Prins Hendrikkade gezien naar het Centraal Station te Amsterdam met straatverkeer after 1889

This photograph of the Prins Hendrikkade, looking towards Central Station in Amsterdam, was taken around 1889. We can see the station looming large, a monument to modernity, dwarfing the horse-drawn carts and figures in the foreground. Amsterdam in the late 19th century was a city undergoing rapid transformation. The construction of Central Station itself, completed just a few years prior to this image, was a symbol of this progress. Built on artificial islands, it physically reshaped the city’s waterfront and its relationship to the water, reflecting an ambition to become a major European hub. The image captures this tension between the old and the new. Historians use photographs like these as primary source documents, combining them with maps, archives, and other records to reconstruct the social and material realities of the past. In doing so, we gain insight into the complex forces that shape not only the appearance of a city, but also the lives of its inhabitants.