Images at War: Illustrated Periodicals and Constructed Nations 9781442675995

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Eyes of the Readers
1. The Illustrated Press in Its Sociopolitical Context
2. The Production of Illustrations in Content
3. Making History
4. Feeding Memories
5. Preparing for War Coverage
6. Managing the Unexpected, Boosting National Feelings
Conclusion: Constructing Memories
Notes
Illustration Credits
Index

Citation preview

IMAGES AT WAR: ILLUSTRATED PERIODICALS AND ONSTRUCTED

NATIONS

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MICHELE MARTIN

Images at War Illustrated Periodicals and Constructed Nations

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

www.utppublishing.com University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2006 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-3757-7

Printed on acid-free paper

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Martin, Michele Images at war : illustrated periodicals and constructed nations / Michele Martin. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-3757-7 1. Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 - Press coverage - Europe. 2. FrancoPrussian War, 1870-1871 - Press coverage - Canada. 3. Illustrated periodicals - Europe - History - 19th century. 4. Illustrated periodicals - Canada - History - 19th century. 5. Press and politics - Europe - History - 19th century. 6. Press and politics - Canada - History - 19th century. I. Titl DC326.5.P74M37 2006

070.4'9'09409034

C2005-902737-1

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).

Contents

List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Eyes of the Readers 3 1 The Illustrated Press in Its Sociopolitical Context 12 The Transformation of the Nineteenth-Century Press 16 The Franco-Prussian War in Context 31 Making Choices 42 2 The Production of Illustrations in Content 43 The Politics of Visual Representation 43 Producing Illustrated Newspapers 53 Contextualizing Production of Illustrations 69 3 Making History 71 Illustrating War 72 Technical Means and the Discrepancy of Circulation between Images and Texts 91 Making Stories? 103 4 Feeding Memories 106 Choosing What to Remember 106 The Illustrated Periodicals Analyse the War 123 A Post-Mortem of Some Participants 136 Post-War Effects 141 Makers of National Memories 143

vi Contents 5 Preparing for War Coverage 145 Taking Positions 145 Breaking the News: A Franco-Prussian War Is On! 159 Ruptures 160 Food for Thought 182 6 Managing the Unexpected, Boosting National Feelings 184 Political Ruptures 184 Periodical Ruptures 194 Front and Back Pages 223 Elements of Comparison 234 Conclusion: Constructing Memories 236 Ways of Seeing the War 237 Images versus Texts 240 Mediated Content 243 Launching a Process of Memorization 245 Notes 247 Illustration Credits Index 297

295

List of Illustrations

1 Bouillon, Belgium, Graphic 55 2 Back of an engraving block, Jackson, Pictorial Press 56 3 Sketch of Napoleon Ill's surrender, Sedan, Jackson, Pictorial Press 58 4 Napoleon Ill's surrender, Illustrated London News 59 5 Napoleon Ill's surrender, Monde illusive 60 6 Turco lying in wait! Journal illustre 62 7 Special artist's bedroom under bombardment, Illustrirte Zeitung 75 8 Special artist under arrest, Graphic 76 9 A hasty sketch, Graphic 77 10 A photographer at work, Illustrated London News 79 11 The battle of Metz, Graphic 102 12 Post card used by war correspondents, Illustration 104 13 After Sedan, Illustration 114 14 Napoleon III crossing the battlefield of Sedan after his surrender, Monde illustre 115 15 'Cowards!' Monde illustre 120 16 Cats, dogs, and rats sold in butchers' shops during the siege of Paris, Monde illustre 129 17 Ambulance at the Theatre Francois, Univers illustre 131 18 Dismantling the Rhine bridge, Canadian Illustrated News 168 19 Discussing the war in a Paris cafe, Illustrated London News 174 20 German soldiers having a smoke, Graphic 175 21 Some are getting ready, Graphic 189 22 Others frolic, Graphic 190 23 Paris's resistance, Monde illustre 201

viii List of Illustrations

24 Bois de Boulogne, Paris, Illustrated London News 202 25 Building of fortifications in Paris, Journal illustre 204 26 Paris's new letter carrier, Graphic 206 27 A pigeon house, Monde illustre 207 28 France signing the peace treaty, Illustration 210 29 German soldiers in Paris after the armistice, Graphic 218 30 Waiting for meat, Opinion publique 224 31 Panoramic view of Paris, Graphic 225 32 The city of Toul refuses to open its doors to the Prussians, Univers illustre 230

Acknowledgments

The research for this book started four years ago, and many people contributed to it in various ways. The idea came out of long discussions with Jean-Pierre Bacot, the only other researcher I know who is also interested in the nineteenth-century illustrated press from an international point of view. His comments continually helped shape the research. As for the dozens of people who participated to varying degrees in the research in Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States, I am not going to name you all, so please consider yourselves thanked and your help greatly appreciated. I want to underline the vision of Chris Bucci in commissioning this work. Still, signing an advance contract with the University of Toronto Press did not put me in a relaxed situation! The people with whom I worked were very helpful and supportive, and I thank them for that, but the deadline and number of pages were tight. So I am grateful to Dean Maslove of Carleton University for providing me with a research time release so that I could finish the writing, and to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding part of my international search for data. As for Bruce Curtis, he knows anyway.

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IMAGES AT WAR

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Introduction:

The Eyes of the Readers

On the morning of Saturday, 23 July 1870, M. Sellieres, a Parisian bourgeois, enters his dining room for breakfast and is pleased to see that, as usual, his favourite illustrated paper, the Illustration, has been put beside his place setting, carefully ironed and neatly folded. Unfolding it, he notices, on the front page, an engraving of the bridge that links France to Prussia over the river Rhine, and that, according to the caption, was 'rolled back' by the Germans as a result of the declaration of war by France on Prussia.1 Curious, he begins to leaf through his paper and sees eleven other engravings that depict the declaration of war in the Senate on 15 July 1870, the departure of French troops from Paris, the concentration of French regiments in Metz, some images of demonstrations for and against the war in Paris and Strasbourg, some French military armaments, and finally, a map explaining the most strategic sites of war. M. Sellieres is pleased that he can see the military activities that had been described in his daily paper during the week. Meanwhile, the same morning, M. Groleau, a small merchant and a supporter of Napoleon III, finds that his maid has put his unironed Monde illustre on the kitchen table, where, as a rule, he eats his cafe et croissant before going to work. His paper confronts him with an engraving showing the departure of some French battalions cheered by a crowd of joyous onlookers. He does not quite understand why these people are happy and opens his newspaper to try to find an explanation. He then sees illustrations depicting various Parisian demonstrations in favour of the war, images of military armaments and uniforms, portraits of French generals, pictures of French senators congratulating the emperor for his actions, and, finally, almost at the end, an illustration showing the 'suppression' of the bridge over the Rhine.

4 Images at War

In contrast to M. Sellieres's information, M. Groleau is not told whether this bridge was 'suppressed' by the French or the Prussians, nor that there was a demonstration for peace. On the final page of his paper, he sees some French soldiers throwing their uniforms through the window to passers-by and, because for now he does not have the time to read the commentary accompanying the engraving, he wonders why such a waste? Still, M. Groleau is pleased to have seen so many events related to the war, as he will be able to describe them, and even show them, to his customers. However, M. Fleury, a high-school teacher, is not that blessed by his Univers illustre, which does not depict much of the conflict. There is an encouraging beginning with an engraving on the front page of a patriotic demonstration in favour of the war, followed by a total silence on the conflict in the rest of the paper. He will have to wait until next week to see more. He should have got a subscription to the Monde illustre, but as a good republican, he could not subscribe to the emperor's mouthpiece. He will have to ask his merchant for more visual insights on the war. M. Leboeuf, a factory worker, and M. Laviolette, a street sweeper, who are both barely literate, purchase their favourite illustrated newspapers, the Presse illustree and the Journal illustre respectively, on their way home, after a week's work. Exhausted by their sixty hours of labour, they can finally look at their papers on Saturday evening. M. Leboeuf's national feelings are immediately boosted by the front page engraving entitled 'La Marseillaise. "Aux armes citoyens!"' depicting a woman flying over a regiment of French soldiers in front of which lie, dead, a woman and her child. Opening his paper to learn more, he is forced to look at two portraits of Prussian royalty - one of Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern and the other of King Wilhelm on his horse - then some military armaments, French soldiers departing for the front, and, finally, on the last page, the Prussian army building fortifications in Coblentz. Unable to properly comprehend much of the content of the articles, he wonders why his paper has published so many illustrations of the Prussians. After such a stimulating beginning, it creates an anticlimax, especially since M. Leboeuf has two sons who have already left for the front. M. Laviolette, on the other hand, is introduced to the war by an inoffensive engraving of the bridge over the Rhine, intact. Opening his newspaper, he sees, like readers of other papers, the departure of French soldiers, their arms and horses, some portraits of French generals, the imperial army's military press bureau, and on the last page, some French naval sea exercises.

Introduction: The Eyes of the Reader 5

M. Laviolette is somewhat disappointed; he would have liked to see a little more action, as he is thinking of enlisting. In Germany, Herr Muller, a lawyer, does not learn much that Saturday from his Illustrirte Zeitung. He is proud to have the portrait of Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern on the front page. Perhaps he will cut it out and have it framed. A map showing the frontiers of western Germany provided on the supplement's front page is the only other engraving of the war he will have that week. Herr Muller will have to wait to see more, although he will never be very well informed about the war, almost always seeing the events much later than his fellow readers in France and England. News does not seem to travel well across the English Channel during wartime in the nineteenth century. Indeed, while the bourgeois and petty bourgeois French readers are able to learn quite a bit about this new war, Mr Gilmour, a substantial industrialist, looking at the front page of his carefully ironed and neatly folded issue of the Illustrated London News for 23 July 1870, is disagreeably surprised to see no depictions of the Franco-Prussian War at all. Having learned from his daily paper that the war had already begun, and hoping to see some of it, he leafs through the paper finally to find, on page 12, some French soldiers leaving Paris for the battlefield. This is all that he is allowed to see that week. Dr Laidlaw, a surgeon, is very disappointed with his Graphic, which offers him only two portraits towards the end of the paper: one of the king of Prussia, the other of Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern; so is Mr Curtis with his Illustrated Times, which is not much more informative. The only engraving related to the war that this small manufacturer of shoes finds, far into the paper, is the portrait of Prince Leopold. These English gentlemen thus conclude that this war, about which they had read in their dailies, is not that important after all. However, M eabody does not share their opinion. When he finally finds time to look at his Penny Illustrated Paper on Saturday evening, after his return from his factory job, he finds more information on the war than the bourgeois readers. Though the front page is silent on the event, the inside pages show the demonstration in favour of the war in Paris, an encampment of soldiers, and some French and Prussian troops preparing for the war: the real life, what? Mr Peabody gets the feeling that the 1870 war may turn out to be serious. He hopes that his country will not get involved in the conflict because he does not want his son to be conscripted to fight with one of the sides and against the other.

