Making a European People Visible: The Birth of Illustrated News in the 1840’s and Transnational Political Subjectivity
How “people” come to identify as part of “the people”, in the sense of those that have a legitimate say in political matters in society, is in many ways a central question of our time. It is also a question with historical roots that go back to the constitution of modern democratic societies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This research project investigates the people as a political subject, through an analysis of how the illustrated news magazines established in several European countries during the 1840’s, contributed to new ways of imagining this collectivity. The study investigates both how these magazines pictured public gatherings of people as expressions of the popular will, and how readers were in different ways positioned as part of a collective with legitimate interests in the business of government. A central hypothesis is that the establishment of a market for visual news, for the first time made it possible for influential groups to (literally) see themselves as participating in the life of a transnational European people, which was important during the revolutions of 1848. The investigation will make original contributions to several research fields, not least by combining questions from political theory with media history. It will provide new perspectives on the history of the people as a political subject, but also contribute to discussions on mediated collectivity in a broader sense, as well as the development of pictorial news reporting.
Final report
How “people” come to identify as part of “the people”, in the sense of those that have a legitimate say in political matters in society, is in many ways a central question of our time. It is also a question with historical roots that go back to the constitution of modern democratic societies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This research project has investigated the people as a political subject, through an analysis of how the illustrated news magazines established in several European countries during the 1840’s, contributed to new ways of imagining this collectivity.
The project has addressed how public gatherings and meetings in these illustrated newspapers were visually represented as expressions of the popular will, and, more specifically, also how readers were positioned as part of political collectives. The analysis combines questions from political theory with art and media history.
The project has been carried out in accordance with the plan that was presented, although it has been delayed by about a year compared to what was originally envisaged, partly due to the fact that the covid-19 pandemic made it difficult to access the necessary source material.
Empirically, the investigation is based on a comprehensive inventory of news-oriented pictorial magazines in England, Germany and France during the period approx. 1840–1860, primarily the Illustrated London News, Pictorial Times, L'Illustration and Illustrirte Zeitung. The inventory covers a large amount of material (estimated at 45,000 pages) and has been based on a general review of the image material, but also includes text that is related to relevant images. The images themselves have been classified based on a general iconographic analysis with a focus on relevant themes. In total, this has yielded a selection of around 300 images depicting public meetings and gatherings of various kinds (demonstrations, reform meetings, festivities, parliamentary sessions, inaugurations, etc.) whose visual rhetoric has been analysed in more depth.
Results
An important general result of the survey is that in the first generation of illustrated newspapers in Europe there was a widespread tendency in news images to thematize questions about the role of the people in governance. Not least, this is evident in the strong focus on images of gatherings of people such as reform meetings, demonstrations and inaugurations. The inventory carried out shows that images of such public events were, in text, often directly linked to questions about the future of political rule and, moreover, that the images themselves were often circulated between publications in different European countries.
Transnationally disseminated images of “political mass meetings” – a specific image theme identified in the review of the material – played, for example, an important role in discussions about popular rule in all the countries examined in the period both before and after the revolutionary year 1848. In the project, I show that this meant that a particular form for how to portray political mobilization gained transnational currency during this period.
The investigation shows that these images were in many ways similar between countries, although they could be given new meaning by being placed in new contexts (thus changing meaning even when they were exported basically unchanged between countries). Although these images were often reinterpreted when they moved, the transnational re-use did, however, create a generalized discourse about the people as a phenomenon in modern societies. This is an important result that must be understood in contrast to previous historical studies that has often only emphasized the location-specific or how images contributed to the creation of national identity.
More specifically, the project has also shown that two closely related aspects, both of which are of general media historical relevance, were particularly important for how the analysed images might work as a basis for what can be called political subjectivity or political identification: seriality and temporality.
In the project it became apparent that the seriality of the these visual media – the fact that information was published successively in running series – is of great importance if one wants to understand how the transnational discourse on the role of the people in political governance may have worked in practice. More specifically, I argue in the project that the serial format of illustrated newspapers promoted the visualization of a collective political actor (“the people”) that existed and developed over time.
Seriality and repetition of similar images created standardized visual patterns that were easy to decode for readers at the time, and when it comes to political crowds in particular, these repeated depictions also gradually created the impression that there was a cohesive collective that appeared in different geographical locations and also developed over time. In that respect, the material conditions of the media were decisive for how political collectives could be imagined and which political identifications and subjectification processes became possible.
