Axel Olai Heikel
Humanist of the day

Axel Olai Heikel

Axel Olai Heikel was an archaeologist, ethnologist and leading light in museology. He made countless ethnological field trips, wrote the first doctoral thesis on an ethnological topic in Finland and was granted the honorary title of professor. His most significant lifetime achievement however was to establish the Seurasaari open-air museum on the outskirts of Helsinki.

Axel Olai Heikel

Axel Olai Heikel
Born April 28, 1851, Brändo, Åland Isles. Died September 6, 1924, Huopalahti, Helsinki.

Docent, Finnish folklore, Imperial Alexander University, 1889-93
Curator, Muinaistieteellinen toimikunta (‘Committee for mediaeval studies’), 1893-1917
Curator, Seurasaari open-air museum, 1917-24

Research trips
Among Mari, Mordvinic and Udmurdic speakers in the Urals, 1883-86
Baltic region, 1885, 1900-03
Sayan Mountains, Siberia, 1889
Mongolia, 1890
Äänisjärvi (Lake Onega), Tver, 1903

Honours
Honorary Professor, University of Helsinki, 1920

Written by Tomas Sjöblom
Translated by John Calton

One lecture series to his name

Axel Olai Heikel graduated with a Master’s degree from the Imperial Alexander University in 1880. He studied archaeology, philosophy, aesthetics and literary history, but was also drawn to folklore studies. In 1876 he had a hand in setting up the Ylioppilasosakuntain kansatieteellistä museo, the student nations’ folklore museum.

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Seurasaari comes to town

The open-air museum Skansen in Stockholm was founded by Arthur Hazelius in 1891. This prompted influential men of science close to the Finnish National Museum to consider constructing the same or similar. Axel Olai Heikel was the man to do this. Heikel’s academic work was relegated to the margins of this great new plot, an open-air museum.

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