Picturing the Everyday Life of Limburg Miners: Photographs as a Historical Source

Abstract

Although recent years have seen growing theoretical interest among historians in the use of visual material, researchers continue to neglect the importance of photographs as source material. This is particularly striking since, now that iconographic material is becoming more widely available and archival institutions are beginning to place greater emphasis on visual material as use of the simple camera becomes more widespread, photographs often provide the only source of essential information for study. They illuminate the concept of the everyday, which in turn casts light on the significance of consumer goods, domestic comfort, the aspirations of men, women, and children, in short the banality of everyday life which echoed their mentalities and how they viewed the world.