The collection consists of photographs of Finnish groups in Hancock, Michigan, most related to St. Matthews Evangelical Lutheran Church. Also included are views of confirmation classes, church choirs, and a temperance pageant enacted by the Star Temperance Society in 1913.
Anna Sivia Elonen was born a United States citizen in Laihia, Finland, in 1904. She completed her high school education in Hancock, Michigan. Elonen earned a Bachelor's degree from Lawrence College in Appleton, Wis. in 1925, followed by a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. She then spent one year teaching high school and ten years as the mental examiner for the state of Minnesota. In 1937, Elonen moved to Chicago and eventually received her doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Chicago. Between 1937 and 1950, Elonen worked as an assistant professor in University of Chicago's Department of Medicine and Psychology as well as chief psychologist at the University of Chicago Clinics.
By 1950, Elonen had joined the University of Michigan as an associate professor and, in 1958, was named full professor. She would serve as a professor in the departments of psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics as well as the chief psychologist for the Children's Psychiatric Hospital in Ann Arbor. She was also involved with the University of Michigan's Fresh Air Camp—founded in 1919 as a summer camp that supported at-risk and, later, differently abled children—and also held a research appointment in the university's Institute for the Study of Mental Retardation.
Elonen's areas of expertise included child clinical psychology and pediatric psychology--her work addressed blind children, adopted children, performance tests, infant intelligence tests, brain damage in children, and the impact of lead poisoning. Elonen also contributed to Finnish scholarly literature and received two Fulbright Fellowships that allowed her to research and teach at the University of Jyvaskyla. The University of Jyvaskyla would go on to award her an honorary doctorate in 1981. Additionally, the Finnish Psychological Association established the Anna S. Elonen Foundation, as well as a scholarship in her name.
Upon her retirement from the University of Michigan in 1972, Professor Elonen was named Professor Emeritus of Psychology in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry in the Medical School. She passed away on August 9, 1982 in Green Valley, Arizona.