Another important result relates to which conceptions of time this image use contributed to, that is questions of temporality. The research shows that the way information was communicated in these weekly illustrated newspapers created specific temporal effects.
First, it was common was that the news images analysed condensed information into aggregated representations of events that in reality had often unfolded over a longer period of time. In other words, they summarized rather than reproduced individual moments, providing a sense of overview and control. Thus, they probably also contributed less to an ephemeral modernity of fleeting impressions, than to feelings of stability, continuity and historical significance.
If the images themselves summarized information, it can also be noted that they were published as part of a kind of ongoing historical chronicle to be preserved for the future. The illustrated magazines were seen as weekly and yearly summaries of what was of greatest importance and they were meant to be compiled and preserved as documentation of the course of History. To that extent, the reader of these newspapers was also positioned as a recipient of what is called “instant history” in one of the project's articles.
New research questions
As a result of the investigation, it has become increasingly clear that one must take the truth claims of the – pre-photographic – news image into account if one wants to understand how the reader/viewer was addressed as part of, for example, a political collective. Primarily, one must understand what it meant to present truthful information in pictures at this time using the prevailing techniques of news illustration (mainly wood engraving). The images followed specific conventions that are not always obvious to us today.
Another aspect that would deserve further study is the relationship between geography and time in the context of documentary images. When we think of news images, we often assume that they speak of the present, of the contemporary, but it has become clear in this research that images of certain phenomena, especially geographically remote, were often also used as representations of the future. This “futuristic” use of imagery can be observed when it comes to political meetings, and it is central to how the emerging power of the people was portrayed, but it would be highly interesting to examine the phenomenon more generally in the visual culture of the time.
Dissemination and cooperation
The results from the project have been reported in two longer articles published in English in leading international journals. One of these journals is specifically focused on the study of the 19th-century periodical press, and published by Johns Hopkins University Press; the other is more generally focused on Victorian cultural history, and published by Cambridge University Press. The second article is about twice as long as an average scientific article, partly because it reproduces a large number of images.
In addition, results have also been published in an anthology published by a German publisher as part of a book series specialized in media history and linked to an international research network with this orientation. Furthermore, the results have also been summarized in popular scientific form in Swedish in a magazine aimed at a general audience of those interested in book and media history. For further details, see the list of publications.
Collaboration with other researchers during the project has taken place through the network of researchers on visual culture that exists at the Department of History of Science and Ideas in Uppsala. Furthermore, the international research network Esprit has been very important, as has the Swedish national network for the history of political ideas. In addition to several seminars, results have been presented at the Esprit Conference in 2021 in Bochum, Germany, and at the Nordic Historians’ Meeting in Gothenburg in 2022.
The project has addressed how public gatherings and meetings in these illustrated newspapers were visually represented as expressions of the popular will, and, more specifically, also how readers were positioned as part of political collectives. The analysis combines questions from political theory with art and media history.
The project has been carried out in accordance with the plan that was presented, although it has been delayed by about a year compared to what was originally envisaged, partly due to the fact that the covid-19 pandemic made it difficult to access the necessary source material.
Empirically, the investigation is based on a comprehensive inventory of news-oriented pictorial magazines in England, Germany and France during the period approx. 1840–1860, primarily the Illustrated London News, Pictorial Times, L'Illustration and Illustrirte Zeitung. The inventory covers a large amount of material (estimated at 45,000 pages) and has been based on a general review of the image material, but also includes text that is related to relevant images. The images themselves have been classified based on a general iconographic analysis with a focus on relevant themes. In total, this has yielded a selection of around 300 images depicting public meetings and gatherings of various kinds (demonstrations, reform meetings, festivities, parliamentary sessions, inaugurations, etc.) whose visual rhetoric has been analysed in more depth.
Results
An important general result of the survey is that in the first generation of illustrated newspapers in Europe there was a widespread tendency in news images to thematize questions about the role of the people in governance. Not least, this is evident in the strong focus on images of gatherings of people such as reform meetings, demonstrations and inaugurations. The inventory carried out shows that images of such public events were, in text, often directly linked to questions about the future of political rule and, moreover, that the images themselves were often circulated between publications in different European countries.
