Signe Hammarsten-Jansson Signe Hammarsten-Jansson Signe "Ham" Hammarsten-Jansson (née Hammarsten, 1 June 1882 Hannäs, Sweden - 6 June 1970 Porvoo) was a Swedish graphic artist who designed, among other things, around 220 Finnish postage stamps during the course of three decades. She was the mother of Tove Jansson, creator of the highly successful "Moomin" characters. Signe Hammarsten came from a respectable Swedish clerical family and was the child of a pastor's daughter and a court chaplain. Hammarsten's parents were opposed to her becoming an artist, and as a girl she had considered a career as a surgeon. Hammarsten went through 8 years of
Society of Swedish Literature in Finland and Swedish culture in Finland were under threat from the Finnish side. Leading cultural figures endorsed the need for an organization to preserve and mediate the Swedish cultural heritage in Finland. At the same time they sought to strengthen the identity of the Swedish-speaking population, and its understanding of its own culture. Today SLS has over 1,100 members, with around 100 employees in Helsinki and Vaasa. The SLS archives are a rich source of knowledge about Swedish-speaking Finland, its history, traditions, literature, languages, everyday life and folk music. SLS documents contemporary society and accepts donations of cultural and historical material