Picturing a nation: Finland on postage stamps, 1917–2000

Imagery on postage stamps contributes to the construction of national narratives, collective memory and a nation's self-image because stamps are products of the state and constantly present in quotidian situations. An examination of 1,457 Finnish stamps issued during the country's independence in the twentieth century is based on a mix of visual method(ologie)s. The stamps are read as multilayered, identity-political texts in their time- and space-specific contexts. The stamps narrate the evolution of the Finnish state, nation and society, and reflect the changing relationship between the state and its subjects. Keywords: banal nationalismvisual methodologiespostage stampsFinland Acknowledgements We wish to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Dr Raento's contribution is related to her Academy of Finland project 'Cultural and Political Geographies of the Everyday Mundane—Landscapes, Activities, and Identities' (Project # 204377). Notes 1. Female artists and writers were prominent in the country's small cultural elite from early on. Universal suffrage was reached in 1906, well before full sovereignty. 2. Signe Hammarsten-Jansson is also known as 'Ham', a critical political cartoonist, and the mother of artist Tove Jansson (1914–2001), creator of the world-famous Moomin characters, which first appeared on Finnish stamps in 1993. 3. We likewise excluded the stamps of the Åland Islands, issued since 1984 by the autonomous province's own postal services. Because of the political status and history of the province and the ethno-linguistic and historical distinctiveness of the Swedish-speaking islanders, the imagery on these stamps warrants a separate study. To see these images, please consult the Norma or LAPE catalogue. 4. The size of the edition was 1,497,000/1,000,000/1,500,000/800,000 in 1945 (LAPE, 2003, p. 26). 5. The two competing organisations, Työväen urheiluliitto (TUL) and Suomen voimistelu- ja urheiluliitto (SVUL) were finally brought together in the 1990s, when a national sports federation Suomen urheiluliitto (SUL) was created.