6 Images at War

Among all the people buying illustrated periodicals, the overseas readers are the most deprived. Mr Macdonald will have to wait until 30 July to see images of naval stations on the Mediterranean and the Baltic Seas in his Canadian Illustrated News, and M. Tremblay until 25 August for his Opinion publique to show him some portraits of French generals and a map of the seat of war. They have to be patient because the news has to cross the ocean before it reaches them. The illustrated periodicals of these different countries all showed their readers some aspects of the war preparations. Though only a few engravings were reproduced during the first week after the declaration of war on 19 July 1870, each reader could already form an opinion about what was going on, and may even have taken sides if he could have read the articles that went with the illustrations.2 Still, each of them was likely to shift his opinion when events early in the war had unexpected outcomes, as most papers covered these extensively. The illustrated press was an important medium in nineteenthcentury society. At the time, there were no alternative visual massdistributed media to challenge any of the images published in those papers, though there were occasional illustrations in the dailies. From the early 1830s, some illustrated magazines did exist and they disseminated useful knowledge to the people, information that aimed at educating the public. It was only in 1842, however, that the first weekly illustrated newspaper was founded in England, a paper that published at the same time illustrations of, and articles on, current events. The illustrations ranged from factual to sensational, and showed portraits, scenery, current events, paintings, indeed anything that could be drawn and engraved. Brown argues that this is the illustrated press that contributed to making the faces of politicians, actors, artists, church representatives, and the like known to the masses.3 Most papers were 'like a department store/ to use Barnhurst and Nerone's words.4 They offered a variety of illustrations, news, chronicles, novels, and so forth in the same issue. However, there was some cultural differentiation. Brown states that the pictures in British papers such as the Illustrated London News and the Graphic seemed to avoid the most disturbing aspects of life in their depictions, while these were more commonly seen in French and American illustrated periodicals.5 To avoid a narrow nationalistic, ideological approach to the coverage of the Franco-Prussian War by nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals, I am placing this rich source of information into a wider context, not only that of industrial production, but also of comparative analy-

Introduction: The Eyes of the Reader 7

sis. To do so, I am looking at the papers published in several countries: England, a country which claimed to be friend to both countries at war, and where the modern illustrated newspaper originated; France, one of the belligerents and a country where the illustrated press was widely distributed; Germany, the other country involved in the conflict; and Canada, which, culturally, stood at the crossroads of the French and English cultures. My definition of an illustrated press is that which establishes the priority of the image over the text and which is produced according to the market laws of profit and competition, since a paper is first and foremost a commodity that must be profitable to the shareholders. Even when the agenda of the contents is disrupted by a particular event, such as the 1870 war, the preeminence of the image never fails.61 am not talking about illustrated magazines, which I associate with publications whose content is devoted to useful knowledge, but rather about illustrated newspapers, namely publications whose content included current news. On the other hand, I do speak of illustrated periodicals, newspapers, publications, and papers interchangeably to refer to each element of my corpus, and I use the expression 'illustrated press' to address the whole corpus. Few in-depth scholarly works have taken the illustrated press in general as their central subject of investigation, and most of these are either short or unpublished.7 In addition, none uses such an international and interdisciplinary approach, which allows bodies of material that do not normally converge to be analysed in a way that reveals the complex nature of both this media genre and also of particular events. Indeed, as the title implies, this book is not just about images of war. Rather, 'images at war' is understood in a more complex way, and studied from three different aspects: at the national level, the groups participating in the war; at the journalistic level, the artists from various cultures witnessing and drawing some events of that war; and finally, at the semantic level, the images confronting the texts published in the same issue or, as Sinnema would say, images in conflict with the texts.8 So this book presents the encounter of an important event, an international war, with a particular media genre, the illustrated press, from an international perspective. I intend to show that, in contrast to what several authors believe, the nineteenth-century illustrated press did not merely focus on entertainment.9 In fact, an important part of its agenda was devoted to political matters, so that its widespread distribution must have had some influence on its readers' collective memory. Using an international ap-

8 Images at War

proach, my analysis shows that the illustrated press disseminated and circulated contents which related to the notion of national identity and which distinctly stated a national political agenda during a vibrant period of formation and transformation of nations. In doing so, I am also taking into account that, very early in their development, a hierarchy of objectives existed among the illustrated periodicals which was clearly stated in the first issue of each paper and which sustained its creation. Some publications adopted a political stance which promoted the extension of the bourgeois space, in the tradition of the Enlightenment period, while others took a position more favourable to the proletariat. An important point of my analysis is to stress the role of the image in the transmission of news; thus I show that the illustrated press was a specific form of journalism which used the powerful visual representation of symbols and stereotypes to gain access to an illiterate public impossible to reach through the written press, thus creating an opportunity to educate them. To analyse the role of the illustrated press in the construction of a collective national memory around an important military event like the Franco-Prussian War, I have extended my study to the following weeklies: in England,10 the Illustrated London News, the Graphic, the Illustrated Times, and the Penny Illustrated Paper; in France, the Illustration, the Monde illustre, the Univers illusive, the Presse illustree, and the Journal illustre; in Germany, the Illustrirte Zeitung; and in Canada, the Opinion publique and the Canadian Illustrated News.11 All of them lasted at least ten years and had a weekly distribution of over ten thousand. As such, their influence may be engraved in time and space in their readers' memory. These papers are used to help us understand the role of illustrations in the development of the concept of nationalism as the idea of Us facing the Other, the enemy. Indeed, the event studied, the 1870 war, takes its significance from the fact that it occurred during a period of formation for many nations, including Canada. My analysis is inspired by the work of researchers who have shown that the existence of the 'national' has its root in the appearance of mass-produced illustrated periodicals, at the beginning of the 1840s.12 Mass production is understood as the manufacturing of a large number of copies of an issue of a paper by a standardized process. In England, that type of press promoted 'the formation of the nation' built on Englishness;13 in the United States, it attempted to create a national identity in developing an American character.14 Indeed, the coverage of the war by the illustrated press set out essen-

Introduction: The Eyes of the Reader 9

tial political questions every week, suggesting what models should be taken up and what positions should be adopted in front of the Other, the enemy. The construction of national imaginaries, in which this press took part, occurred within a context of national inequality and denial of some previous alliances. It also took place with the contributions of workers (journalists, artists, engravers, editorialists, columnists), people who were often on the front line as members of one of the armies confronting each other, and who could hardly remain objective. Indeed, another particularity of my study is to revive the names of artists and reporters who were often quite well known at the time, and who have since been almost completely forgotten. To do that, when it is possible, I identify each artist and/or reporter who participated in the production of a paper. In fact, some publications, such as the Illustrated London News and the Penny Illustrated Paper, almost never identified their contributors. I also analyse the labour process in all its details in order to understand the conditions under which these people worked. Indeed, the labour process was closely linked to the development of new mass-communication techniques which built on already existing technologies, thereby upsetting the pace of printing visual and written news. For instance, the national and international reporting of the Franco-Prussian War experienced some problems because the dissemination of the image and the text did not travel by the same communication channels, or at the same speed. I discuss the strategies which the editors used to overcome these technical difficulties, and the way the form and content of national and international representations published in periodicals were linked to the development of communication by capitalism. The analysis of these various aspects of the coverage of the FrancoPrussian War by the illustrated periodicals listed above needs to be put in a wider context. Thus, in the first chapter, I offer an overview of the development of the nineteenth-century illustrated press, situating my corpus within it; I also explain the intentions the editors expressed when they launched their papers. Since the 1870 war covered by the chosen periodicals has been almost completely erased from collective memories, I also examine the political activities that were going on in Europe in the ten or so years preceding the conflict, and which had some impact on its occurrence. In chapter 2,1 discuss the importance of journalistic pictures, the role they played first in the illustrated press in general, and then more particularly in war coverage. This is also where I analyse the production process of journalistic illustrations, and the

10 Images at War

way this process was affected by the discourse constructed by the engravings. In chapter 3,1 am concerned with the way the papers organized their coverage of the war, the strategies they used to include the types of images they wanted their readers to remember, and the many difficulties they encountered because of the events of the war. Chapters 4 to 6 analyse the coverage of the Franco-Prussian War in the papers coming from the four countries named above. In chapter 4,1 examine the position that each paper adopted through its editorials, columns, and articles. My aim is to see if their written discourse coincides with their visual content as analysed in the two next chapters. To better understand what was really happening during this war, I also analyse some data from soldiers, officers, and other participants in the conflict to see whether or not their reports support the analyses published in the editorials, columns, and articles of the illustrated newspapers at the time. Finally, I explain briefly the effects of this war on different types of literary production. In the next chapter, I concentrate on the early coverage of the war, developing an approach based on the notion of ruptures suggested by Paul Ricoeur, and which I use to classify the coverage of the war into three types of rupture: eventuation, political, and periodical;15 I use the first type to reveal the position of each paper at the beginning of the war. In the final chapter, I refer to the political ruptures to look at the divergences of position among the papers studied, and to the periodical ruptures to reveal the shift that occurred in the papers' opinions during the course of the war arising from unexpected events. I conclude this chapter with an analysis of the front and back pages of each paper, since these are the pages which either first attract the readers' attention, or which remain in their memory. Such a complex approach to an international corpus of data needs to be supported by a multifaceted methodology. I use a politico-economic analysis to understand the construction of the hierarchical structure sustaining the papers nationally and internationally and the relationship between editors and workers, and editors and readers; I look at the appearance, the price, and the distribution of these papers. The written and illustrated texts produced by these numerous and culturally divergent periodicals are analysed from two angles. From the politico-economic angle I look at the conditions of production of these texts, especially the various elements which have influenced their contents. From the cultural angle, I use a discourse analysis based on themes and ideas which reveal the ideological and cultural forces at

Introduction: The Eyes of the Reader 11

play in each paper. In addition I a semantic approach to look at not only the relationship between elements within the images and texts, but also the interrelation between images, and images and texts. It helps to reveal how different framings suggest, and are propelled by, semiotic strategies. Everything in the papers studied which is relevant to the Franco-Prussian War, illustrated or written, has been taken into consideration for my analysis, although I had to choose which images to publish as examples, based on availability, quality of the images, and representativeness. All translations of primary sources are mine.

CHAPTER ONE

The Illustrated Press in Its

Sociopolitical Context

In 1870 the illustrated press was in its thirty-ninth year of existence, though the inclusion of current news in the content was somewhat more recent. The illustrated newspapers studied here belong to what Bacot has defined as the second generation of the generalist illustrated press;1 the first generation began in 1832 with the Penny Magazine of Charles Knight. This publication was promoted by the Society for the Development of Useful Knowledge, of which Knight was one of the founders. Inspired by encyclopaedism, its content was mainly concerned with 'useful knowledge/ namely, information that aimed at educating the public. Each issue of the magazine comprised dozens of wood engravings that contributed to the explosion of the market for periodicals of this sort. According to Jackson, the Penny Magazine was the first illustrated journal published in the world. He argues that this publication was not a newspaper because '[i]t was necessary to avoid making the new periodical anything like a newspaper lest it should become liable to stamp duty'2 Though in the beginning the illustrations were of rather poor quality, the journal was an immediate success reaching, after a few months, a sale of two hundred thousand copies weekly. Jackson asserts that several casts of 'its best cuts were supplied for illustration of publications of a similar character which appeared in Germany, France, Holland, Livonia, Bohemia, Italy, Ionian Islands, Sweden, Norway, Spanish America, and the Brazils/3 In the United States, the whole publication was sent in the form of plates and reprinted as such. In France the Magazin pittoresque, founded by Knight's friend Edouard Charton, and in Germany the Pfenning Magazine, founded by J.J. Weber in Leipzig, were both launched in 1833 and also very successful.4 This type of magazine was often known as

The Illustrated Press in Context 13

'picturesque' or pittoresque because it offered pictures of art or scenery; the aim was to vulgarize various aspects of the arts and sciences in order to educate/entertain, but not to disseminate news/information. As such, while they may have provided their readers with knowledge to help them cope more easily with day-to-day matters arising from the rapid industrialization of English society, these magazines should by no means be equated with a democratization of information.5 The second generation of the illustrated press began with the founding of the Illustrated London News in 1842.6 Doubling the size of the earlier format with the help of newly developed print technologies, its sixteen pages included various-sized illustrations, some of them even double-page spreads. It sold at a high price and exclusively by subscription. The Illustrated London News became a model for many other illustrated periodicals, which sprang up in several countries. Among them, both the Illustration in Paris, and a few months later the Illustrirte Zeitung in Leipzig, appeared in 1843; they were followed by the Ilustracion espanola in Madrid in 1847.7 These papers offered a mixture of news, useful knowledge, and novels, in short, diversified subjects and services, along the lines of a department store. Progressively, however, they became more and more dedicated to the diffusion of information on current events. In 1848 the two French Revolutions forced them to create an illustrated news-reporting service with sketchers and draughtsmen working in the field, and a team of engravers handling the production process. In the next decade comparable periodicals emerged in other capitals, namely, in New York with Harper's Weekly in 1850 and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper in 1855, in Stockholm with the Illustrerad Tidning in 1857, and in Copenhagen with the Illustreret Tidende in 1859. Other illustrated papers came much later in many North and South American and European cities, among them the Canadian Illustrated News in 1869, and the Opinion publique in 1870 in Montreal, and the Illustrazione popolare in 1869 in Milan.8 Many factors were responsible for the length of time it took between the coming of the first illustrated newspapers in Great Britain, France, Germany, and Spain and the emergence of other similar papers in European and North American countries. In some ways, this gap was the result of cultural domination. Indeed, a critical number of possible readers who could speak the language of a published paper was necessary for its long-term success. For instance, the size of the Dutch and/ or Italian readership was, at the time, too small for the profitability of a paper. In this sense, the survival of a Danish paper was remarkable.

