Etelä-Savo museums - Savonlinna - The Suruton Doll & Toy Museum

The Savonlinna Provincial Museum

Olavinlinna

The Suruton Doll & Toy Museum

The Säimen Mill Museum

The Vuokala Museum Mill and Power Plant

The Suruton Doll & Toy Museum

Address	Enquiries	Open 2012
Linnankatu 11 FI-57130 Savonlinna	Tel. +358 (0)40 760 5434 nukkemuseo.suruton(at)live.fi Map	15.5–15.9. daily 11am–5pm Closed on Midsummer 22.–24.6.
Changing exhibitions and events		Admission
Teddy bear's 110th anniversary This year, 110 years will have elapsed from the birth of the very own bedtime toy of all children. Teddy bear was born at about the same time in both the USA and Germany, so both get credit for the emergence of this favourite toy. The Doll and toy museum Suruton is renewing its exhibition for a second summer. The basic exhibition downstairs will remain about the same, but bears will occupy more room upstairs. Art Teacher Käpy Tarus' doll and toy collection contains a few hundred teddy bears from different countries, including unique art teddy bears, made by collector enthusiasts of the domain. Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, President of the United States, loaned his name to the teddy bear. The name was actually spotted on a caricature inspired by a bear hunt in 1902. Morris Michtom, a Russian emigrant and grocer, thought of a good business idea and asked his wife to make a fluffy bear toy with moving limbs. The toy was placed in the their shop window together with the caricature. And that is how the teddy bear's world conquest began, what with Roosevelt having donated his nickname, too. That led to the founding of a teddy bear factory. German Margarete Steffi had a successful toy company, which in the 1880's already had in production a bear standing on four legs. Her nephew visited the Stuttgart zoo in 1903 to look for ideas for animal toys, and he was delighted by the frolicking bear cubs. Instead of felt, mohair plush made of the wool of an angora goat was used for the new doll-like bear with moving limbs. During the first days of a toy fair in Leipzig the same year the bear was of no interest, but on the last day of the fair, Herman Berg, an American businessman, fell for the bear and ordered 3,000 bear toy to be imported to the USA. Its popularity was unparalleled. The task of a teddy bear has not changed over the decades. Its purpose is to give and get love and affection, participate and inspire a child to play and use their imagination. Many a teddy bear hugged to pieces has lulled a small child to sleep and provided security all the way until the teenage years.		Adults 5 € Children under 12 years 2 € Children under 3 years free of charge School and student groups 2 €/person and every 16th person free of charge
Links
The Suruton Doll & Toy Museum Introduction of Rooms (PDF)

The Suruton Doll & Toy Museum has found a new home, re-opening in the summer of 2011 in a new location just in time to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The move follows an extensive development project carried out by the City of Savonlinna to preserve and renovate the buildings, streets and environs of the historic Linnankatu street connecting Olavinlinna Castle with the rest of the city. The Museum's new location in the Saima House at Linnankatu 11 will add a new specialty attraction for visitors to the Savonlinna central tourist route to enjoy.

The Museum is maintained by the Friends of the Suruton Doll & Toy Museum ry, a patron group of museum supporters founded in 2010. The 1,500 dolls and equal amount of toys in the museum collection are part of the extensive collection of art instructor Käpy Tarus. The doll collection includes toy dolls for play, a vast collection of souvenir dolls and a beautiful array of valuable collectables.

Among the toy dolls included in the collection, many originate from toy factories in Finland. Several of the dolls and toys featured are handmade by people living in Savonlinna. Dolls from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the former Soviet Union are also on display. The collection of over 400 souvenir dolls interestingly combines to navigate a path of different ethnicities across the globe. The collectable dolls in the collection have been handmade by artists, making them very valuable and thus unsuitable for play. Some of the dolls in this part of the collection are the only ones of their kind in the world. A dozen dolls in the collection have received special awards in competitions organized by the Finnish Doll Association.

The toy collection of the Museum encompasses every manner of toy that children have played with throughout the years: from doll houses and rocking horses to mechanical novelties and toy cars. Dolls and toys invariably communicate something about the time in which they were created. Their content and form may change with time, but the instinct to play lives on. The Suruton Doll & Toy Museum provides us with a fascinating glimpse of the world of the child, where playtime holds a crucial role in the development of imagination and creativity.

Photos from the collection of Käpy Tarus.