Cultural artifacts

What is culture? Many believe culture is language. Certainly, once one loses the language of their ancestors, they lose access to their culture and history as told and taught in their ancestral language. Still, culture is more. It is how we live, what we value in life, what of our past defines us — and what we preserve as an inheritance for future generations. We've broken out our cultural artifacts below.

Browse everything at Entire library by era

Materials listed by category and year.

  = album/postcards    = includes facsimile    = culture    = Soviet propaganda 

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• Latvian Kitchen
  
  The Latvian and Modern Kitchen (LATVIAN, Latviskā un Modernā Virtuve), Fischbach Latvian Committee Literary Publisher, 1949—Traditional Latvian recipes, excerpts and translations for pīrāgi, galerts, and kotletes, published at the Fischbach DP Camp, Germany.

• Freedom Monument
  
  Freedom Monument (LATVIAN, Brīvības Piemineklis), Jānis Siliņš, Brīvības Pieminekļa Komiteja, 1935—Art critic Jānis Siliņš's detailed discussion of the Freedom Monument, published by the Freedom Monument Committee.
• Arts & Crafts Exhibition
  
  
  The First Latvian Arts and Crafts Exhibition Catalog (LATVIAN, Pirmās Latvijas Daiļamatniecības Izstādes Katalogs), Valstspapīru Spiestuve, 1937—Essays on the exhibition and aspects of traditional arts and crafts. B&W and color plates of exhibit objects. Facsimile.
• Latvian Signs
  
  
  An Children's ABC of Latvian Signs (LATVIAN, Latvju Rakstu Ābecīte), Latviešu Bērnu Draudzības Savienība, 1939—A child's primer on the basics of Latvian ornaments and examples of how more complex forms are then constructed. Facsimile.
• Signs, Swastikas, Mittens
  
  Signs, Swastikas, Rhetoric, and Mittens for NATO, Latvian Foreign Ministry et al., 2006—Latvian deities and their signs, the place of the swastika in Latvian culture, and all 5,260 pairs of mittens knitted for the 2006 NATO conference in Rīga, Latvia.

• Anna Apinis' loom
  
  Anna Apinis' Latvian weaving loom, 1946 and following—The story of the building of Anna Apinis' loom in the Memmingen post-WWII DP camp and her lifelong mission to preserve the tradition of Latvian weaving, with a video by her daughter Anita Apinis-Herman.
• Anna Dārziņa Post Cards
  
  
  Latvian folk costumes, Anna Dāŗziņa, Esslingen DP Camp, Jānis Liepiņš, ca. 1949—Illustrations of Latvian folk costumes. Set of 18 postcards.
• Folk Costume Fold-Outs
  
  
  
  Soviet era folk costume foldouts (LATVIAN, Tautas tērpi), Latvian State Publishing House, ca. 1958—Collection of women's and men's folk costume Soviet era souvenir fold-outs, depicting costumes from various regions of Latvia and including descriptions in French, English, Russian, and Latvian.

• Opera Program
  
  
  Latvian National Opera program (LATVIAN, Latvijas Nacionālas Operas nedēļas repertuārs), April 1923—Opera attendees' program for April 17 through 28, 1923, restored and facsimile with translation
• First USA Song Festival
  
  
  The First Latvian Song Festival in America (LATVIAN, Koŗa dziesmu krājums, I. latviešu dziesmas svētki Amerikā), Chicago, 1953—Mixed choir participants' music. 21 songs, complete.
• Festival of Lithuanian Art and Music
  
  Festival of Lithuanian Art and Music, National Lithuanian Society of America, 1953—Lithuanian exile community celebrates the anniversary of Lithuania's original founding with art, a concert, and banquet in Washington, D.C. Festival program transcribed and PDF facsimile.
• Dziesmu svētki, mailer videos

• The Lord's Prayer
  
  The Lord's Prayer in 500 Languages, George E. Hay, Gilbert & Rivington, London, 1905—Latvian, Liv, Estonian, Lithuanian, Samogitian, Finnish, and Old Prussian excerpted. We compare the Lord's Prayer in early 16th, 20th, and current Latvian.
• A Shepherd Died
  
  
  A Shepherd Died (LATVIAN, Viens gans nomira), 1942—A miniature folk song booklet published by Tautas Palīdzība (Peoples' Welfare) in war-time Latvia and given out for donations to help the orphaned and widowed, illustrated by a popular Latvian pre-war and post-war diaspora artist—and who dated Peters's father while they studied together at the Academy of Art.
• 1945 Literary Almanac
  
  
  
  1945 Literary Almanac (LATVIAN, Literatūras Gada Grāmata), E. Damburs, ed., VAPP Fine Literature Publisher, 1945—Still at war, Latvian Communists serving the Soviet cause declare literary Russification an enrichment of Latvian culture. Full facsimile and selected translations.
• 1947 Exiles' Calendar
  
  
  1947 Latvian Exile's Calendar (LATVIAN, Latviesu Trimdinieka Kalendars 1947), J. Grīnblats, Fürth, 1946—Complete facsimile with poetry translations. Published during the post-WWII Displaced Persons camps era.
• Skalbe's Collected Works
  
  Skalbe's Collected Works, Volume One (LATVIAN, Skalbe—Kopoti Raksti), Auseklis, Stuttgart, authorized by UNRRA, 1947—Excerpted and translated poetry.
• The Golden Horse
  
  
  The Golden Horse, 1965 performance (LATVIAN, Zelta Zirgs)—Elementary Latvian school students of the New York metropolitan area stage Rainis’ Christmas play, celebrating the centenary of his birth.