From lead to digi – 200 years of newspaper history

The festive exhibition of the newspaper Åbo Underrättelser, From lead to digi – 200 years of newspaper history, celebrates the oldest, still existing newspaper in Finland.

The exhibition of Sibelius Museum for summer 2024 dives into the world of media history. Åbo Underrättelser, also called ÅU, has survived the Great Fire of Turku 1827, bankruptcy, as well as the turbulent, ever-changing world of media. The exhibition presents, among other things, the birth and current state of ÅU, the people behind the newspaper, the most interesting pieces of news from the last 200 years and ÅU’s experiments with other forms of media. The visitor of the exhibition gets to experience the content by the traditional ways of a newspaper – text and pictures – but also with various objects and videos.

Alongside content that has a direct connection to ÅU, the exhibition presents the changes of printing technique and media world during the last 200 years.

The content of the exhibition was produced by the historian Christoffer Holm, who also published the history of ÅU, Äldst i Finland men aldrig gammal, earlier this year.

The exhibition is a part of the celebration of ÅU’s 200 years. ÅU and Sibelius Museum also share a part of their history since they both have earlier been located in Tryckerihuset, the house next to the museum. Another common factor is the Åbo Akademi University Foundation. The foundation maintains Sibelius Museum and is the largest shareholder of ÅU Media, which publishes the newspapers Åbo Underrättelser and Pargas Kungörelser.

The exhibition opens on June 15th and continues until September 15th 2024.