Children are life’s blossoms and our most prized treasures. Of course the beauty and blossoming of these flowers needs to be documented!

Today, readers of Pere ja Kodu magazine can find pictures of lovely children on each page of every issue. Parents have captured funny moments, which even years later bring a smile to your face. These moments are truly worth sharing. Did you know that similar pictures were also published before the war during the Republic of Estonia? The magazine was then the women’s magazine called Maret (published in Tartu 1935–1940). The children in those pictures were not captured candidly but were mostly posed and neatly combed. Among these images there a few everyday photographs but most of the children looking back at us are child models. One interesting characteristic of the times is the captions, which not only tell us the name of the child and their father, but also the parent’s profession and position. We find out whether they are children of bank managers, railway officials or farm owners. Amongst these you can find, for example, photographs of the daughters of both the sculptor Anton Starkopf and radio announcer Felix Moor. The children’s names, clothing, toys, what they are holding, where they are and what they are doing also tell us about the era.

This is one exciting story that is worth taking a look at – every picture has its own story. It seems like a good time to take a look at this in a nation that has just turned 100.

Curator: Tuuli Silber
Designer: Anne Järvpõld

We would like to thank:
National Library of Estonia Digital Centre