14 Images at War Another important inhibiting element was political freedom of speech and diffusion of information.9 Other factors which could determine the success or failure of a paper included the level of literacy of the people, the stage of expansion of the postal and railway systems, and the financial and technical capacity to develop large enterprises to do the drawing, engraving, and printing.10 A last element, often forgotten, is that in many countries the people who could afford to buy such a product often subscribed to foreign illustrated newspapers instead of their local publications.11 Within those countries which were the first to have illustrated papers, the 1850s witnessed the beginning of competition with, unavoidably, the emergence of cheaper publications. In England the Illustrated Times, which appeared in 1855, sold for 2 pence, less than half the price of its competitor the Illustrated London News;12 in France, the Monde illusive in 1857 and the Univers illusive in 1858, sold respectively for 35 and 30 centimes, competing with the Illustration at 75 centimes. Strangely enough, the arrival on the market of inexpensive, good quality publications was not detrimental to the sale of the more expensive ones. They were either targeting a different public, or the subscribers to pricey papers could afford to buy more than one.13 In Germany during this period, Stuttgart's Uber Land und Meer (1859) was not really in competition with the Illustrirte Zeitung as its content was mostly concerned with novels and short stories, as was that of the Gartenlaube (1853) in Leipzig, which had the largest readership in Germany. In 1870 a special illustrated paper appeared, entitled Chronik der Zeit, whose sole purpose was to cover the war. At the same time, both the Uber Land und Meer and the Gartenlaube drastically changed their agenda for war coverage, using a strong nationalist tone from the beginning of the conflict;14 they came back to their regular content after the war.15 The Gartenlaube's main competitor was the Daheim, also founded in Leipzig. The paper carefully stressed, in its first issue's editorial, that it would not cover political and/or religious divisions, because such subjects were not appropriate for its target readership, families. In the United States, after the appearance in Boston of the short-lived Glason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion in 1851 (later named the Ballou's Pictorial) came Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in 1855 the first pictorial publication offering visual representation of current events - and then in 1857, Harper's Weekly. Both were published in New York, and both covered the Civil War (1861-5).16 Leslie, aware of the

The Illustrated Press in Context 15

Illustrirte Zeitung in Saxony and of the large number of German immigrants in the United States, launched Frank Leslie's Illustrirte Zeitung in 1857, which lasted until 1922. Finally, Canada had to wait until 1869 to have its first illustrated newspaper, with the- Canadian Illustrated News (which copied the format of the Illustrated London News) and then the Opinion puUique in 1870, both published by the same owner-editor Georges E. Desbarats. Another old British colony, Australia, had its Illustrated Australian News launched in 1862.17 Finally, in South America, some attempts to establish such publications were made, often unsuccessfully, after 1880. Quite a few papers were already being published in different languages, including Spanish, and could have been imported from overseas or even from the United States.18 A third generation of illustrated newspapers came into being in the 1860s. Though not many papers belong to that category, these often had a very large circulation. Once again, England witnessed the birth of that new generation with the publication of the Penny Illustrated Paper in 1861 in London.19 Then, again, it was imitated in France with the launching in Paris first of the Journal illustre in 1864 and then of the Presse illustree in 1867;20 both sold for 10 centimes. In Italy, the Illustrazione popolare was also sold for 10 centimes in Milan in 1870. These generously illustrated newspapers were barely less luxurious than their predecessors and much cheaper, which made them accessible to a popular and massive readership.21 Particularly neglected by scholars in the domain, and unfortunately badly preserved even in national libraries, this generation offers nevertheless very good quality engravings and, as such, is important to consider in any research on the nineteenthcentury illustrated press. Finally, Bacot's fourth generation, born in France but extended to other countries such as Italy, consists of the daily papers' weekly supplements, especially the Petit journal and the Petit parisien. Sold for one sous in the 1890s, they reached a distribution of more than three million. In spite of their late appearance (1888 and 1890), they have to be mentioned as they illustrated the twentieth, thirtieth, and fortieth anniversaries of the Franco-Prussian War in their pages. Massively distributed in large format and in colour, rather well preserved and widely collected by libraries and archives, they constitute the last evidence of that conflict before it was replaced in people's memories by the representations, much later, of the First World War.22 Despite the huge circulation of these publications - often reaching millions of copies - this, by no means, should be seen as the democrati-

16 Images at War

zation of the press. It must be remembered that all these papers were owned and edited by members of the middle classes, if not of the bourgeoisie. The knowledge/information offered to their massive readerships was undoubtedly coming from the top down, and the interest of the working classes had little to do with the content, though they had to be satisfied enough to buy it regularly. Yet these mass-circulation illustrated newspapers did much to expand the information/knowledge in everyday culture by offering very good quality illustrations on current events and sometimes art and culture. Indeed, the intentions of the owner-editors generally surpassed the mere profit motive as they were willing to include information/knowledge that would 'educate/ inform' their readers. As such, these papers mostly promoted the interests of those in possession of social, economic, and political power, but that did not prevent them from occasionally publishing 'radical' ideas promoting actions for the improvement of the well-being of less fortunate classes. All the same, though the original intentions and ideology sustaining the creation of a paper seem to have endured until 1870, there have been many transformations in the press industry since the 1830s, changes that also affected the illustrated press and as such influenced its content. The Transformation of the Nineteenth-Century Press The illustrated press that covered the Franco-Prussian War was financed by private capital and was managed according to market profit. The papers were mass produced a distributed within a business world governed by competition. This ess was based on the same structure as that of the regular press, though the images brought a particular aspect to its function in society. Political and religious control of the press, especially on images depicting current news, were relaxed in the midnineteenth century. In France, Napoleon III, with the law of 1868, removed the need for newspapers to seek authorization to publish political news.23 In fact, this liberalization of the press in France was part of a more extensive project of liberalization developed by Minister Ollivier and approved by the emperor. On 8 May 1870, Napoleon, attempting to increase his power, asked the population to approve his liberal reforms by way of a plebiscite. The overwhelming approval represented a triumph for the emperor: seven million for and one against. For all that, the correctional tribunals did not show any indulgence towards political papers and continued to distribute fees and jail

The Illustrated Press in Context 17 sentences. Yet this did not stop some editors and pamphleteers from publishing 'subversive' articles. Prussia, on the other hand, until the coming of Bismarck, had more freedom of the press than France. However, as Bismarck, an old collaborator of the Gazette de la Croix, was given increasing power by King Wilhelm, he strengthened his control over the press, which he considered to be a means of propaganda too powerful to be used 'democratically.' In fact, Wuttke asserts that, in the second part of the nineteenth century, control over the press was so strong that Germany had a real problem with the circulation of accurate and objective information, particularly before the unification of the country.24 In Italy, the success of Cavour in the integration of several provinces, followed by the transfer of the capital to Florence in 1862, brought changes which resulted in the quasi elimination of a national press. These measures gave rise to the emergence, up until 1876, of many small newspapers, but very few were distributed over the whole territory. While the press on the continent was subject to the whims of sovereigns and emperors, the mid-nineteenth-century English press was prosperous. The Times was at the peak of its power after its distribution was boosted by Russell's coverage of the Crimean War.25 In short, the press had been faced with important transformations since the mid-1800s. Another important change occurred in its content. Chalaby argues that this transformation occurred in the mid-nineteenth century when an unprofitable press based on opinions and convictions, a 'public discourse' written by publicists, made room for a profit-oriented press in which opinions gave way to news reports.26 While the former's objective was to educate the public, particularly the working classes, the latter was concerned with keeping the public informed about various current events. It would be naive, however, to believe that the numerous papers existing at the time could be divided in two such clear-cut categories. My own observation of the nineteenth-century illustrated press revealed that owners and editors usually combined both intentions: informing and educating the public, but also making a profit. Still, with the new type of press also came a new dynamic to sustain it. Chalaby identifies three types of dynamics which were responsible, individually and as a whole, for the new structure and content of the press: an internal dynamic created by the fact that many workers were struggling to improve their position, and two external dynamics emerging from competition: first, among papers of a similar type (e.g., the Illustrated London News and the Graphic in England, or the Illustra-

18 Images at War

tion and the Monde illustre in France), and second, between different types of papers (e.g., the Graphic and the Penny Illustrated Paper], or daily as opposed to weekly (e.g., the Times and the Illustrated London News). An important part of the transformation identified by Chalaby was the change of discourse. Journalistic content is made up of a number of texts which constitute the material manifestation of a discourse that represents a historical and social entity. As such, a text, be it written or illustrated, can often be understood only in relation to other texts, either present in the same issue of the paper, or in a different paper. Moreover, the meaning of a particular discourse is more than the sum of the texts. It is also dependent on its producers so that part of its existence is independent from those texts. In short, a discourse is a social object and has a historical dimension based on specific political, economic, and sociocultural conditions of production. Therefore, sociologically, the meaning of a discourse is external to the texts which constitute it. It comes from the conditions under which the texts are produced, from the intentions, expressed or not, of its producers as much as from the text itself within its context. To be sure, written and illustrated texts can be grouped on a page, in a paper, or among a certain number of issues of the same or different papers. In the grouping of entire pages of images, for example, a newspaper produces an illustrated discourse in which each page represents a text which has to be regarded on its own, and then in relation to the other pages, as well as to the editors' politics of publication and to competitors' discourses. Ruptures in a discourse would come from ruptures in the rules and codes sustaining it. Using Polanyi's thesis, Chalaby notes: The 19th century commercialisation of the press led to the commodification of its discourse. From organs of publicity for combatants in politics newspapers became industrial undertakings. Progressively, the discourse of the press became informed by economic-oriented practices and the exchange value of this discursive production became more important than its use value. The subordination of discursive practices to economic exchange transformed the function of the discursive production of the press - at first a purely political one - into an economic one; it metamorphosed the public discourse and created a new discursive form.27

These multilevel and gradual changes historically transformed the press into a profit-making enterprise in such a way that political and

