MILITARY HOSPITAL NO. 17 Selections from nurse Veera Pekkanen’s photo collection 15.6.–26.8.2023

Mikkeli county hospital operated as military hospital no. 17 during the winter and continuation wars. Those wounded at the front were transferred to inland hospitals through mass detention centers, where most of the treatments were carried out. Veera Pekkanen (born Fagerström, 1912–2004) worked as a nurse at the 17th military hospital. She collected photos of the hospital's activities, which his son Timo Pekkanen donated to the Mikkeli Photo Center. There is no certain information about the people who took the photos. In the photos from Veera Pekkanen's collection, wounded convalescents receive daily care in the hospital's premises. Sometimes they have been taken on a nature trip. The collection also contains pictures of the damage to the county hospital: for example, the operating room had been completely hit. Pekkanen's photo collection has been edited for the exhibition by photo artist Olli Jaatinen.