The new Postal Museum is open

The new Postal Museum has opened its doors at Museum Centre Vapriikki, Tampere. In the first exhibitions you can experience the past and present of the postal services and get to know the artist Touko Laaksonen, aka Tom of Finland.

The Messengers exhibition will feature several compelling features that mark the important moments in the history of the postal services. Posti is the oldest transport company in Finland. It has come a long way from the days of the system of peasant farmers who started delivering mail on foot in 1638.

As you enter the museum, you will be on a farmyard with sights and sounds of the early postal history. The exhibition provides visitors with experiences, information and fresh insight produced by researchers. It is for the whole family, and children will find many things to explore and learn.

All stamps issued in Finland will be on display. The exhibition will also feature a room of a boy who collected stamps in the 1950s; there is a world map in the room with stamps from all over the world that can be studied through a telescope.

Sealed with a Secret – Correspondence of Tom of Finland (until 29 March 2015) is an exhibition that lets artist Touko Laaksonen tell his own story. Laaksonen's homoerotic art is well known but his life behind the pseudonym Tom of Finland has remained a secret to many.

The exhibition sheds light on Touko Laaksonen's life, allows museum guests to see this multitude of previously unseen letters, and shows that Touko Laaksonen was an avid philatelist as well.

More information:
Postal Museum postimuseo.fi
Museum Centre Vapriikki vapriikki.fi