SUPPLEMENT TO DRAUGAS NEWS JUL / AUG 2018 VOL 6 (S4)

In this issue:

First Lithuanian Woman Photographer a Jak vonis-Tigras: Living Witness The 1923 Klaipėda Operation Going to ? A Guide The Last Book Smuggler Cold Soups for Hot Summers Paulina Mongirdaitė Lithuania’s First Woman Photographer by Jolanta Klietkutė

Sand dune panorama, Palanga region. Glass photographic plate. ( P. Mongirdaitė, Kretinga Museum )

aulina Mongirdait ė was born In 1885, the family moved to her was great, especially since she about 1865 in Raseiniai the town of Palanga by the Baltic was the sole breadwinner for the county, in the province of Sea, where Paulina witnessed the KPaunas. Her parents, Sofija (née whirlwind creation and construction Griškevi čiūtė) and Me čislovas Mon - of the now famous resort town. girdas, came from a noble bajoras This was the time that the grand (boyar) family. Perhaps due to poor Tiškevi čius manor was being built, record-keeping in the upheavals fol - parks were being laid out, the beach - lowing the 1863 uprising, her exact front was being adapted for visitors, birth date and place are not known. and the Lourdes grotto at the foot She was the youngest in the family, of Birut ė’s Hill was being created. educated in a private pension in War - Meanwhile, the town center was saw, where among other traditional bustling with the construction of a subjects, she completed an introduc - new synagogue and neogothic-style tory course in photography. This . course of study seems remarkable Life in Palanga for young today not only because of its subject Paulina was not easy. She had to care matter, but because a woman – for her ailing parents and nurse her Paulina Mongirdaitė. ( Unknown photogra - Madame Tleck, was the instructor! sister who had cancer. The load on pher, Agnieška Jakubčyk family album )

6 LITHUANIAN HERITAGE July / August 2018 The yard of the family home. A kitchen out - building is on the left. On the right is Paulina Mongirdaitė’s house where she lived and had her photography studio. (P. Mongirdaitė, Agnieška Jakubčyk family album ) the summer season invited young men from Warsaw as helpers. Her place of business in Palanga was a small, wooden house on the larger Mongirdas property. It was set View of the town of Gargždai, 1909. ( P. Mongirdaitė, J. Klietkutė collection ) far back from the street, behind the larger main house. A dark anteroom family. The gardens and animals kept the Governor general. Records in led directly to a narrow photography at the Tuhanovich villa – the family St. Petersburg indicate that Paulina lab. To the lab’s right, was Paulina’s property, provided food for the fam - Mongirdait ė was first granted per - bedroom, which often doubled as a ily, but brought in no income. For a mission to work in art photography workroom; on the left was a room while, the women supplemented the on Nov. 28, 1892 – several years af - for receiving guests. Directly off this family’s finances with sewing and ter her studio opened. Undated, but latter room was a glassed-in photog - renting rooms to summer vacation - historical photographs verify that raphy studio. Lacking electricity, the ers, but eventually Paulina found a Paulina was actively photographing studio was illuminated solely by nat - better long-term solution. before 1892 – perhaps unofficially, ural light coming in through a glass Paulina was an impressive per - perhaps with the assent of the local ceiling and wall. Available daylight sonality: she had a very strong char - police chief. determined the narrow window of acter and was not afraid of innova - Until Paulina Mongirdait ė estab - time when photography was possi - tions, she smoked cigarettes and lished her studio, the photography ble. As photo subjects were required wore sporty clothes. Her innate artis - needs of the town’s residents and to pose motionless for 10 seconds, tic talents had many creative outlets: vacationers were fulfilled by visiting the studio provided chairs and vari - she liked to sew and embroider and photographers from Telšiai. While ous supports. was an accomplished artist, creating the service was adequate, it was in - The process leading to a finished memory albums and drawing minia - convenient, since customers waited studio photograph was long and la - ture scenes of Palanga from nature. to receive their finished photos by bor-intensive. Lighting and decora - She had a beautiful natural soprano mail. Now the first woman photog - tions needed to be arranged, glass voice and accompanied herself on rapher in Lithuania could provide photographic plates readied. After the piano. Paulina’s bright and active the service locally. Mongirdait ė the photos were taken, chemicals mind was always busy – she read worked from dawn to dusk, winter were prepared, negatives retouched, widely and had many interests and and summer, on weekdays and images developed and fixed, printed hobbies. Family members and neigh - weekends. She often worked at on photo paper and dried. Because bors alike were fond of her and night, closing herself off in a dark - the paper used for photographs was called her by the nickname – Pol ė room to develop negatives. During so thin and fragile, the delicate pho - (Polly). the day she would take photographs, tos were glued with rice starch onto Around 1889, Paulina Mongir - fill out invoices, hurry to keep every - special photo cards, which were of - dait ė opened a photography atelier – thing on time. She taught photogra - ten gilded or fancifully decorated. the first in Palanga. After the 1863 phy skills to young Jewish women The cards were stamped on the re - uprising against tsarist rule, all cul - from the town in exchange for as - verse side with the photographer’s tural activity required permits from sistance with her work, and during mark. Once the glue had dried, the

