Omslag voor een serie van gezichten te Gouda 1859

This cover for a series of prints of Gouda was made in 1838, using lithography. It's a process that democratized image-making in the 19th century. Lithography involves drawing on a flat stone or metal plate with a greasy crayon, then treating the surface so that ink adheres only to the drawn areas. This allowed for relatively quick and inexpensive reproduction, a far cry from the painstaking labor of etching or engraving. The text here is carefully laid out, promising views of Gouda’s public buildings “according to existing images, or drawn from nature and brought onto stone.” We see the fruits of a burgeoning print industry, catering to a public eager for visual representations of their surroundings. The cover suggests the transition from artisanal craft to industrial production, enabling broader access to images and information. This simple sheet of paper, mass-produced, reflects changing social and economic landscapes in the 19th century.