History

The Finnish Glass Museum was established at Riihimäki in 1961. The museum collection was based on a collection of 500 objects and artefacts collected by the students of Hämäläis-Osakunta, the Häme Province Student Corporation or Nation. Opened to the public in 1965, the museum first operated in a villa known as Allinna in centre of Riihimäki. An example of the Danish manorial style Allinna was built by estate-owner Rudolf Gestrin for his wife Alli in 1919.The house was designed by the architect Oiva Kallio. The Finnish Glass Museum operated at Allinna until 1980.

The Finnish Glass Museum moved into its present building in 1980. The facility was originally built in 1914 as a ground turf factory for the Paloheimo Oy company. In 1921, the Riihimäki Glassworks company converted the building into a glassworks. The building has also housed a plastics factory and silkscreen-printing plant, and most recently the crystal polishing department of the Riihimäki Glassworks. The present museum café is the old horse stables of the glassworks. The alterations of the building and the museum's permanent exhibition were planned and designed by Tapio Wirkkala, a legendary name in Finnish design and a member of the Academy of Finland. The permanent exhibition was opened to the public in 1981, in the tercentennial year of the Finnish glass industry. The museum has 1,700 square metres of exhibition space. The larger room for temporary exhibitions was previously the glasshouse, or glassblowing section, of the Riihimäki Glassworks.