By Jim Ronka
What an amazing journey this has been! The museum exhibit I was hired to build at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock, Michigan is nearly complete. The exhibit's title sign should be up by the end of this week: "Sisu, Sacrifice, and Survival: Finland's Fight for Freedom."
This label captures the exhibit's interpretation of Finland's path to independence and the defense of that freedom during World War II. The exhibit is scheduled to officially open on December 3, 2026, coinciding with the Heritage Center's annual commemoration of Finland's Independence Day, but visitors can interact with the exhibition now as it nears completion. As part of the exhibit development process, Finlandia Foundation National (FFN) is partnering with three premier military museums in Finland to conduct a Finnposium webinar on October 27. The directors of the Finnish Defence Forces Museum (Helsinki), The Infantry Museum (Mikkeli), and the Lotta Svärd Museum (Tuusula) will join Tommy Flanagan (FFN Executive Director) and me (FFN Curator of Special Exhibits) to explore the transatlantic experiences of the 1939–1940 Finnish Winter War.
I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to develop an exhibit experience that will help Finnish Americans connect with Finland's history and explore their heritage that might intersect with wartime Finland. Here in the final week of another work trip to Hancock (my fourth), I have gazed out my Quincy Hill Airbnb's window at the views across the Portage Canal and reflected on the past 11 months of this project — a project that evolved in ways I never anticipated and has led to many Finnish-American heritage discoveries.
It seems like a lifetime ago when I embarked on this rather unexpected journey.
"This job seems to be purpose-built for me!" That is what I told my wife in June 2025 as I reviewed the FFN job announcement seeking someone to curate the "Price of Freedom" military exhibit and the Winter War exhibit experience. Check — I’ve been volunteering in the museum community as a curator, docent, archivist, and managing committee member since retiring from the U.S. Navy in late 2009. Historian experience? Check — I’m pursuing a master’s degree in public history. Appreciation of Finnish-American heritage? Check — I’m a third-generation Finn with roots in Lanesville, Massachusetts and family ties to Hancock, Michigan. But still, I had no idea how much the job would expand my understanding of Finnish history and the deep connections between communities in the Upper Peninsula and Finland.
The wild card was the extensive travel to the exhibit location at the FAHC in Hancock. I live in Colorado. What would the exhibit location at the FAHC in Hancock be like? I drove on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula for the first time in July 2025, arriving in Hancock to meet the FAHC director and to tour storage and display space. I quickly discovered a community rich in Finnish heritage and a steely commitment to preserving the stories and artifacts of those who made their way from Finland to the United States.
We walked down Quincy Street and happened upon a street map mural of Hancock in 1890. What caught my eye was the "Finnish Lutheran Church" near the eastern end of Quincy Street. I did my homework before the trip and had prepared the translated journals of my great-grandfather Samuel Ronka. Reverend Ronka was a Finnish Lutheran missionary in German Southwest Africa from 1895 to 1902 and was then called to be a pastor in the United States. He and the family (including my grandfather) passed through Hancock in 1903 when he checked into the Suomi Synod headquarters at Suomi College; stayed in Old Main (the building that housed all the college’s functions at that time); and preached at Hancock's Finnish Lutheran Church. We made a beeline to the end of Quincy Street and there it stood up on Reservation Street, the former St. Mathews Evangelical Lutheran Church building — granted, my great grandfather preached in the original building that burned down in 1909 and was replaced by the current standing one, but the Finnish immigrant heritage connection was real.
I rounded out the two-day visit with a stop at Winchester Mine, some time in the FAHC archive, and a visit to the Portage Lake district, where I learned of a community life centered on the Finnish immigrant experience. The Finnish language and customs were alive and visible; it felt like stepping back in time while simultaneously recognizing how those immigrant stories shaped lives and identities for generations of Finnish Americans.
The Price of Freedom collection includes more than 2,000 "three-dimensional" objects and archival materials related to Finland's military history, ranging from battle shrapnel of the Finnish Civil War to a piece of the engine cylinder head from the helicopter that crashed in Vietnam carrying U.S. Army Special Forces legend Larry Thorne (birth name Lauri Törni), Finnish war veteran and winner of the Mannerheim Cross (Finland's equivalent of the Medal of Honor). The Price of Freedom collection was donated to Finlandia University by Harry and Mary Manner in 2022 and displayed in a university building. The collection had previously been displayed at The Price of Freedom Museum at Finland House in Lantana, Florida, where Harry was the curator. When Finlandia University closed its doors in 2023, the Price of Freedom exhibit was dismantled and stored, with a small portion going on display after Finlandia's Foundation National purchased the Finnish American Heritage Center and its collection. My job was to bring the collection back to life in the form of a traveling exhibit for display at FFN chapters.
I unpacked every box to understand what it had to work with and began my research. What became increasingly clear was that Finland’s World War II experience did not happen in a historical vacuum, but was connected to centuries of Finland's geographic destiny as a gateway between East and West. This expanded story arc began to reveal itself through the objects in the Price of Freedom collection, while also creating an opportunity to include other artifacts from the FAHC archive.
Still tracking on a travelling exhibit concept, I went back to Colorado to break down the mechanics of sending an exhibit on the road, concluding that the logistical challenges and shipping costs of a large travelling exhibit exceeded realistic resource expectations. Consequently, we shifted the deliverable to creating a more complete and comprehensive exhibit at the Finnish American Heritage Center that traces the complex history that led to Finland’s experience in World War II.
From the interaction I’ve had with exhibit visitors in March, June, and now September, it was the right decision. The overall response has revealed genuine interest in understanding the complexity of Finland’s history and how Finnish Americans can connect to its milestone events, especially those of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the same time, we are developing an online component and an exhibit lecture that tours FFN chapters in 2027 along with a sampling of relevant artifacts.
One story that Finlandia Foundation National is particularly well-positioned to tell is that of America’s experience during the Winter War. Finnish Americans were instrumental in supporting Finnish relief efforts and nearly 300 Americans volunteered to join the Finnish military to fight the Soviets. The FAHC archive preserves the records and books that tell many of these wartime stories, as well as the experiences of Finnish war survivors who immigrated to the United States after World War II.
One goal of this exhibit is to compel visitors to consider whether and how their Finnish ancestors experienced Finland’s war events. Although my Finnish great grandparents (Ronka and Seppala) had immigrated to the United States by 1903, I have no doubt that there are distant relatives of mine who lived through World War II in Finland, either as civilians subject to Russian bombardment (or evacuation from combat areas), soldiers on the front lines, or as Lotta Svärd women in military auxiliary members. And even for those who do not have a personal connection to Finland’s wartime history, our hope is that they can learn something from the exhibit’s displays and become better informed Finnish Americans or friends of Finland in America.
As I near the end of this exhibit project, I am grateful for the privilege to tell the story of Finland’s fight for freedom and to preserve the memory of those who sacrificed to keep Finland and the freedoms we cherish intact. I am also grateful for the many volunteers and organizations that have contributed to this work — from the FAHC staff to the Mannerheim collection donors, and from Finlandia Foundation National to the three Finnish museums participating in our Finnposium. This collaboration has deepened my appreciation for the ways that objects and stories can connect people across oceans and generations.
Editor's note: Jim Ronka is a third generation Finnish American and an active member of the Finnish immigrant community of Lanesville, Massachusetts. He is particularly interested in the experiences of his great-grandparents as Finnish Lutheran missionaries in German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia) and the ways their service influenced his interest in Finnish-American history.