• The Artpic database, Department of Art History (in Swedish)
• The Bildsam database, The Picture Collection of Åbo Akademi University Library (in Swedish)
• The Etnpic databas, Department of Ethnology (in Swedish)
• The Musicpic database, Sibelius Museum / Department of Musicology

The project Digitalizing the Finland-Swedish inheritance of pictures - a minority culture available for reasearch has been working under the Ministry of Education and the National Information Society Strategy programme 1.5.1996-30.4.1998, and is offering the Internet users a new form of service: Electronic picture archives.

The participants are:

• The Picture Collection of Åbo Akademi University Library
• The Department of Ethnology
• The Department of Art History
• The Sibelius Museum / Department of Musicology
• The Maritime Museum of Åbo Akademi University
• Folk Culture Archives (Swedish Literature Society in Finland)

The Bildarvet project is cooperating with the Muisti project who's participants are: Helsinki University Library, National Board of Antiquities, State archive, Finnish Literature Society and University of Turku Library.

The project endeavours to make the Finland-Swedish inheritance of pictures available via Internet for research, and thereby connect it to the common national inheritance of pictures. The criterias for the choice of pictures have been to make unavailable pictures available and to preserve older valuable pictures and often required picture collections from wear.

The databases mentioned above are available and searchable through the Web (see the links above). The databases are implemented with the Trip database system, the picture files are separately stored on a file server. The databases contain digitized versions of original pictures and photographs, mostly made by photografers from Turku.

• views from Turku taken between 1860 and 1920
• pictures of old residents of Turku (born between the end of 18th century and 1896
• interior and exterior views from bourgeois homes, industries, handicraft surroundings
• finnish musicians and musiclife in Finland
• graphical pictures, watercoulor paintings and drawings with various motives

The databases contain appr. 9.000 digital pictures with descriptions (4.000 of them are only for internal use). Over 18.000 pictures have textdescriptions already available for everyone, they will be linked to digital pictures in the future. Some 2.400 pictures are searchable also in the Muisti database.

When using the digital pictures in the databases, please note the following:

• If you want to use a digital picture in a publication or at a public entertainment, you have to contact the department in question about the rights to use the picture.

• If you use texts or pictures in your research work, please note that you have to name the database and date of search in your sources. Note also that the information in these databases are under work and can be changed daily.

We wish that students, researchers and other interested will help us develop these databases. We sincerely appreciate all feedback.