The Illustrated Press in Context 19

ideological discourses ceased to be the sole determinants of journalists' practices and were, if not replaced by, then at least based on market laws. Discursive norms were adapted to new rules based on attracting the largest possible readership. At the same time, journalists developed a new conception of what was a worthy of coverage. News, either illustrated or written, became an instrument of competition instead of an instrument of knowledge. What became important was not what the public should know, but what it wanted to know. This policy was adopted by the illustrated press from the early 1840s. The owners-editors' intentions, generally expressed in the introductory editorial of the first issue, was to inform and, to some degree, to educate the public but, first and foremost, to give the readers what they wanted; it was a policy of survival. In 1870 the illustrated periodicals that covered the Franco-Prussian War were still, in some ways, at the crossroads of the information-education dynamic. I could not see a total rupture between these two approaches though some papers were more devoted than others to informing the public.28 Creating 'a New Branch of Civilization'

In 1870 the internal policies and objectives expressed by the papers under consideration, at the time of their launching, were guided by these new conditions of production based on market laws of profit and competition. These policies, and the strategies developed to keep up with the competition, influenced their illustrated and written content. Even the papers founded in the 1840s had not changed their approach to news coverage, diffusion, and distribution very much. For that reason, before I look at the war coverage itself, I will survey in some detail the editors-owners' intentions usually expressed in editorials published in their first issue. Like Krieg, I believe that the ideology, policies, and politics which support a publication influence its content, either written or illustrated.29 When people decide to launch a new paper they have specific motives and goals in mind, though these are not always clearly expressed. The owner-editors of nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals seemed to have a need to explain their motives and objectives to their customers; some papers, like the Illustration and the Illustrated London News for instance, appeared to feel this need more than others. The editors of illustrated newspapers, particularly the Illustrated London News, took their role very seriously, and considered their products

20 Images at War

as an essential contribution to modern society. A weekly publicati n gave them the time and opportunity to choose carefully the information they judged most pertinent to their readers. As such, their discourse, written or illustrated, necessarily varied according to the internal policies governing the general line of their content. Thus, knowing the goals and motives underlining the creation of a paper helps us to find the inconsistencies between the paper's initial position and the content it offered over the years, and particularly during the war. Indeed, it helps to put into perspective the level of importance given to the conflict in terms of its coverage. How fast was the regular content replaced by content almost entirely related to issues rising from the war? How 'objective' and 'informative' was the war coverage of each paper? These questions cannot be answered fully without considering the logic underlying the political and economic conditions allowing the emergence of all the papers studied here, as well as the initial motives and intentions made public by their founder-editors. In England in 1842 Herbert Ingram, seeing the way the circulation of a daily like the Observer increased when an issue included the picture of a special event, decided to found an illustrated periodical, the Illustrated London News.30 The story goes that he was thinking of a paper covering special and social events, but his partner, Henry Vizetelly 'special Artist, art director, master engraver and publisher of many illustrated ventures' - convinced Ingram that the Illustrated London News could become an authoritative paper if it were to concentrate on current events instead.31 All biographical sources about Ingram agree that it was hard work convincing him that a middle class in England was ready for more than the illustration of murders and accidents; once Ingram was convinced, however, the paper was an instant success. During the first few months of publication, the paper's sales, according to Jackson, were around sixty-six thousand copies, but the popularity of the paper was boosted by some very important events happening during the first decade of its existence. An especially successful issue was that with an engraving, made by R.T. Landells, of the state visit of Queen Victoria to Scotland in 1841.32 The year 1848 was also a good one for the paper because of the revolution in France, so much so that it doubled its sales in three months;33 this resulted in the supplier, who was unable to meet the demand, being 'buried in flour by the public.'34 Both Ingram and Vizetelly had a liberal and progressive approach in keeping with the spirit of the Enlightenment, and their policy was to

The Illustrated Press in Context 21

improve and extend the 'fund of mon knowledge/ to use Hogart's words. They foresaw the important role which this new form of journalism, the illustrated newspaper, would play in history. In the first issue, launched on 14 May 1842, they clarified that role. An unsigned editorial, customary at the time, made a heartfelt plea for a 'new world/ explaining why this invention was as important as that of the steam engine: To the wonderful march of periodical literature it [the 'illustrative art'] has given an impetus and a rapidity almost coequal with the gigantic power of steam... ... now, when we see the spirit of the times everywhere associating with it, and heralding or recording its [the art] success; we do hold it as of a somewhat triumphant omen that WE are by the publication of this very newspaper, launching the giant-vessel of illustration into a channel the broadest and the widest that it has ever dared to stern. We bound at once over the billows of a new ocean - we sail into the very heart and focus of public life - we take the world of newspaper by storm, and flaunt a banner on which the words 'ILLUSTRATED NEWS' become symbols of a fresher purpose, and a more enlarged design, than was ever measured in that hemisphere till now. The public will have henceforth under their glance, and within their grasp, the very form and presence of events as they transpire, in all their substantial reality, and with evidence visible as well as circumstantial.

As visionaries, the editors were conscious of the historical role of their publication, as they noted in the preface to volume 1 (MayDecember 1842): 'We know that the advent of an Illustrated Newspaper in this country must mark an epoch - give wealth to Literature and stores to History, and put, as it were mile-stones upon the traveled road of time.' This role was enhanced by its editor's initiative in having the issues of each half year bound as a volume, 'a work that history must keep' (emphasis in original). Most of Ingram's imitators followed suit. In the preface to volume 2 (J ry-June 1843), the editors were more than ever convinced of the sociohistorical role of their product: 'Yes, these tomes are little monuments of Art, which we are building up on the broad lands of the community; and on the four tablets of which Literature, Poetry, History, and the Intelligence of the social world, have graven inscriptions which we hope will prove as indelible

22 Images at War

as they are distinct/ Yet, the illustrations were not good on their own; their sociocultural impact relied on artistic talent. Indeed, several new publications tried to imitate the Illustrated London News, but their success was seemingly jeopardized by the low quality of their product: We originated what we are bold enough to denominate a new branch of civilization, and of that branch - as head and leader, we have stood immutable and alone. It must speak volumes for the energy, perseverance, and enterprise of the Proprietors of the Illustrated London News, that, with a host of such imitations as ever spring up upon the success of a new and popular discovery, it has maintained a superiority that has kept it without a single rival. There are other flags waving upon outposts below us, but ours is the nner upon the hill-fort.

Sold for 5 pence (6 pence stamped), the Illustrated London News was conceived in the spirit of liberal enterprise and 'conducted with a view of National Intelligence, and the more enabling Principles of Moral Philosophy/ Given the rate of exchange of the time, this paper was about twice as expensive as its French competitor, the Illustration. The content was 'dedicated to Justice and the Good of Society, and above all, clasping Literature and Art together in the firm embrace of Mind' (vol l:iii). The rigid moral and intellectual principles guiding the creation of the paper seemed to agree with the members of the British, and other European, populations who could afford it.35 Undoubtedly desiring to reassure his Christian readership on the legitimacy of the visual aspect of his product, Ingram claimed that his publication had the approbation of the clergy (vol 2:iv). The general principles guiding the Illustrated London News had not changed in 1870, though the paper went from eight to twenty-four pages for the same price. The moralistic tone of the declaration of intention, still perceptible during the Franco-Prussian War, could only have influenced its position during the conflict, a tone that was not observed in the other periodicals studied. The Graphic was launched on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas, a wood-engraver who had previously worked for the Illustrated London News. It contained twenty-four pages and was sold for 6 pence, making it the most expensive of all of the illustrated papers. The fact that it was no more available than its main competitor to the modest-income classes did not affect its popularity. According to the editor, the good quality of its engravings justified its high price. Qual-

The Illustrated Press in Context 23 ity was an important aspect of such a publication: 'Our aim has been to produce a Weekly paper which should not be merely of temporary interest, but should be worthy of being preserved as a constant source of entertainment, and as a faithful Literary and Pictorial Chronicle of the time' (preface of volume 2 [December 1869-June 1870]). So the Graphic was created to contribute not only to modern history, but to the entertainment of the bourgeois as well. The editor published no declaration of principles in the first issue. However, in general, its texts, though rather conservative, did not adopt the highly moralistic tone of the Illustrated London News. At the opposite end of the English illustrated newspapers' hierarchy stood the Penny Illustrated Paper, also known as the PIP. Launched on 12 October 1861 by Ebenezer Farrington, this publication contained sixteen pages and sold for one penny, as its title suggested.36 Surprisingly, the engravings were original and of good quality for such a cheap product. In the first issue, the editorial unveiled its objective to reach one million readers unable to buy more expensive papers. The Repeal of the Paper Duties, approved by parliament at the end of 1851, gave the founders the opportunity to produce a quality paper at a small price.37 The Penny Illustrated Paper targeted the working classes and intended to cover the kind of information that interested them. So it might be surprising that one of its first priorities was to cover the domains of literature and the arts, while one of its goals was to decrease the 'intellectual and cultural inequalities' among the different social classes by imposing on its readership dominant ideas and cultural tastes: 'The measure will give new intellectual life, tend wonderfully to the dissemination of knowledge, and help to create through society a greater equality of taste, habits, and modes of thought.'38 Still, the objectives listed in the first editorial included more pragmatic measures, such as providing detailed information on the struggle against poverty, suffering, and criminality - problems that 'a cheap press will greatly help to solve ... The greater, therefore, the moral responsibility of those who propose to devote themselves to their [the poor] service, and to give them the aid of so potent a magician as the genius of the press.' Nonetheless, it is to the 'class next above them' to which this paper was dedicated, 'the working men ... who are at once the backbone and sinew of our national life. When these all read, have all their literary and political organs, which look to them for efficient support, no prophet is needed to show that their power of all kinds must be immensely increased in their hands.' The editor sought coop

24 Images at War

eration between the working classes and his paper, which ' omise[d] to revolutionize many branches of Industry [sic], and to open an altogether fresh field of hope to those who were fast yielding to despair/ With such a program and intention in mind, the Penny Illustrated Paper adopted a moralistic attitude close to that of the Illustrated London News, though politically opposed to its bourgeois approach. This commendable intention was barely noticeable in its engravings, however, except perhaps for the pictures showing the misery of the Parisians resisting the Prussian siege, a vignette difficult to avoid. The Illustrated Times, launched on 9 June 1855, had sixteen pages and was sold for 2 pence 'with gratis supplement/ Taken over by Ingram very early in its existence, it was accessible to a more modest readership (upper-working and lower-middle lasses) than the two bourgeois periodicals. Despite its relatively low price, it offered numerous good-quality engravings, but was printed on cheap paper. It also used very small print, which might have deterred barely literate people from buying it. A long article published in the first issue explained that the aim of the editor was to produce 'a good newspaper ... within the reach of everybody at the modest rate at which we are able to vend this one/ A cheap paper, accessible to a large readership, had 'it in its power widely to contribute to [people's] social, and individual, and educational improvement which alone is worthy of the enthusiasm of a wise public man/ To educate the public, the paper adopted a 'politics [which] may be described in two words, as independent and as English/ The editor refused, then, to support any political party. In the preface of volume 1 (June-December 1855), he expressed his intention to encourage 'all public men who will honestly meet the difficulties of the time, never forgetting that it is to social measures - social influences - social reforms, that England must look for its salvation and its development/ Such politics seem to have lasted through the FrancoPrussian War, during which the Illustrated Times often took a position at odds with the three other illustrated newspapers. In addition, its articles did not adopt a moralistic tone; rather they suggested a political position towards the centre. In France, the Illustration was launched in Paris on 4 March 843, a few months after the Illustrated London News, by Alexandre Paulin, with Adolphe Joanne, Edouard Charton, and Jean-Jacques Dubochet as founder-editors. This first French illustrated newspaper never mentioned its English competitor in its first editorial, which explained the founders' goal behind the paper's creation. Charton had some experi-

