Daina Morica, Latvian National Library, left, and Amanda Swain

Baltic Photo Project Comes Full Circle as Exhibit Travels 'Home'

Seattle resident Tiina Oviir emigrated from Estonia.*

After returning from a conference in Helsinki in 2003, Nicolette Bromberg, Visual Materials Curator for Libraries Special Collections, teamed up with Michael Biggins, head of Libraries Slavic and East European Studies Section, and Guntis Smidchens, professor of Baltic Studies, to document residents of King County with roots in Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania. 

The result was an exhibit of black-and-white photographs of individuals in the local Baltic community taken by noted photographer Mary Randlett. Now six years later, Amanda Swain, a Ph.D. student specializing in Baltic history in the UW Department of History, and Bromberg have traveled to the Latvian National Library to mount the exhibit.  It will also be presented in libraries in Estonia and Lithuania.

Learn more about the original exhibit: Go to page 7.

* Photo by Mary Randlett