Museums expand their collections in various ways. One way they do so is by organising exhibitions that explore specific themes using suitable items and objects from outside of their collections. Sometimes the search for these materials throws up an item the current owner is not yet ready to part with. Then, an agreement can be made that, when the time comes to part with the item, the owner will give the museum first refusal. Until then, it is on loan. Occasionally, the museum is offered something entirely unexpected. Sometimes newly arrived items wait for the right time to be displayed; in other cases, an object is a perfect fit for a forthcoming project, exhibition or publication. And at times, the museum simply wants to share the new material with as many people as possible, as soon as possible.
In the series Archive, we present archival materials that have been acquired from outside the museum and show how they have helped us diversify and expand our knowledge of Estonia’s applied art and design heritage.
Ellen Parro (1927–1985) was an Estonian textile designer. For two decades, she worked as an industrial artist at Sindi Textile Factory 1. December. As was typical of the period, Parros served as an anonymous part of the industrial machinery. Although the printed fabrics she designed there are familiar to several generations, she remained unknown as a designer. The archival materials now in the museum clearly reveal the nature and routine of an industrial artist’s work and life in the early Soviet period, as well as the opportunities it presented them with.
The materials carefully preserved by Ellen Parro were donated to the museum by her relatives in 2025. Among them are personal documents, including those from a couple of creative work trips, as well as photographs. From the perspective of design history, the most compelling part is the complete collection of printed fabric samples designed by Parro and produced in the Sindi factory between 1954 and 1964.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Ellen Parro’s family for their donation.
Exhibition team: Kai Lobjakas, Ketli Tiitsar, Toomas Übner, Sandra Sirp
