The Fish Market of Finland. Helsingfors, Russia

The Fish Market of Finland. Helsingfors, Russia

Categories
Special Collections > Keystone Slides
Type
tiff scanned file from original glass slide
Description
Fish are a very valuable food product. People far away from the ocean, lakes, or great rivers in which fish abound do not know how important the fisherman is. Off the Newfoundland coast is a great fishing district. In the waters off the eastern coast of Asia is another. But the greatest fishing grounds in the world are off the coast of Norway. The arms of the Baltic Sea, and the many lakes of Finland are rich in fish. Herring are in the bays, whitefish in the lakes, and salmon in the rivers. In the waters of Finland are caught each year some 20,000 tons of fish; and the chief market of these, in Helsingfors, is here shown. In this market in all kinds of weather, the fishwives stand in their booths and sell their fish. They all wear white head coverings. Down the aisles between the booths go the many buyers. There are Finlanders, Danes, Swedes, Lapps, and Russians among the buyers. If you will look closely you will see almost all kinds of northern Europeans. Observe the different kinds of dress. A fishwife is a woman who sells fish. But she does more. She cleans the fish she sells, and keeps them in good condition. She weighs out to each customer the number of pounds he wishes to buy. In the summer the odor in the market is not pleasant. In the winter, the snow is shoveled away from the booths. To your right you see a row of fishing boats drawn up to the quay (k). In these boats women also stand and offer their fish to the buyers. The second woman from you has just made a sale to the woman who is leaning over the quay. It is hard, hard life these fishwives live, especially in the long, cold winters. Keystone ID: 6652 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.
Rights
Copyright by the Keystone View Company. The original slides are housed in McConnell Library's Special Collections.