The Illustrated Press in Context 25

ence in the press publishing business since, as we saw earlier, he had founded the Magazin pittoresque in 1833. The four men were rather progressive and republican, but Charton quit in January 1844 in disagreement with the new policies which were gradually oriented towards commercialization rather than education. Paulin remained editor-in-chief for years. The Illustration came out on Saturdays and had sixteen to twenty-four pages and sold for 75 centimes. This might be the reason why its circulation was never very high for a Parisian paper. In 1866 it was around eighteen thousand, while the Monde illustre was at thirty-three, and the Journal illustre at one hundred and five thousand. Only the Univers illustre was lower at that time, with fifteen thousand.39 At that price, the paper could only be afforded by relatively wealthy people, which meant that the targeted public was the petty-bourgeois and bourgeois classes. The intentions behind the foundation of the paper, presented in the first editorial, clearly show that this novelty in France was not meant for the poor. In an article entitled 'Notre but,' published in the first issue, the founders explain that the title of the periodical was chosen because the term 'illustration' had become le gout du siecle. In their desire to publish information as clearly as possible and to inform their readers 'so effectively that they could imagine being there' - something that the dailies could not supply with the short and sketchy reports that they were forced to adopt - they decided to produce wood-engraved illustrations, an old technique then available to newspapers. Not naming the English periodical, the text asserted, however, that this type of illustration had seen an incredible expansion in the last few years and seemed to have a future. After a short review of its use for book printing, the writer mentioned that the publications under the name of Pittoresque were the first to reuse this technique in periodical printing. 'We only continue what they have started in giving the technique a new direction, and in trying to open for it the new career of news reporter, we do not doubt our success, as it is obvious that nowhere is it susceptible to bear better fruit.' The implication here is clear: no other newspaper had already used that technique, and the Illustration was the proud successor of the first generation of illustrated periodicals. For the Illustration, engravings made an article more readily understandable. This was important because the paper intended to cover several new themes that were not easily accessible to some of its readers. Engravings were then used to enhance the understanding of news

26 Images at War

on politics, war, industry, social mores, theatre, and fashion coming from all kinds of geopolitical spaces in addition to France and Europe, such as Afghanistan, India, China, Caucasia, and of course Algeria, a French colony. Illustrations were also meant to meet a 'psychological need/ namely, the whim to see those whose biographies were given or those who made the news in politics or other less 'honourable' matters, such as criminal offences, disasters, or scandals. Finally, what could be more 'natural' than visual representations of theatre plays, art, fashion, or even travel discoveries of foreign countries or colonies? The Illustration had great expectations which seem to have satisfied a certain public since, six months later, the preface of the first bound volume (March-December 1843) revealed that their projections for a large public were surpassed. In the face of such success, the founders' objectives became even more ambitious. They saw their periodical as part of history, an archival document which would be useful for generations to come: 'In short, the ILLUSTRATION will be a faithful mirror in which nineteenth-century social life will be reflected in all its wonderful activity and its varied emotions. Imagine what such a collection would rouse in terms of curiosity and usefulness if it had been created many centuries ago and had lasted until today! How pale and inanimate, always incomplete and hard to understand, are the written descriptions, even the best ones, in comparison with visual images of things!' The aim was clear: the Illustration wanted to make history. What the editors did not say, though, was that it was their history that was told, that which they had selected for their readers to remember, the way that all editors did. The Monde illustre was launched on 18 April 1857 by Bourdilliat and his associate Jaccottet, head of the Librairie Nouvelle.40 It came out on Saturdays. A paper of sixteen pages which sold for 35 centimes, it was more affordable for a lower-income readership than its main competitor, though it remained unreachable, at least on a regular basis, for the working classes. Much more modest than the Illustration in its goals, this new illustrated paper cited the Illustrated London News as its model, completely ignoring the French pioneer in the genre. Why was it such a snob? One can only guess at the reason: as a rival, either the paper feared fierce competition from the Illustration and preferred not to attract attention to its existence (which would have been rather naive), or the editors had closer contacts with the English paper than with the French, which, despite the difference in culture, is more plausible since, according to his biographers, Ingram was making frequent

The Illustrated Press in Context 27

journeys to France, and particularly to Paris. While the Illustration justified its engravings by the necessity of showing things to better understand them, the editor of the Monde illusive explained its creation by 'the desire to meet the public taste for what was new, surprising, unexpected/ thereby implicitly acknowledging that the Illustration had succeeded, during the fourteen years of its existence, in changing the taste and expectations of the public. Thus, these two French competitors had divergent intentions: one wanted to inform its readership more fully; the other to entertain the public. Yet, as we will see later, the content that one developed to reach its objective was not very different from that of the other. Still, public taste was not the sole motive behind the creation of the Monde illusive. In 1857, fifteen years after the launching of the Illustrated London News, an important incentive appeared to be the development of new technologies which would guarantee the success of the enterprise. While the Illustration never made any reference to technologies related to its production and distribution, the Monde illusive enumerated a series of late technological inventions which would enhance its probability of success. Indeed, in the first issue (1857), the editorial applauded the recent scientific invention which allowed the use of photography in the making of an illustrated paper: The admirable role of photography attracts curious people all around the globe/ Though the direct reproduction of a photograph in newspapers was not yet possible in 1857, wood-engraving was often created from photographs, especially for portraits.41 But new technologies were useful not only in relation to the periodicals' content. They were opening new avenues in terms of transmission of information and circulation of the papers. The invention of telegraphy allowed the fast transmission of written texts, but not yet of images, which, as we will see later, raised some problems of coordination with the editors. As well, the steam engine, with the expansion of railroads, facilitated the distribution of the papers in various regions of the countries and even in other countries.42 The Univers illusive was another rather popular illustrated paper, coming about one year after the Monde illusive. Established by the wellknown publisher Michel Levy Freres on 22 May 1858, it was, according to the Graphic, 'one of the most popular and wide spread illustrated weeklies/43 Sold, at the beginning, for 15 centimes for eight pages, it soon increased its number of pages to sixteen, also doubling the price to 30 centimes. The editor-in-chief, A. Felix, was rather daring to launch a paper similar to one that had already been on the market for

28 Images at War

over a year and targeting the same public. To attract customers, he succeeded in convincing a well-known writer, Theophile Gautier, to sign the first editorial that explained the goals and intentions of the paper's editors. At the time, Gautier was a regular at the Tuileries and in Compiegne.44 It is not too surprising, then, that the justification he gave, in the editorial, for the launching of the paper, was very close to that propounded in the Monde illustre, a paper known as being under the patronage of Napoleon III in order to balance the more radical views of the Illustration. Indeed, on the cover page of the first issue of the Univers illustre, Gautier mentioned that 'modern life/ with the development of new technologies, had changed peoples' expectations, which the paper intended to meet: 'Our busy life does not always leave us time to read, but we have time to see; where an article takes us half-an-hour, a drawing demands only a minute. A quick glance suffices to catch the information that it contains, and the most succinct sketch is always more understandable and more explicit than a written description.' This is a surprising point of view from a book writer. True, a few paragraphs later, he added that the paper would do more than astonish children's eyes; it would also contribute to the formation of peoples' minds in offering as many serious columns as light entertainment. The Journal illustre was the most popular of the French illustrated newspapers. It was launched by Millaud, then owner of the daily Petit journal, in a situation complicated by the fact that a Journal illustre already existed, created by Emile de Girardin in 1863. Millaud took over the existing Journal illustre, kept the title, decreased its price from 15 to 10 centimes and organized its promotion.45 At 10 centimes for eight pages, the paper offered good quality engravings. Its main objective was clearly to be affordable to as many people as possible, while keeping a high standard for its engravings. It was the first French illustrated paper accessible to low-income classes, but a few years later, the Presse illustree appeared. Indeed, in the week of 9-16 November 1867, this eight-page paper, also selling for 10 centimes, was launched by Alphonse Hernant, editor-in-chief. Its only expressed objective was to furnish its readers with good quality engravings, made on better workable wood. The paper devoted its illustrations exclusively to current events, not the type of useful knowledge published by the first generation of illustrated periodicals. It came out of the illustrated supplement of a daily, the Petite presse. While the supplement was directly related to the daily's content by illustrating some events reported in articles published during the week, the periodical Presse illustree was entirely

The Illustrated Press in Context 29 independent, though, at the beginning, the buyer of the Petite presse received the Presse illustree for free on Sundays. After a while, it was offered at half its price, namely 5 centimes, and finally the paper was so popular that the editors had to stop that practice and sell the paper for 10 centimes to everyone.46 So it appears that the paper was meeting the 'need' of low-income classes for illustrated news. In Germany, the Illustrirte Zeitung was launched in Leipzig by J.J. Weber on 1 July 1843, a few months after that of the Illustration in Paris.47 Leipzig was a commercial and cultural city which housed most of the German-language print industry. A sixteen-page paper selling for 5 mgr, the Illustrirte Zeitung was proportionally the equivalent of the Illustration and the Illustrated London News in terms of quality, price, and its rather conservative objectives. According to the Graphic, it was an immediate success.48 Its long subtitle revealed that it aimed at publishing daily news on all kinds of current events, situations, and personalities, as well as stories on 'official life and Society, knowledge and art, music, theatre and fashion.' For this paper, in format mid-way between the newspaper and the magazine, the editor's intentions, set out in an article entitled 'What We Want' on the two first pages of the first issue, were clearly expressed: What we want to offer is a solid education t men, agreeable entertainment to women, and to induce our youth into an appetite for a rich and dynamic life through reading. We would like to be a book found in every and all families and which meets the need of all its members. We would wish that he who has no friend, either in a big city or in the most remote village, not be without anything new, useful, or agreeable to discover. And so God bless our intention which can only succeed entirely if it is well received by all.49 The Illustrirte Zeitung had important obstacles to overcome. As Weber stresses, although this paper was published within a territory not yet united by a common politico-economic system, language, and culture, it nonetheless reached a distribution of seven thousand five hundred at the end of 1843.50 The situation improved after the unification of Germany. Moreover, there were no trained engravers in Germany at the time, and the editor had to hire English artists who often reproduced scenes and events coming from their country. Receiving many complaints from his readership, who wanted to see images from Germany, J.J. Weber, with his friend Eduard Kretzschmar, opened

30 Images at War

a workshop in Leipzig with forty to fifty engravers. It was called Xylographysche Anstalt. This was only in 1862 when the Illustrirte Zeitung's financial means allowed the editor to send foreign correspondents to European capitals such as Vienna, Berlin, Moscow, and St Petersburg; in 1864 the war between Prussia and Denmark forced the paper to send reporters to military headquarters. Draughtsmen such as Auguste Beck covered the wars with Denmark, Austria (1866), and France (1870-1), with other artists like Felix Kanitz and Leo von Elliot. Finally, in Canada, the Canadian Illustrated News was launched in Montreal by Georges E. Desbarats on 30 October 1869. It had sixteen pages and sold for 10 cents. Desbarats, like his father before him, was the Canadian Queen's Printer and thus had his printing enterprise in Ottawa. But his business burned in January 1869, and he decided to move to Montreal where he met William A. Leggo, with whom he partnered in order to create an illustrated paper. Leggo and his three brothers were German immigrants and engravers who were working on trying to reproduce photographs in newspapers. Desbarats was interested in this process and, together with Leggo, he worked to use it in their publication. A few months after the launching of his first publication, Desbarats introduced its French counterpart, called the Opinion publique, in January 1870, which also sold for 10 cents although it had only eight pages. According to Sutherland, this was the first bilingual tandem published in the magazine field in Canada.51 Both papers used wood engravings and the new photo-engraving technique of William Leggo to produce their illustrations. In the editorial of the first issue of the Canadian Illustrated News, Desbarats mentioned the 'new image' of the paper, implying that an old version had existed for a short period, of which there is not trace. Further, he assured the public that he was using an entirely new and high quality technology and that his experience with newspaper printing should give confidence to the readers. The paper was oriented towards the publication of Canadian art and literature and, as such, the owner hoped to attract a large Canadian readership, despite the fierce competition of foreign illustrated newspapers which, he said, 'have millions of readers in England, Germany, France and United States and hundredths [sic] of readers in Canada.' His confidence in his paper's success relied on the new technique of picture printing. Yet in 1890 the Graphic, in its overview of the illustrated periodicals of the world, mentioned the poor quality of the illustrations in Desbarats' publications, since he was using mainly

