Opzichter Nieuwenhuis bij brug Knuffelsgracht 1903 - 1910

Hendrik Doijer captured this cyanotype print, "Opzichter Nieuwenhuis bij brug Knuffelsgracht", sometime between 1863 and 1925. The photograph shows the construction of the "Knuffelsgracht" bridge. What stories does this particular image tell us about its historical period? The cyanotype process itself offers a clue; it was often used for technical drawings and architectural plans, marking this as a documentary image rather than a fine art print. Moreover, the image is inscribed with Dutch text, perhaps indicating the location in the former Dutch colony of Suriname. We can consider how the construction of infrastructure projects intersected with colonial power dynamics. Who was the "Opzichter Nieuwenhuis," and what role did he play in this project? What can the picture tell us about the labor force used for the bridge construction? Historians can piece together the social and economic context of Doijer's photograph, using archives of colonial records, engineering documents, and even demographic data to understand its broader meaning.