Paardentram op de Kneuterdijk in Den Haag 1860 - 1885

Curator: Looking at this gelatin-silver print by Pieter Oosterhuis, taken sometime between 1860 and 1885, one is struck by how much labor went into a seemingly simple street scene. It’s titled “Paardentram op de Kneuterdijk in Den Haag," housed here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It has an uncanny quietness, don't you think? For a city street bustling with life, there's almost a stillness imposed by the long exposure. I imagine the unseen people as ghosts of a bygone era, walking a rigid social hierarchy in their time, as their bodies become ephemeral impressions. Curator: Indeed. Think about the production chain: from the mining of silver for the gelatin print, to the breeding and care of the horses, to the very cobblestones under the tram. It shows an incredible network of resources needed for urban transit, and, in extension, commerce and urban expansion. Editor: It definitely evokes a sense of that expansion, but I see, too, a poignant contrast. Here you have this symbol of modernity—the horse-drawn tram, which was intended to facilitate commerce—juxtaposed against the undeniable reliance on animal labor. It speaks volumes about human exploitation during the Industrial Age. Curator: Exactly. Consider the craftsman who meticulously built that tram. What were his working conditions? Was he fairly compensated for his skill? These questions tie directly into the final product – a photographic print designed to document a very specific view and purpose for this city, available to collectors and wealthy clientele. Editor: Right, and while the photograph’s composition might seem innocuous, portraying merely a daily scene, it subtly participates in upholding that period’s social order. The tram serves as a symbol of a system predicated on inequalities, where some were carried, while others pulled. The camera never tells the whole story, it selects which reality it wants to portray, it acts as a machine furthering very real and constructed class structures. Curator: So true. Every element speaks to complex systems of production, consumption, and a visible class dynamic within a rapidly evolving society. We cannot consider the "street scene" divorced from the networks that make it visible, photographable, preservable. Editor: This image encapsulates how the social narrative is embedded within the very materiality and production of art, inviting viewers to look closer and really see how power operates on every level. The photo itself is a record of not just a moment, but of power structures fossilized within an object of everyday consumption.