Transnationally disseminated images of “political mass meetings” – a specific image theme identified in the review of the material – played, for example, an important role in discussions about popular rule in all the countries examined in the period both before and after the revolutionary year 1848. In the project, I show that this meant that a particular form for how to portray political mobilization gained transnational currency during this period.
The investigation shows that these images were in many ways similar between countries, although they could be given new meaning by being placed in new contexts (thus changing meaning even when they were exported basically unchanged between countries). Although these images were often reinterpreted when they moved, the transnational re-use did, however, create a generalized discourse about the people as a phenomenon in modern societies. This is an important result that must be understood in contrast to previous historical studies that has often only emphasized the location-specific or how images contributed to the creation of national identity.
More specifically, the project has also shown that two closely related aspects, both of which are of general media historical relevance, were particularly important for how the analysed images might work as a basis for what can be called political subjectivity or political identification: seriality and temporality.
In the project it became apparent that the seriality of the these visual media – the fact that information was published successively in running series – is of great importance if one wants to understand how the transnational discourse on the role of the people in political governance may have worked in practice. More specifically, I argue in the project that the serial format of illustrated newspapers promoted the visualization of a collective political actor (“the people”) that existed and developed over time.
Seriality and repetition of similar images created standardized visual patterns that were easy to decode for readers at the time, and when it comes to political crowds in particular, these repeated depictions also gradually created the impression that there was a cohesive collective that appeared in different geographical locations and also developed over time. In that respect, the material conditions of the media were decisive for how political collectives could be imagined and which political identifications and subjectification processes became possible.
Another important result relates to which conceptions of time this image use contributed to, that is questions of temporality. The research shows that the way information was communicated in these weekly illustrated newspapers created specific temporal effects.
First, it was common was that the news images analysed condensed information into aggregated representations of events that in reality had often unfolded over a longer period of time. In other words, they summarized rather than reproduced individual moments, providing a sense of overview and control. Thus, they probably also contributed less to an ephemeral modernity of fleeting impressions, than to feelings of stability, continuity and historical significance.
If the images themselves summarized information, it can also be noted that they were published as part of a kind of ongoing historical chronicle to be preserved for the future. The illustrated magazines were seen as weekly and yearly summaries of what was of greatest importance and they were meant to be compiled and preserved as documentation of the course of History. To that extent, the reader of these newspapers was also positioned as a recipient of what is called “instant history” in one of the project's articles.
New research questions
As a result of the investigation, it has become increasingly clear that one must take the truth claims of the – pre-photographic – news image into account if one wants to understand how the reader/viewer was addressed as part of, for example, a political collective. Primarily, one must understand what it meant to present truthful information in pictures at this time using the prevailing techniques of news illustration (mainly wood engraving). The images followed specific conventions that are not always obvious to us today.
Another aspect that would deserve further study is the relationship between geography and time in the context of documentary images. When we think of news images, we often assume that they speak of the present, of the contemporary, but it has become clear in this research that images of certain phenomena, especially geographically remote, were often also used as representations of the future. This “futuristic” use of imagery can be observed when it comes to political meetings, and it is central to how the emerging power of the people was portrayed, but it would be highly interesting to examine the phenomenon more generally in the visual culture of the time.
Dissemination and cooperation
The results from the project have been reported in two longer articles published in English in leading international journals. One of these journals is specifically focused on the study of the 19th-century periodical press, and published by Johns Hopkins University Press; the other is more generally focused on Victorian cultural history, and published by Cambridge University Press. The second article is about twice as long as an average scientific article, partly because it reproduces a large number of images.
In addition, results have also been published in an anthology published by a German publisher as part of a book series specialized in media history and linked to an international research network with this orientation. Furthermore, the results have also been summarized in popular scientific form in Swedish in a magazine aimed at a general audience of those interested in book and media history. For further details, see the list of publications.
Collaboration with other researchers during the project has taken place through the network of researchers on visual culture that exists at the Department of History of Science and Ideas in Uppsala. Furthermore, the international research network Esprit has been very important, as has the Swedish national network for the history of political ideas. In addition to several seminars, results have been presented at the Esprit Conference in 2021 in Bochum, Germany, and at the Nordic Historians’ Meeting in Gothenburg in 2022.