File:01870 Sami footwear.jpg

English: Małopolski Instytut Kultury w Krakowie; zobacz więcej: www.muzea.malopolska.pl ;MEK-98;;fot. Małopolski Instytut Kultury w Krakowie These shoes were part of a museum’s collection as early as 1870, appearing at the Museum of Science and Industry in Kraków which existed until the 1950s. An unknown citizen with the German-sounding surname of Wollman (perhaps a person somehow connected with Kraków in the Austro-Hungarian times) was recorded in the museum inventory as the donor. The origin of the object and the circumstances of its acquisition are (and probably will remain) a mystery. However, the exhibit itself allows us insight into an important element of the material culture of the Sami, which today has become one of the basic elements distinguishing their national identity. The presented shoes are a pair of low winter footwear. They are made of reindeer fur leather and decorated with red trimming, sewn between the sole, upper and its top edge. The trimming is a factory product (so-called haberdashery), obtained by the inhabitants of Lapland as early as the turn of the 18th and 19th century through trade with the Scandinavian and Russian merchants. The reindeer skin, on the other hand, was the basic raw material for the Sami who practised nomadic pastoralism, as well as for making clothing, furnishing the household (tent) and its covering. Characteristic, low and entirely made of fur shoes were worn by both men – reindeer herdsmen – as well as women and even children. The presented shoes are perfectly preserved, although they are almost 150 years old.