The Birth of the Museum & Sibelius Museum in Turku

The Birth of the Museum

The year 1907, Helsinki. Student Otto Andersson, a music enthusiast trained in church music and musicology, proposes in the magazine Finsk Musikrevy that a museum and a library of musical history should be founded within the Helsinki Music Institute. The idea sparks no interest in spite of Andersson’s enthusiasm.

February 1926, on a train from Helsinki to Turku. Otto Andersson, Ph.D. sits in the company of Severin Johansson, the rector of Åbo Akademi University.
“When will you come to Åbo Akademi?” Johansson suddenly asks.
“Whenever you invite me”, replies Andersson.
“We will invite you as soon as you organise the funding”, says the rector. The funding is provided by Andersson’s cousin, shipowner Robert Mattson. Through his donation, Åbo Akademi establishes Robert Mattson’s professorship of musicology and folklore.

November 27^th, 1926. Otto Andersson is appointed the first professor of musicology and folklore at Åbo Akademi. His work includes teaching, research and collecting all kinds of music-related material.

Sibelius Museum in Turku

Andersson’s collection of music-related material was initially called The Collections of Musical History at Åbo Akademi. From early on, the collection included Sibelius-material bequeathed to Åbo Akademi by Axel Carpelan. As the amount of Sibelius-material grew, the collection was unofficially called the Sibelius Museum already in the 1940s. Even though the majority of the material in the collections back then was – and still is – unrelated to Sibelius, Andersson decided to ask Jean Sibelius for his blessing to officially name the collections the Sibelius Museum. Sibelius gave his permission and since 1949 the collections have been known as the Sibelius Museum.

For a long time, the Sibelius Museum worked alongside the Åbo Akademi department of musicology. Åbo Akademi owned the museum, and the operation of the museum was taken care of by department staff. Both the department and the museum worked in the same building until the 2010s. The Sibelius Museum has been owned by the Åbo Akademi University Foundation since 2019.

A lot of other activity has emerged around the collections of musical history. Nowadays the Sibelius Museum is perhaps best known for its concerts. In addition, the museum organises various events and exhibitions, and constantly acquires new material for the collections.