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Peter's grandfather installed a state of the art turbine to drive the mill in Mordanga, Kurzeme. Over seven decades later, during renovations, the old turbine came out:

G. Pirwitz & C^o. Riga 1910! We wondered what Riga might have been like in those days... still part of the Russian empire, but Riga, nevertheless—economically autonomous, culturally vibrant.

If it's been a while since your last visit to the album, we've taken advantage of vastly improved computer technology to reprocess [March, 2007] our scans. Whether your first or a repeat visit, enjoy!

Click on the Pulvertornis oval
(which graces the cover of the actual album)
to enter the Riga of nearly a hundred years ago!

Since the Sailors' Home is the closing picture in the album—and the book is a lightweight paperback—it's likely it was intended as a memento for sailors to bring back home from their visit to the exotic Baltics—even the fictional Horatio Hornblower disembarked in Riga!

Whatever the album’s origin, it certainly captures the beauty and vitality of Riga a century ago!