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How people saw: looking at photographs in history
By Jess Hope “To the complaint, ‘There are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, ‘There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.” – Ansel Adams How do historians approach photographs as sources? Those of us who study the mid-19th century to the present can access a wealth of moments ‘captured’ on film,…
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1. Oriel College Postcard
by Lucy Inskip (@lucyskippin) Rather than finding the most outlandish historical object from a heritage site or online collection, I looked to my own bookshelf for an interesting piece of history. I bought this vintage Oxford coloured postcard print from Antiques on High whilst reading History at Oriel College, University of Oxford (2016-2019). It is from…
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22. Remora
By Tamara Fernando (@TamaraFernando3) Before the 1920s, visual renderings of the seafloor largely relied on drawings and engravings. This was true even in places where bodies routinely inhabited the underwater, such as the pearl fisheries of Ceylon. Here, photography did play a role: on the shore and on the decks of colonial steamers, British administrators…
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17. Child Labour in an American Textile Mill
By Jonah Berger Across the United States around the turn of the 20th century, millions of children worked in factories, agricultural fields, mines, and city stores. In the following years, a mass movement to end child labour gained strength, buoyed by photographer Lewis Hine’s work on behalf of the National Child Labor Committee. The photo…
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