Programma voor den Wedstrijd der Koninklijke Nederlandsche Yachtclub, op de rivier de Maas, te Rotterdam, den 10 juni 1846 1846

This program for a yacht race was created by Carl Wilhelm Mieling in Rotterdam in 1846 using letterpress printing. This was the standard industrial technique for reproducing text at the time. Consider the social context: yachting was an elite activity, and this document would have been for distribution among the upper class. The printing itself would have been a skilled trade, part of a growing industry that catered to the needs of a commercial, literate society. You can imagine the division of labor involved: from the designers of the typeface, to the compositors who set the type, to the press operators who cranked out these sheets. It's a perfect example of how materials, making, and social context intertwine. What at first seems like a simple printed document in fact speaks volumes about labor, class, and consumption in the 19th century.