before national pensions and urbanisation eventually made the retirement contract system redundant as a primary form of retirement. The contracts could also be signed by burghers and their relatives. Read more below!Read more »
Ida Karlgren
21.12.2021 hrs 14:47

Retirement Contracts – On Aging as a Farmer and a Burgher I

Through the ages many homesteads have switched hands via something called sytning/syytinki, amongst others Hertonäs manor. But what is sytning? It’s a phenomenon that has had many other names, depending on what Nordic country and region you’re from, but no matter what it is called few know it’s meaning and importance nowadays. Originally, the meaning of the word is to take care of something or someone, but it came to mean much more - as a form of retirement contract, sytning was the main form of pension for most property-owning farmers for centuries. Read more down below!Read more »
Ida Karlgren
13.12.2021 hrs 14:51

Antique Style at Hertonäs Manor

Earlier this autumn we heard the news about many volcanic eruptions on the island La Palma in the northern Canary islands of Spain. There has been many big volcanic eruptions around the world through history. In many cases these have had a vast impact on history. One of these volcanic eruptions occurred in 79 AD. At this time the volcano Vesuvius 10 kilometers southeast of Naples erupted. This influenced among other things the style that now is represented at Hertonäs Manor for all to be seen. How is the volcanic eruption reflected in the present exhibitions? How does the Antique period still affect what is displayed at Hertonäs Manor? In this blogtext I will focus on this theme. Read more below for more information about Vesuvius and Antique influences on Hertonäs Manor. Read more »
Ralf Palmgren
29.11.2021 hrs 14:53

Thorvaldsen Museum

Of all the collections that I have catalogued, none of them has been as unique as a collection of pictures taken across Europe. In a photo album with a lock, which belonged to Helene Bergbom (née Gripenberg), there are many photos taken from different places in Norway, Denmark, Germany, France (the Louvre) and Sweden at the end of the 19th century. Most of the photos are taken in Norway and the photos depicts different buildings in Oslo (back then known as Christiania), a stave church and beautiful landscape shots. But the most interesting photos of the album was from Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Read more down below!Read more »
Karl Heikkilä
19.11.2021 hrs 15:07