July / August 2018 LITHUANIAN HERITAGE 7 Mongirdait ė’s work. Her talents were recognized by the count Tiškevi čius family who commisioned many fam - ily photos. She often worked on lo - cation and captured moments of everyday life in neighboring towns and environs, photographing farm - ers, families, local Jews from villages, soldiers working in the customs of - fices. Travelling in a one-horse car - riage, she took photographs of bor - der stations and summer vacationers on the dunes. In her photos she used contrasts and shadows to add emo - tional depth, and often included a tiny figure of a person in an other - wise anonymous view of nature or architecture. The fragments of life recorded in her photographs have an almost anthropological dimen - sion. Squires of the local manor house in Kretinga relaxing after a successful hunt. From 1902 to 1912 she also (P. Mongirdaitė, Kretinga Museum ) published many historically themed postcards, popular in current-day photo itself was retouched, pressed, such photographer ever existed. The Western Europe. Some featured re - and parchment protection sheets seal belongs to Paulina Mongirdait ė. drawn portraits of the grand dukes were glued on. Only then was a At present, 10 other variants of the of Lithuania – , , photo presented to the client. seal which Paulina Mongirdait ė used Kęstutis, , Švitrigaila. Later Out of great respect for her to sign her photographs have been photographers republished some of family’s roots, at one time Paulina identified. the postcards. For example, during Mongirdait ė stamped her finished Studio portraits and cartes-de- and after the First World War, R. photographs with a seal that joined visites , were only part of Paulina Schmidt, a publisher from Klaip ėda, two elements from her father’s fam - ily history: the word “Wadwicz” (fish) from the ancestral Polish coat of arms, and the family name “Mon - gird”. This seal misled some later re - searchers into thinking that “Wad - wicz” was a first name. As a result, several photographic publications erroneously attributed photos with this stamp to a male photographer named Vadvi čius Mongirdas. No

Seal with which Mongirdaitė stamped some of her work.( P. Mongirdaitė, Kretinga Mu - Countess Sofija Tiškevičienė in her room in the manor at Kretinga. ( P. Mongirdaitė, seum ) Kretinga Museum )

8 LITHUANIAN HERITAGE July / August 2018 tions/albums of photographs and 13 glass photographic plates are known. Even though Mongirdait ė is best known as a photographer, one of her first publications was not of photos, but a book of graphic art. Around 1892, early in her career, she published a small (4¾ x 6½ in.) al - bum of lithographs in French titled “Polonga Bains de Mer ” (The Beaches of Palanga). She signed it “M. Pauline.” The album has an unusual shape: seven connected oak leaf- shaped pages open up like a fan. Be - tween the front and a back covers, the five inside pages, linked by floral A žemaitis at home with his grandchildren, 1907. ( P. Mongirdaitė, Dainius Raupelis ornaments, display 25 scenes of collection ) Palanga in colored graphic drawings. circulated a postcard depicting a piled in 1890) and is the oldest Paulina was not only an artist and panorama view of Kretinga from known photograph of the city of entrepreneur, but also an active com - Pel ėda Hill. No attribution is made Kretinga. For a long time it was munity member. She raised funds for to Paulina Mongirdait ė, but the pho - thought that “Kretynga” was the construction of a church in Palanga, tograph is found on page 26 of her only existing photo album of her photographed the restoration process published album “Kretynga” (com - photographs, but now six collec - of a church in Kretinga and adver -

Page 2 of the album "Polonga Bains de Mer" depicting Baltija street, the Catholic church, the Baltic Sea, Birutė’s Hill, and a path to the beaches. ( P. Mongirdaitė, Dainius Raupelis collection )

July / August 2018 LITHUANIAN HERITAGE 9 Polly in her little house. We used to lie in our beds while auntie read aloud. I remember the stories of Jules Verne, books about travel and adventures in exotic lands. These readings often lasted late into the night. The table by the bed always had sweets on it. What my mother would have said, if she had known! It was our secret. “Often I promised myself that when I grew up and had my own house, I would take auntie to live with me, so that she could rest from her work, go to the theater she loved so much, go to concerts, read books. Unfortunately, I was unable to fulfill this promise. Life deprived this woman of so much that she de - served...”

Postcard with photograph of actors performing in the first Lithuanian play, “Amerika A young woman at prayer. Kretinga region, pirtije” (America in the Pirtis ). Photo and postcard. ( P. Mongirdaitė, Kretinga Museum ) 1905. ( P. Mongirdaitė, Kretinga Museum ) tised the Lithuanian seacoast in the while aunt Polly worked late into the foreign press. In her studio in 1899, night, because vacation season was Paulina Mongirdait ė was a pio - she photographed the group of ac - the best time for taking pictures, and neering, courageous, talented tors performing in the first Lithuan - her assistants worked only part-time. woman who devoted her life to pho - ian play –“Amerika pirtije ” (America I remember that aunt Polly hardly tography. According to church in the Pirtis ). For many years, a post - ever joined us relaxing in the garden, records in Palanga, she died of can - card with this photograph served as she rarely went swimming in the sea cer on November 5, 1924. She was an emblem of Lithuania’s national or enjoyed music in the evenings. 59 years old – her photographs how - reawakening. And yet we were all living off her ever, remain timeless... Janina Vrotnovska, the daughter earnings!.. of Paulina’s sister Sofija, lovingly “Until I turned 12 and got my Translated from Lithuanian by Rimas reminisced in her memoirs: “We own room in the old house, during Černius . used to take walks, relax and play, summer vacations I lived with aunt

10 LITHUANIAN HERITAGE July / August 2018