UMAC Worldwide Database of University Museums & Collections

Address:
P.O. Box 35, 40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Contact:
Prof. Janne Vilkuna, Director
jvilkuna@campus.jya.fin
Phone: +358 14260 1465

Links:
Jyväskylä University Museum
Jyväskylä University

Description:
The Seminaarinmäki Hill in Jyväskylä has housed museum activities for already a hundred years. In fact, the beginning of the museum's collections can be dated to the 1860s. The Jyväskylä Teacher Training College, the first Finnish training institute for elementary school teachers, was established in 1863, and started to collect didactic specimens. The items were inscribed in the college's inventory. The oldest recorded articles include e.g. African spearheads, ancient Roman "scraps", and eared seal's whiskers. The collection also comprised seashells, rocks and stuffed birds which Uno Cygnaeus, the founder of the training college, had brought from his trip to Alaska.

[Text from the Web site "Museumland.com"]