De Nieuwe Courant Possibly 1908 - 1923

This broadsheet, *De Nieuwe Courant*, was printed on December 23, 1908, by the eponymous Dutch newspaper. It’s made, of course, from paper, a cheap and ubiquitous material in the early 20th century. But don’t be fooled by its plainness. A huge amount of labor went into this seemingly disposable product. The news was gathered by reporters, edited, typeset in reverse, and then printed on a mechanical press – a complex sequence of skilled operations. And, of course, trees had to be pulped to make the paper in the first place. Consider all this activity as you look at this artifact. Newspapers like this one were absolutely central to the development of modern capitalism. They are not just a neutral record of events. They are the very stuff of which modern life is made. By focusing on the processes that brought this paper into being, we recognize its true significance.