Album van tien gelithographieerde schetsen, voorstellende Tooneelen van de Verwoesting, Aangerigt door den storm van 28 mei 1860 in het 's Gravenhaagsche Bosch, te Scheveningen, enz. 1860

Hendrik Last created this lithograph, an album cover, in the Netherlands to document the destruction caused by a storm. The prominent symbol here is the very presentation of the album as a medium, which in itself becomes a vessel for collective memory. Consider albums throughout history; they recur as a method for preserving experiences, not unlike ancient friezes depicting battles or triumphs. This act of documentation, whether through photographs or sketches, speaks to a deeply ingrained human impulse: to capture, remember, and process traumatic events. We see echoes of this impulse in countless forms across cultures. Think of memorial structures, from simple grave markers to elaborate mausoleums. They all share a common purpose—to create a tangible link to the past, mitigating the psychological impact of loss and devastation. Each representation, each album, carries a weight of cultural memory, reshaped and reinterpreted by subsequent generations.