In my paper I examine the relationships and unarchived correspondence of respondents Mary Kaasik and Gustav Kallasto with the folklore archive of the Fr. R. Kreutzwalds National Literary Museum in Tartu, Estonia, during the Soviet era.
Paper long abstract:
Continuing my presentation from the 34th Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference in Uppsala, June 2018, I take up a case study on the 'archival left-overs' I examined then in more general view. The History of Estonian Folkloristics Materials in the Estonian Folklore Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum entails boxes of Soviet era correspondence between the respondents and the folklore archive. When in Uppsala I concentrated on the general nature of these letters and their value for today's researchers, I hereby examine the contents of 'left-over' correspondence of particular respondents - a fruitful tandem of Mary Kaasik and Gustav Kallasto from Kiviõli, North-Eastern Estonia. The first took up the writing task, the latter photographing. I will look how the unarchived letters open another view into the relationship of respondents with their collecting work and the archive. A quote from one of Mary Kaasik's first unarchived letters offers the best prologue: 'All material is available, this takes time'.