Our fascination with what Latvia used to be like, once upon a time, is driven by that same impulse that wonders what Latvia would have been like had the Latvia our parents told us of had continued, not laid waste by half a century of Soviet occupation. Among other attributes, a country renowned for its natural beauty.

Let us turn back the clock back 120 years or so, to the latter part of the Victorian era--whose influence on design sensibilities extended even to Latvia, judging a contemporary picture album by its cover (right). The album was produced somewhere around the 1880's by C. Schulz, who, by all indications (based on our Internet research) ran a successful photography and lithography printing business into the 1900's. A sample of his print work for Riga's 700th anniversary (in 1901) can be found on the Latvian Academic Library's site, here»

This particular photo album of Latvia, one which we could not resist obtaining, is titled: "Livländische Schweiz"--or, The Livonian Switzerland--how our parents told us Latvia was once known as, and how we now share it with you.

We could tell it was earlier in Schulz's career as the picture of his studio differs from the one shown on the Latvian Academic Library site from Riga's 700th anniversary. Also, he did not print the album--it was printed by a V.Louis Koch, in Halberstadt, Germany.

C. Schulz's studio, pictured on the back inside cover of the album,
note the Victorian typeface both here an on the cover.