Photo collection

The collection includes photographs, negatives and postcards.

Photographs reflect almost all areas of life, only in different quantities. There are most photographs of people. The biggest groups by topics are as follows: persons associated with the 1919 rebellion, people who participated in World War II, agricultural workers from the post-war period.

Out of individuals there are most photographs of Gustav Ränk, Viktor Kingissepp, Johannes and Joosep Aavik, etc. In terms of areas of life, there are most photographs about education and a considerable amount of these photographs are about Co-Educational Gymnasium of Saaremaa. The photo collection also gives a good overview of economic and cultural activities in Saaremaa throughout the years. There are a lot of photographs of Kuressaare Castle and town, Saaremaa churches, manors, etc.

All photographers who worked in Saaremaa before 1940 are represented in the collection, only to different extent. There are most photographs by Nikolai Königsfest, Martin Jakobson, Karl Grepp, Otto Eduard Buhgan and Mihkel Õnnis.

The collection also includes many rare albums and photo collections, such as Aleksander Grünbladt’s album about Kuressaare from 1892, Richard Kirchhoff’s photo series about Saaremaa and Ruhnu from 1943, etc.