The Illustrated Press in Context 31

reproductions of photographs instead of 'artistic' drawings. So, what the Canadian publisher saw as an innovation for attracting readers, the editor of the English paper, obviously more conservative/believed was a degradation of artistic production.52 To establish his publication, Desbarats mailed six thousand free copies of the English paper to professionals, schools, and other institutions.53 He repeated the ploy when the French version, the Opinion publique, was launched. As the readership for both papers was rather small, the funding came from advertisements. Sutherland asserts that Desbarats was asking the highest advertising rate in Canada.54 Though the two papers were published by the same owner, the teams were different and despite the fact that some engravings appeared in both papers, usually at an interval, many illustrations were divergent. However, the general intention behind the publication of the two papers was the same. Indeed, the first editorial explained that the editors wanted to offer a weekly for the family, and particularly for women who would either read the paper to their children or encourage them to read it themselves. Largely illustrated, the publication, it was suggested, should be put on the table in the den so that it would be available during the whole week to every member of the family. Somewhat later, the editor informed his readers that they had received correspondence expressing the desire for such content as trivial news, news on cultural events, and on famous people. They decided to give in to the demand and thereafter, include such topics. Yet both papers devoted a large part of their content to more serious events such as the Franco-Prussian War. Contrary to what had happened during the Crimean War, during which only two illustrated periodicals existed - the Illustrated London News and the Illustration - the events happening in 1870 were covered by a large number of illustrated periodicals and were thus abundantly depicted in many papers. However, before we look in more detail at the illustrated periodicals' content in relation to the Franco-Prussian War, it seems important to know more about the historical context of this conflict, namely the political activities that led to it. The Franco-Prussian War in Context The decade of the 1860s, which had just drawn to a close, was one of intense and vibrant political activity in the countries discussed in this book. In North America, Canada had become a nation-state: the British North America Act of 1867 united four provinces (Ontario, Quebec,

32 Images at War

New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia), creating the Dominion of Canada. Just two years earlier, the United States had ended a bloody civil war that consolidated its nationhood. In Europe, the unification of Italy had begun, although two provinces, Venice and Rome, were not yet part of the state; and Prussia had lately come out of wars with Denmark and then with Austria as part of a strategy to build a German empire that would acquire more power over the Concert of Europe. France, no doubt ignoring that it was at the end of its Second Empire, was unknowingly part of that strategy.55 It was in this international political context that France declared war on Prussia in mid-July 1870. The exact date that war was officially declared is difficult to ascertain since the process lasted about two weeks and occurred in three stages: Napoleon Ill's decision to go to war with Prussia, the approval of his decision by the French Senate, and the reception of the declaration of war by the king of Prussia. However, a majority of historians set the date as 19 July 1870,56 when all parties had been informed of France's intention. By then, some skirmishes had already taken place in towns near the border separating the two countries. Officially, the motives for France to declare war on Prussia seem straightforward: when the throne of Spain became vacant, the Prussian administration, responding to the invitation made by Marshal Prim, then head of the Spanish government, advanced Prince Leopold von HohenzollernSigmaringen, distant relative of King Wilhelm of Prussia, as candidate. However, the situation was more complex than meets the eye. The fact is that the balance of power among European countries was at play, especially that between France and Germany.57 If the candidature of a Hohenzollern had been successful, France would have found itself in a western Europe increasingly dominated by what was to become Germany. In addition, Prussia had acquired a large piece of ter ritory as a consequence of its victory over Austria in the battle of Koniggratz/Sadowa,58 and, with the approval of Napoleon III, Karl von Hohenzollern, Leopold's brother, was already occupying the throne left vacant by the forced abdication of Prince Couza in Romania, as Carol I.59 In this context, the candidacy of Leopold was seen in France, especially by the press and a group of conservative hardliners and authoritarian Bonapartists led by the Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, as politically threatening.60 To add insult to injury, as the Illustration suggested, Leopold was not 'true' royalty.61 In 1850 his father, Antoine von Hohonzollern, had donated his estates to Prussia in exchange for a royal title at the court of Berlin, a title that was given by association to

The Illustrated Press in Context 33

his sons. Outraged by all these humiliating events and urged by the group of Bonapartists, Napoleon III required that King Wilhelm withdraw the prince's candidature, a demand with which he complied.62 Emboldened by this success, the emperor's advisors suggested that Ambassador Benedetti be sent to Ems, where the Prussian king was having his annual cure, for an interview whose aim was to obtain a guarantee that no Hohenzollern candidate would ever again be presented for the throne of Spain. Benedetti got his interview but the king refused the French demand. Irritated by France's insistence and impertinence, he wrote an account of his interview with Benedetti to his prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Bismarck. Dupuy argues that the 'terrible year,' as Victor Hugo dubbed 1870, was directly caused by what he calls 'a simple note sent to the newspapers.'63 Though this claim grossly simplifies the situation causing the war, it is a fact that Bismarck had purposely sent to a Berlin daily a laconic and brutal, but wily, summary of the letter he had received from the king, a note that reached papers in many European capitals a day later. The summary omitted large parts of King Wilhelm's message in order to emphasize his refusal to accede to France's demand of a guarantee for a definite renunciation of a Hohenzollern to the Spanish throne, thereby provoking France to declare war.64 This carefully planned strategy gave the conservative hardliners and authoritative Bonapartists, led by Eugenie and the duke of Gramont - who, Roth suggests, had more impulsive emotions than judgment - the excuse to force a reluctant Napoleon III to go to war with Prussia.65 Yet, politicians and diplomats were not the only ones to cry for vengeance. At the end of the Second Empire, public opinion was becoming increasingly influential. Freedom of the press was also greater. Although both public opinion and the press were rather reluctant to approve war with Prussia initially, French illustrated newspapers, especially the Monde illustre, came to support and print Gramont's position, adopting a discourse of vengeance against one of the countries that had invaded Paris in 1814-15. Public opinion followed suit with such strength that later the emperor confided to King Wilhelm and Bismarck that it forced him to go to war.66 People in Paris and in many French provinces became enthusiastic supporters of the war and applauded and celebrated Napoleon Ill's decision. It was perceived as revenge over Napoleon's defeat in 1815. Indeed, many historians assert that the 1870 war, started by Napoleon III, reactivated the memory of Napoleon I, a painful memory and a very touchy issue, even for

34 Images at War

the Anglo-Prussian victors against whom revenge for the occupation of Paris after the defeat of Waterloo was always close to the surface.67 The Prusso-German people were also enthusiastic about the war against a country which had aggressive intentions of depriving them of a piece of territory.68 Looking Backward for Forward Understanding

Since 1789, France had gone through three revolutions (1789,1830, and 1848). The country had also been involved in wars led by Napoleon I (1801-15), which particularly antagonized Prussia and England; it had been in the Crimean War (1854-6), which alienated Russia; in Napoleon Ill's Mexican adventure (1862-7), which irritated the United States; and in the conflict between Rome, under the control of the Vatican, and Italy (1867-70), which vexed the Italians. So when the French empire declared war on Prussia in 1870, these countries refused to come to the rescue of the French army and decided to remain 'neutral.'69 In truth, in the decade of 1860-70, the Concert of Europe constituted a diversified political entity; it was 'a reservoir of civilizations which, taking advantage of its material growth, extended its empire over the world.'70 This created a complex political situation, in which France's record was not entirely unblemished. Bismarck was the mastermind behind the building of a German empire. To be sure, the 1848-70 period of nation-state building had a lot to do with diplomacy. Still, diplomatic strategies with some countries often led to military conflicts with others, especially when enlarging a country's territory meant either taking away a piece of land belonging to another country71 or manoeuvring the situation into conflicts with countries from which a victory would gain territory.72 In the course of these political intrigues, 'diplomatic' strategies played an important role in the build-up to the Franco-Prussian War. By 1870 diplomats had become professionals who influenced decision making not only in their own countries, but in other states as well. The Prussian administration had developed complex diplomatic manoeuvres to enlarge its territory; one of these was the double-dealing that brought France to the brink of war with Prussia. In fact, with Bismarck as the mastermind, diplomatic strategies on the Prussian side were very successful; at the same time, those of France, led by the duke of Gramont, failed lamentably.73 The birth of the Second Reich, in December 1870 developed from

The Illustrated Press in Context 35

such a situation and at the me time contributed to its growth, since it established Germany as a new and powerful nation in Europe as well as on the international stage. The German empire was the outcome of years of military and political strategies orchestrated by the Prussian administration, and particularly of the authoritarian current represented by Bismarck, who was designated by King Wilhelm of Prussia to manage and lead the unification of the Teutonic' regions such as the Confederation of North-Germany and Prussia. Bismarck's plan included three stages, was conceived to extend German territory, and was successfully executed: a war with Denmark (1864), a war with Austria (1866), and finally, a war with France. Still, France was also in the game of extending territory and tried to involve Prussia in its strategies. Indeed, in 1865 Napoleon III and Bismarck had conspired to redraw the map of Europe; the emperor, unaware of Bismarck's plans against his empire, was hoping to enlarge France's territory. At the same time, though Prussia and Austria had been allies in the war against Denmark in 1864, Prussia declared war on Austria. Austria's defeat at Sadowa on 3 July 1866 transformed the map of Europe. It led to the signing of the Treaty of Prague on 23 August 1866, which confirmed the acquisition of three duchies by Prussia, nearly the entire region north of the Main River.74 This territorial gain was an important asset in the formation of the Confederation of North-Germany, which then accelerated the creation of Germany as a nation-state and an empire.75 Napoleon III, who supported Austria in that war, antagonized Bismarck who, in any case, was already conniving against France. As a consequence, the political and military events of the 1860s and early 1870s concurred to make a unified Germany an increasingly powerful country within Europe and, at the same time, to decrease France's power. To be sure, the series of political events involving Denmark and Austria with Prussia disquieted France and led the emperor to sign, in 1868, a Franco-Austrian agreement that, in addition to bringing together two Catholic countries, was meant to neutralize the decline of the French empire and to limit Vienna's isolation. At the same time, France attempted to buy Luxembourg in addition to annexing Belgium.76 The failure of these two manoeuvres and Prussia's annexation of a large piece of Austrian territory 'marked the high point of France's notion of a threatening Prussian beast preying on the rest of Germany/ Schivelbusch argues.77 This produced a reversal in the way France looked at Prussia and, along with this reversal, 'the image of England, France's traditional enemy, was transposed wholesale onto

