Feesttent voor het 25-jarig bestaan van de machinefabriek van Gebroeders Stork & Co before 1899

Curator: What strikes me immediately about this vintage print, found here in the Rijksmuseum archives, is the festive atmosphere it captures, marking the 25th anniversary of the Gebroeders Stork & Co machine factory. The image is called "Feesttent voor het 25-jarig bestaan van de machinefabriek van Gebroeders Stork & Co", and it's believed to be from before 1899. The use of the albumen print technique really gives it that old-world charm, don't you think? Editor: Absolutely. My first impression is that it is so strange, because it looks simultaneously grand and almost quaint. Like peering into a memory. I get this strong sense of a bygone era, when industry was really something to celebrate publicly. Sort of fascinating, and ever so slightly unnerving at the same time! Curator: That unnerving aspect, I think, stems from the way industrial progress was perceived at the time. It was a period of rapid change, where these machine factories symbolized modernity and the promise of a better future, but they also signaled disruption of older social structures. These events were orchestrated to ease social tensions. A jubilee offered an opportunity to highlight how a company supported its workers, not exploited them. Editor: Ah, the ever-present human touch required, so fascinating and strange. I'm also taken by the architecture of the tent itself. The sheer scale of it! And how temporary it must have been! Makes you think about impermanence, and how even the most impressive human creations eventually fade away, it looks kind of absurd in its fleeting importance. Curator: Indeed. It served its socio-political function at that specific time. What really clinches the historical context for me is not just the style and fabrication of the albumen print, but the way the event promotes an important family firm like Gebroeders Stork & Co within the then current context. A photograph in an album serves to underscore their status. Editor: It’s all about power and industry in service to people at that time. When I look closely, I imagine what the celebration really was, that day long ago. Curator: A peek into a bygone world. That's why I find this particularly striking and so evocative. Editor: And I now get to wonder if they were also slightly worried as the champagne was poured.