On 18 May 2026, museums worldwide will mark International Museum Day under the theme “Museums Uniting a Divided World”. The theme highlights the potential of museums to act as bridges across cultural, social, and geopolitical divides, fostering dialogue, understanding, inclusion and peace within and between communities worldwide.
Trafiikki Museums honor the day by delivering stories behind the collection items that have united young Finnish people across other cultures in Europe and around the world too.
International Youth Service connected Young People Around the World
The collections of the Postal Museum include a large and heavy map related to a once-popular service that truly connected people across the globe. International Youth Service (IYS) distributed millions of addresses and connected young people worldwide through letter writing from 1952 to 2007. The organization reached its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before communication began to become digital.
The arrival of computers and the internet marked the end of IYS. In the early 1990s, home computers, the internet, and email made it far easier to establish contacts and significantly sped up communication compared to traditional letters. The operations of International Youth Service, once the world’s largest pen-pal organization, ended in 2007.
The map was donated to the Postal Museum by the son of Pentti Pirkkala, one of the founders of IYS. Pentti Pirkkala had wished that the map, which had been displayed in the IYS office in Turku, would end up in the Postal Museum.
Read exhibition manager Suvi Jalli’s personal blog post: Pen Pals from the Ends of the Earth – IYS Connected Young People Around the World
https://www.postimuseo.fi/kirjekavereita-maailman-aarista-iys-yhdisti-maailman-nuoria/
Caption: IYS compiled a world map for its Turku office showing the company’s connections to different parts of the world. Pentti Pirkkala donated the map to the Postal Museum in 2017. Photo: Postal Museum.
Interrail Poster
Interrail was a joint advertising campaign by European railway companies aimed at young people under the age of 21. It offered an affordable way to travel across as many as 21 European countries. What was originally planned as a one-year campaign became a phenomenon that still exists today.
Interrail took young people from Finland abroad and introduced them to new cultures. It made it possible to see destinations with one’s own eyes previously only heard about in school. New tastes, languages, and friendships broadened their worldview.
The Railway Museum’s collections include Interrail posters from several years. These posters are also international—the same design was used in all participating countries, only the language and prices adapted. Spotting these posters in exhibitions and collections of railway museums across Europe can be quite fun.
Thank you for our great writers: Mirka Ylä-Mattila from Finnish Postal Museum and Marina Bergström from Finnish Railway Museum!
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