Old photographs are fascinating; they tell of the past. The Porvoo Museum picture archive has for the most part themes dealing with Porvoo and the surrounding region from the end of the 1800s until today. The oldest images are daguerreotypes from mid-1800s. Even other old types of photographs are included in the collection.
Some of the largest groups of photographs in the collection are the Eino Nurmi collection, the Georg Christiernin collection, the photo collection from J. L. Runeberg’s Home Museum, which was transferred to the Porvoo Museum picture archive in 2001, as well as the John Granlund, Natalia Linsén, Hjalmar Lindfors, John Linsén and Modeen collections.
The Eino Nurmi collection is the biggest single donation of photographs in the collection, containing about 10 000 pictures. The collection of the photographer Eino Nurmi includes mostly images from Porvoo, but also from the surrounding areas. He has photographed persons, companies, events, sports, and the changing environment. The collection donated by Studio Foto Eriksson in 1997 consists of over 17,800 images. A significant group of photographs donated in 1999 has over 3,000 photographs and negatives of the area surrounding Porvoo.