M.F. Kuscinsky
1866
Lepel jew. Shlomo Friedman (?). [European Jew. Vitebsk Guberniya, Lepelsky Uyezd]

Salt paper print
Russian Museum of Ethnography
Number: ??? 8764-21536
 
Curatorial description (Accessed: 5 August 2021)
The man with a kippah on his head is dressed in a long leather labserdak, and has leather boots on his feet.
 
1,590 Jews lived in Lepel in 1865 (774 men and 816 women), which made over 30 percent of the town's population. The town had a few small enterprises ??????????? (a brickyard and a brewery, which were founded and owned by Jews. In 1849, a tannery was opened where from 1866 all business and all employees (3 persons) were managed by citizen Shlomo Friedman. In the second half of the 19th century, Lepel District became the center of tanning production of Vitebsk Province; about 10 tanneries were active there.
 
The photograph was displayed at the Russian Ethnographic Exhibition of 1867 in Moscow.
 
LL/112521