36 Images at War

its new archrival/78 Thus, the negative characteristics usually attributed to England were transferred to Prussia. These intriguing and complex relationships - alliances, misalliances, disalliances - sustaining the politics linking these European countries, influenced the positions taken by some of them during the FrancoPrussian war, such as the so-called neutrality of England. London had always been suspicious of Paris, as a result of the many wars between the two countries. Its suspicion grew even more when Bismarck doublecrossed Paris, just before the beginning of the 1870 war, by publishing a report of the strategy developed by France and Prussia to annex Belgium to the French state. Nevertheless, a mutual and tacit understanding existed between France and England, following the engagement of the French army alongside British troops during the Crimean War -bolstered by France's aid in the British victory over Russia at Inkerman.79 This new Franco-English alliance forced France to cut its links with Rus sia, once its faithful ally, for a few years at least. It also prevented England from officially siding with Prussia, and compelled Queen Victoria to proclaim the neutrality of her country, though a pro-Prussian position would have been more 'natural/ given that her beloved consort and husband, Albert, was from Saxony, part of the Confederation of North-Germany, whose soldiers fought alongside the Prussian army.80 Thus, the French empire found itself quite isolated during the FrancoPrussian war, much as Austria had been in Sadowa. Many believe that this was the result of Bismarck's politics, as 'we have to recognize the capacity of action of [this] statesman on international crises. The calculi of Bismarck were not accidental: they emerged from a just appreciation of the situation/81 If the period preceding the Franco-Prussian War was marked by military conflicts, these did not imperil the Concert of Europe, in which the chief European powers acted together despite the existence of empires. But after the French defeat, 'the European equilibrium was modified. The system of international relations which previously ensured peace on the continent... sustained] the consequences/82 A time of countryto-country political alliances followed that of the Concert of Europe at the level of international relations. Until 1870 the parts of the world to be colonized were still numerous. However, when new territories began to be scarce, political and military conflicts started to increase. In fact, in that regard, Germany, which began its colonial activities rather late, never succeeded in catching up with the other empires. But Europe was more than these few states. Indeed, other countries, though more

The Illustrated Press in Context 37

peripheral in their roles in the war, have to be considered if we are to understand the isolated position in which France found itself in 1870. Spain was an important player in the Concert of Europe. Though it was peripheral in many ways, allying with the Spanish country could give other political powers the extra weight necessary to control an important part of the continent. Spain was particularly important in 1870 since it provided Bismarck with the excuse that he would use to force Napoleon III to go to war against Prussia. But why had the throne of Spain become vacant in the first place? On 18 September 1868, the Spanish navy sparked a revolution which resulted in the fall of the clerical and highly conservative regime of Madrid. The new government, led by Marshal Prim, installed universal manhood suffrage, freedom of religion and education, and freedom of speech. At the same time, it organized a constitutional monarchy which forever excluded the Bourbon family from the throne of Spain; Queen Isabella of Spain escaped to France and abdicated. Invited by Prim, the proposal by Prussia of Leopold von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as the new Spanish ruler was meant to avert any move to install a French candidate. In the end, Amedee de Savoie, the son of Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy, became the new king of Spain in December 1870. Italy was also an important political consideration in the game of alliances and misalliances among European countries. For a start, the war for the unification of Italy (29 April-27 July 1859), provoked by Cavour, a liberal who was the architect of Italian unification, was approved of by Italian republicans, but disapproved of by the Catholic establishment who feared the increase of Protestantism in Europe. The struggle unsettled the political parties in France and provoked the fall of the Bach system in Austria, two Catholic countries. But a few months after Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed king of Italy on 1 February 1861, Cavour died. At the time, two provinces still remained to be annexed: neither Rome, where the papacy was dominant, nor Venice, still under the power of Austria, belonged to Italy. A period of armed conflicts (1862-70) ensued, as Italy attempted to appropriate these two regions. In 1862 Garibaldi and his antipapist revolutionaries marched on Rome, but without success. In 1864 the capital of Italy was established in Florence; two years later, Venice, which had revolted several times against the Austrians, was returned to France, which in turn gave it to Italy. A year later, Napoleon III, encouraged by the French ultramontanes, sent an expeditionary force to defend the pontifical state against the Italian forces. Understandably, this antagonized

38 Images at War

the Italian government. Finally Rome was annexed to Italy on 20 September 1870, after the fall of France's Second Empire.83 The Coming of Nationalism in Europe

These wars not only produced a change in territorial ownership, but helped to transform the political structure of Europe from a few powerful empires into a number of nation-states. The building of nationstates was accompanied by the emergence of a new ideology: nationalism. This is not to say that there was no national consciousness in the preceding century or so, but it was mostly in the form of patriotism, more a feeling of belonging to a piece of land, the fatherland, shared with other people of similar origin and culture.84 The nationalism I am talking about here has a more negative connotation. Indeed, the period of formation of nations was accompanied by a transfer from a collective awareness to a nationalist attitude that consisted not only of an exacerbation of the defended cultural, 'national' values and beliefs, but most particularly of an opposition to other national entities. Until then, as Bacot shows, the national pride and feeling of a particular country was not in competition with that of other countries, but accommodated itself with, and even complemented, the feelings of citizens of those other countries.85 But during the nineteenth century, the cordial coexistence among national entities, namely, a situation in which the others, the foreigners, were referred to as having similar interests, was slowly replaced by a coded image in which the Other was constructed either as an enemy or an ally within a nationalist logic. The nationstate, as a geopolitical space, had come into existence. Thiesse, like Anderson and Hobsbawm, states that a nation 'emerges from a postulate [and] can survive only with the collective adhesion to this fiction.' National identities are constructed according to a 'list of symbolic and material elements' which establishes a 'model' to which people can refer.86 The illustrated press, with its combination of image and text, had an important role in the interiorization of these elements by a large readership. It could either be essentially negative and oppressive in the sense proposed by Said,87 or more ambiguous, like that of assisting the formation of some forms of solidarity to the detriment, if not the negation, of the existence of others. This transfer of ideology, from the national to nationalism, was reflected in the illustrated press. Indeed, the rapid development of the nineteenth-century illustrated press was accompanied by that of

The Illustrated Press in Context 39

nationalism. That relationship was moreover so powerful that press distribution increased dramatically during the same period. As Bacot noted, the illustrated magazines of the 1830s and 1840s had been supportive of this type of negative nationalism that led to a degradation of Western and central European space.88 From then on, one cannot refer to nationalism without inscribing it in the colonial space as well as in its perpetual redefinition in terms of a country's main enemy. In truth, this is the idea of the Other as enemy which largely configures one's own nationalism, which cannot but see the Other's nationalism in a negative way. We are good; they are bad. Not only did the illustrated press, especially during periods of conflict, exacerbate the nationalist feelings of its readers, which some historians consider unifying,89 but it took different meanings according to classes. To be sure, wars are events that boost the nationalistic feelings of a people. As Becker and Audouin-Rouzeau argue, war temporarily reabsorbs the ideological differences that emerge during peace time, erasing the fundamental gap that exists between those who support a pacifist ideology and those in favour of war mobilization.90 According to them, national sentiment was so strong in France in July-August 1870 that it effectively erased any differences in parties or in opposition voices. War, they say, has the effect of putting the nation above the parties: These strong moments where the French armies were engaged in conflicts, these times of great collective tension for the French are not merely parentheses in the course of the Second Empire: on the contrary, it is there that the legitimacy of the Bonapartist ideological project would materialize, in the transcendency of the nation effectively realized among the parties.'91 These authors argue that it was the capitulation of Paris on 28 January 1871 that put a final point to the Napoleonic myth. In spite of Gambetta's calls for continuing the war, the French wanted peace, though nationalist feelings were roused across France, to various degrees according to regions and social groups. Yet, I have to remind the reader that if strong Bonapartist feelings for the French nation erased party lines due to the people's enthusiasm for the war, they did not transcend class differences. In 1870 French wealthy people could still buy out unlucky numbers in the draft or pay some poor chap to go to the front for them. This partly explains the weak and disorganized French army.92 Not surprisingly, Napoleon III, who wanted to reform the military system to one closer to the German version, met with much resistance and even hostility from the pro-

40 Images at War

tected classes from, where he usually got his support. The resistance was tenacious as French armies based on this system had previously won important battles, particularly during the Napoleonian wars at the beginning of the nineteenth century. But the situation was different in 1870, with a strong Prussian army based on a system of universal conscription across the German provinces.93 In 1870 both Prussia and France were seen by many as having powerful military organizations, with the French army outdoing the Prussian with its 'gay uniforms/ its 'joyous fanfares/ and its '[d]ashing officers with their fierce, emulative "imperials" and expansive confidence/ but especially with its military weaponry such as the chassepot, a long-range cartridge-firing rifle, and the mitrailleuse, a twenty-fivebarrel gun that could be fired all at once or successively.94 On the other hand, Prussia was thought to have been weakened by its war against Denmark and Austria. So most newspapers, even the pro-Prussian English papers, believed that France would win rapidly, unless other countries joined the fight on one or the other side. Barely mentioned, though, was the fact that Prussia also had some powerful weapons especially Krupp's very long-range, rapid, and extremely accurate cannon - and excellent and experienced leaders at the head of its military system. As well, Prussia's reserves were 'organized on a regional basis that was far in advance of the era/ Home contends that this system enabled the Prussian state 'to produce an army of 1,183,000 men within eighteen days of mobilization/95 Moreover, Prussia and the Confederation of North-Germany had developed a railway network that could meet their military needs in terms of mobilization and supplies, and possessed 'a highly trained corps of telegraphists [who] ensured excellent communications ... The Army was [also] issued with maps of France showing roads not yet marked on maps of the French Ministry of War ... and a regular system of military government... including such refinements as a Post Office functionary dispatched to check that the accounts of the enemy's postmasters corresponded to book entries/96 This type of organization was lacking in the French army, where mobilization took place through a levee-en-masse of enthusiastic, but untrained and inexperienced, men who were given no accurate maps of France or Germany97 and who had access to an inadequate railway service, incapable of meeting the demands of the army for the mobilization and transport to the front of hundreds of thousands of men. Many of them had to walk to the front,

The Illustrated Press in Context 41

their superiors pretending that walking was beneficial for young men's health! Various newspapers stressed that the French commanders were deficient in knowledge and lacking in experience. Actually, according to Home, Bismarck, Moltke, and Roon 'required an opponent closer to the stature of Napoleon than of his nephew/ and the mediocre French generals in service at the time.98 But the military organizations were only a part, though admittedly an important one, of a very complex situation that entailed manoeuvres, strategies, and intrigues involving more than these two countries. The 1870 war between France and Prussia was not independent from the military past of both countries and from their relationships with other European, and even North and South American states." Those two armies had been at war before, and more than once. As we saw earlier, the 1860s had been marked by a military exuberance that had provoked permanent change among and within several countries. This set of historical political and military circumstances brought France and Prussia into one of the bloodiest and costliest (in terms of human lives) military conflicts of all time,100 and contributed to the position of other countries during the war, a war interpreted in various ways by historians,101 and represented in different manners according to the illustrated press in France, England, Prussia, and Canada. French people in general, but particularly the illustrated press they bought, believed that they finally had an opportunity for revenge against a country that had humiliated them. The Illustration, a paper usually moderate in its wording, said in 'Le courrier de Paris'102 of 6 August 1870, after having learned about the Saarbriicken victory: 'For the last three weeks, France has had fever; within the next three weeks, let us hope, victory will have cured it.' Nevertheless, the euphoria provoked by the French victory in Saarbriicken, and the nationalistic enthusiasm that it provoked, did not compensate for the serious flaws of the French army, and important defeats accompanied by heavy losses began to afflict the empire. When Napoleon Ill's surrender on 2 September 1870 brought down the Second Empire and provoked the declaration of the Republic in Paris on 4 September 1870, the neo-Napoleonic imaginary was so unsettled that, according to some papers, it was impossible to find enough supporters to reinstate a new empire, despite King Wilhelm's attempts to do so.103 Rather the situation encouraged revolutionary movements in cities such as Paris and Lyon.104

42 Images at War Making Choices

Illustrated periodicals that covered the 1870 war were still, in some ways, at the crossroads of the information-education dynamic, but their production was undeniably based on the law of profit. The sensationalism of some of their images was clearly not only to inform people but to impress them into buying their product. The process of mediation was visibly at work in most papers, each choosing its own way to 'make history/ namely, to provide its readers with the kind of events the owners-editors wanted them to remember. This process of mediation was influenced by unexpected outcomes of the 1870 war which obliged the illustrated papers to take the conflict seriously. They all began to give the conflict more or less important coverage according to their financial means. Still, how much was the content of each publication influenced by the politico-economic conditions in which the paper was published? And how much by the political and ideological context leading to the war or by a will to inform the readers? Papers published in countries antagonized by the French declaration of war may have been affected by the position of the political leaders of their countries; this could have led to a specific coverage of the war. Nevertheless, papers illustrating the war also had much in common, especially their format, their intentions, and the types of illustrations they used. However, the politics and ideology sustaining the production of their content varied. The next chapter will examine, through a literature review, various factors which can influence the publication, and reception, of illustrations, especially of images of war.

