Salt Fields in Solinen, Russia

This stereograph, captioned "A reservoir after evaporation – turning up the salt – salt fields, Solinen, Russia," is an image of female workers breaking up the crust of salt formed after the evaporation of a reservoir and forming the salt into mounds for later collection. While the stereograph's caption notes the image was taken in Solinen, Russia, it most likely depicts the Kuyalnik estuary. The estuary, located north of Odessa in present-day Ukraine, was the site of extensive salt mining operations during the Russian Empire. A sense of the scale of the salt mining operations at the estuary can be discerned by the large number of salt piles in the background of the images. This stereograph is one of 48 depicting the various stages of the industrial manufacture of salt, glass, steel, and iron, ca. 1895-1921. They were published by Underwood & Underwood as a set intended for educational purposes.