The photo was taken in 1911 by the Russian scientist and traveler Dmitry Konstantinovich Solovyov during his expedition to the Kola North. The expedition was organized with the support of the Ethnographic Department of the Russian Museum. The purpose of the trip was to study the traditional Sami culture in the Babinsky settlement in the Babinsky pogost of Alexandrovsky uyezd, Arkhangelsk governorate, where the western group of the Kola Sami lived.

Dmitry Solovyov, in addition to collecting artifacts, took a series of unique photographs reflecting the daily life of the Sami people in the early 20th century.

The photograph on display in the museum shows a man standing next to a vezha, a traditional Sami dwelling, which is a pyramid-shaped frame structure.

The frame of the dwelling consisted of four wooden poles with holes in the thickened upper ends. A horizontal post was inserted into these holes and the poles were joined in pairs. The lower, slightly pointed ends of the poles were placed in hollows in the ground or fixed in a snowdrift. The resulting frame was covered with boards, bark and turf. A hole was left at the top for the smoke to escape. The door always faced south. On the opposite side there was a spare “sacred door” through which only men could go out on special occasions. In the 19th century a small window was made in place of this door. It was covered with a fish bladder, reindeer peritoneum or mica.

In the middle of the dwelling was a hearth with a device for hanging cauldrons, the most valuable items in the Sami household. Between the hearth and the entrance was a place for storing dry firewood. In the central part there was a “clean place”, and on the sides the space covered with birch and spruce branches was used for sleeping. Women and men slept on opposite sides of the hearth. In the cold season, sleeping places could be insulated with reindeer skins.

Already in the 18th century vezha dwellings began to be replaced by tupas — wooden log cabins — but in the first half of the 20th century they were still used as temporary dwellings in the places of spring and summer fishing.