30.4.2025

Adalmiina’s Pearl (1932) and the Performance and Portrait Photo Digitization Project

The Theatre Museum maintains a nationally unique photographic collection of performing arts, spanning from the 19th century to the 2020s and covering theatres from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. The photographs tell part of the story of the history of performance and its documentation.

The special collection of performance and portrait photographs is extensive. With the digitization project launched in April, we can organize, catalogue, and digitize a significant portion of the collection’s photographs. Among the first images was a charming photo from Zachris Topelius’s fairy-tale play Adalmiina’s Pearl. But what is the story behind this particular photograph?

On the back of the photo were the (unclear) names of the theatre, the play, and the director, as well as the photographer’s stamp. There was also information about the photo’s publication in Suomen Kuvalehti No. 3/1933. Using these details, I searched the National Library’s newspaper archives, and gradually the story unfolded. Cataloguing and digitizing a single photograph revealed the founding history of an entirely new theatre. And best of all: the performance delighted and captivated the children of the time.

The theatre was called Children’s Stage (Lasten Näyttämö). Its performances were aimed at the capital’s child audiences and were mostly produced by amateurs, although professionals were also involved. The initiative was supported by the Helsinki Civil Servants’ Association and the National Board of Education.

The play Adalmiina’s Pearl was adapted by director Aarne Orri and teacher from Helsinki, Ilo Vaara. The music was composed by Väinö Hannikainen, and the choreography was by Toini Gustafsson. The premiere took place on November 6, 1932, in the banquet hall of the Häme Society House, and the final performance was on February 19, 1933.

In a teachers’ magazine Opettajain Lehti (No. 45, November 11, 1932), a writer under the pseudonym Lauri lamented that children were remembered in theatres only once a year around Christmas, even though children were “the most sensitive and receptive audience.” He described the Children’s Stage production of Adalmiina’s Pearl as “spirited and fairy-tale-like.” About its sold-out premiere, he wrote:

“It began with tears and sorrow. Just before the performance started, as one arrived at the ‘theatre house,’ one met crowds of serious, crying or tearful children on the street—some with parents, some alone. They hadn’t managed to get a ticket. — But if there were tears at the door, there was joy inside. The janitors had their hands full lifting children down from the stage. They were so impatient that they tried to climb onto the ramp and beyond. — The performance showed that from this starting point, a fully-fledged theatre will soon develop, one that differs from its professional counterparts in that it exists solely for children. And remembering them, we must keep in mind: only the best is good enough for children.”

The digitization project will make this photograph and many other fascinating performance and portrait images available in Finna. It promotes equal access to performing arts materials throughout Finland. The project improves the digital availability of performing arts heritage, increases knowledge of its significance as part of Finnish cultural heritage, strengthens citizens’ engagement with this heritage, and enables versatile use of the material. Photographs are among the most requested resources in the museum’s research services, and digitization will make them more easily accessible in research facilities as well.

Aino Kukkonen
Project Researcher (PhD)

This is an artificial intelligence translation from Finnish.