CHAPTER TWO

The Production of Illustrations in Context

In the mid-nineteenth century, illustrations were part of the transformation of the press into a consumer product driven by competition. Some entrepreneurs had noticed that illustrations in a newspaper could turn any topic into an attraction for the public, namely, into what the readers wanted, thereby increasing circulation. Still, images were feared by some groups, particularly the church and the state.1 What context, then, transformed visual representations into legitimate content? What process established which images should be included or which excluded? Visual representations have their own codes and rules which must first be examined in order to understand their constructed meanings. The Politics of Visual Representation The production of journalistic illustrations, especially in wartime, always involves an attempt at creating images verite (images of reality). Though it is common knowledge that images are no mirror of reality, but are rather mediated by their producers, there are techniques that can be used in order to make the representations more realistic. Indeed, part of the political process of creating visual representations is to reduce the heterogeneity of the illustrated subjects into homogeneity by filing them under a specific theme, thereby silencing other meanings. An artist reporter 'speaks' on behalf of a subject who remains silent, the more so during a war when the people represented are often dead or wounded. This is undoubtedly a political act, and the technologies and/or techniques which allow such an act are necessarily political in their potential use, the more so as they are used by mediators who speak in the name of others who are deprived of a voice. The

44 Images at War

fact/ say Fyfe and Law, 'that this is not, in general, seen as a political act reveals the extent to which these processes of transformation are successful/2 Thus technologies of representation are political in character and in practice. They represent a practical, material solution to the problem of representation. Contrary to what happens in the production of texts, the technology and techniques used to produce an illustration have an important role in the construction of its meaning, especially in the context of the nineteenth century. Drawings and photographs, for instance, could not represent the same objects or events. One example is found in the popular press illustrating murders or accidents. A drawing could, from the information gathered from witnesses or the police, 'show' the actual event, but what is the likelihood of a photographer getting a shot of the actual act of murder, especially during the nineteenth century when the technology of photography was not only heavy but also slow to imprint an image?3 So the same event was represented differently in a drawing and in a photograph. Whatever its realism, a drawing was the result of an artist's imagination, while a photo taken on the spot could hardly be manipulated after the fact. Some particular elements, such as movement, could definitely not be represented in the rigid process of 1870s photography. Moreover, it may have been hard to reproduce the kind of stereotypes readily and systematically used in drawings.4 The technique of showing the body, regularly used in war engravings, and especially the 'body in pain/ is not innocent. Its purpose is to signify 'truth and realness which seem to defy contextualization/ says Rabinowitz.5 The theme of pain and suffering in many engravings is enhanced by 'close-ups' which 'heighten emotional intensity/ especially in pictures that show the horrors that the producers want the readers to remember. So including some drawings and rejecting others in a journalistic discourse is a political act, as the purpose is not only that the readers will know, but also that they will remember. To paraphrase Rabinowitz, through an appeal to emotions the readers are moved by the picture so as to be shifted away from their own interior reality and brought into exterior evidence. They are made uncomfortable not so much by the images themselves, 'but by the codes which give those images the power to make us say "Oh, how awful," and go on about our lives/ A wounded body is the 'most intensely moving heroic body' because it represents a vulnerable but unconquerable subject.6 This would be part of what Chalaby calls performance as instrument of competition instead of knowledge.7

The Production of Illustrations in Context 45

Pictures of bodies can communicate political and social meanings. They are representations that people see and visualize and that involve a cognitive process of recognition and interpretation of great complexity, a process influenced by various external contexts. Since grouping entire pages of images covering the same subject is one of the strategies used to construct a meaningful discourse, page after page of dead and wounded bodies call up heightened emotions; these illustrations, coupled with a very meaningful text, offer a discourse in which the reader cannot help but be absorbed. While the text describing what happened or what is coming up uses the past or future tense, the images refer to the present. Here is what is happening. So text and images form the journalistic discourse of illustrated newspapers, but are related in different ways. The Illustrated Press as Object of Analysis

The generalist illustrated newspapers examined in this book constitute a category of their own. The samples studied are not magazines because they provide more information on current events than on useful knowledge,8 nor are they penny papers as defined by Nerone,9 since most of them are too expensive to be considered in that category. Rather, I am borrowing a notion of illustrated newspapers described by several researchers in the field, namely, a paper in which the illustration has priority over the text; which is at least partly devoted to reports of current events; and finally, whose production is subject to the laws of the market.10 One of the first to write on the illustrated press was Mason Jackson.11 Jackson worked for the Illustrated London News for many years. He was, before retiring, responsible for receiving the sketches sent by special artists. Though he was too close to the Illustrated London News's organization for us to take everything he says at face value, some elements of his historical analysis are worth considering. One of these is the difference he suggests between 'pictorial journal' and 'illustrated newspapers.' In his definition, the former is more oriented towards the diffusion of useful knowledge and is not constrained by the laws of profit, though some magazines, like the Penny Magazine, sold by the hundreds of thousands of copies. The latter spread news of current events. Although, as Bacot notes, the first decade of that generation was a mixture of news and useful knowledge, its production was submitted to the laws of the market.12

46 Images at War

While his differentiation between these two types of publication is useful, the most valuable aspect of Jackson's book is his detailed explanation of the production process of engravings. The author gives a brief review of the development of the pictorial press in England, starting with the illustrated sheets published during the seventeenth century, going through the period where the nonillustrated papers occasionally published engravings to picture a very special event, and finally coming up to the 1840s with the Illustrated London News. In 1870 the text was undoubtedly subordinated to the images in that particular newspaper, which reported mostly current events as opposed to useful knowledge. According to Jackson, the eighteenth century was a sombre period for engraving because its use declined rapidly until Thomas Bewick started to work for the Observer.13 Jackson does not consider papers published prior to 1830 to be illustrated periodicals, nor does he include in this category the Penny Magazine, which he calls a 'pictorial journal' just preceding 'the establishment of a regular illustrated newspaper.'14 Peter W. Sinnema, who wrote extensively on Victorian periodicals, and most usefully for my purposes on the Illustrated London News, is rather critical of Jackson. Not only does he accuse him of eulogizing the paper - which is hardly surprising given that Jackson wrote his book soon after he ceased to work for the periodical - but he complains that Jackson fails to consider the paper as a commodity, presenting instead the illustrations as an 'innate power ... [to] ineluctably, almost mysteriously draw in the consumer.'15 Though Jackson's work certainly has its shortcomings, including those underlined by Sinnema, it provides interesting and precious data on the production and diffusion of engravings. As Maidment asserts, scientific research has paid little attention to nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals as such, despite the fact that many articles and essays published in scientific journals and books 'depend on evidence drawn from [these] periodicals to substantiate, illustrate or reinforce arguments constructed out of other kinds of scholarly evidence.'16 Yet, there is a danger in taking information from those publications without considering the fact that their content is mediated through a process of production that involves the owners, editors, writers, draughtsmen, engravers, and others. The subject is so complex that it is necessary to examine it through a comparative evaluation.17 Margaret Beetham asserts that the lack of interest in the illustrated press as an object of analysis may come from the form of its content.

The Production of Illustrations in Context 47

Traditionally, a written text is taken more seriously and has more authority than an image. Consequently, because of its illustrated content, the periodical is a form of journalism that is not associated with the idea of authoritative and self-explanatory text. This is one of the reasons ... that the study of its formal or genuine characteristics has been neglected.'18 The illustrations give the paper a ludic aspect that strips it of the seriousness which words would give it. Yet, at the same time, an image shows reality more than words can. All these considerations make the illustrated newspaper a paradoxical and complex object of analysis. The comparative historical aspect makes it even more problematic, given that the signification of images and texts changes not only according to cultural conditions within which the paper is published, but also according to the format of the publication. Indeed, all libraries and archives keep their collections of periodicals in the form of books in which several issues are bound. Should we, then, reconsider the meaning of their written and visual texts since they have been moved out of their original context? Indeed, the 'book' into which they have been transformed is a particular printed genre recognized as more authoritative than the periodical itself. Moreover, the fact that they are kept in libraries gives a certain importance to the periodicals as a literary form, or as illustrated books. Finally, another important contextual element is that these periodicals were often bound by their middle-class readers who removed the advertisements, and sometimes the tables of content, before binding them, thereby eliminating important traces of their original format.19 As Beetham observes, the new form upset the 'natural' characteristics of a single issue, which is 'not only characteristically self-referring, but is by definition open-ended and resistant to closure ... it always presents itself as part of a system of meanings.'20 Thus, when some issues of an illustrated newspaper are imprisoned within a binder, giving them a book format, not only do they lose important characteristics but, in fact, they become a new product. For instance, in its open-ended form, the paper did not have to be read from the front to the back, but rather invited the readers to 'construct their own order.' Since most illustrated papers had a picture on the front and back pages, in addition to other pages inside the publication, one may assume that those two pages were the ones that were first looked at. They were therefore of the utmost importance to the editors, as a means of imprinting specific messages in their readers' memory. Further, most periodicals were published on Saturday or Sunday

48 Images at War

mornings, so people had more time to look at them. Beetham here presents her version of Anderson's interpretation of the role of the newspaper in imagining a community in which 'the reader is addressed as an individual but is positioned as a member of certain overlapping sets of social groups, and this positioning is effected by all aspects of the periodical: price, content, form and tone/21 These characteristics, attached to the production and consumption of the nineteenth-century illustrated periodical, cannot be reproduced exactly in a historical analysis. And although this somewhat inconvenient situation must be taken seriously, I argue that reading historical material always involves an interpretation, a mediation, which in some way is positive as it helps to gain some distance from the material studied, and reveals some meanings not readily available, meanings related to specific classes and culture. This does not mean, however, that my analysis does not take these contextual elements into consideration. Researching the Illustrated Press

The shortcomings in such an analysis can be at least partly overcome by putting the data in their historical, sociocultural, and politicoeconomic context. This is mostly what Sinnema does in his work on the Illustrated London News, in which he is particularly concerned with the themes of nation building and class consolidation. He looks at how texts, but also illustrations, were used to create a communal identity by excluding the Others from the 'our-ness' of the readership. Sinnema considers the Illustrated London News as 'a cultural product regimented by the power/knowledge permutations available to visual perception/22 Using Maidment's idea that an illustrated periodical should be looked at as discourse rather than as evidence of the society of the time, he asserts that periodicals are far from being mirrors of society but should rather be critically analysed as its central component and a part of its culture. Therefore, pictures shown in these papers should be analysed in relation not only to texts but to political and sociocultural context as well. In fact, a dialectical relationship exists between texts and images so that the role of the illustration is to 'realize specific aspects of the text' while the text can take the image to a state of crisis.23 Some tension can exist between a text describing an event and its visual representation so that text and image could create a third meaning from the combination of the two. As such, 'picture and word ... resist easy translation. Both in fact operate as "inscription" ... in a

The Production of Illustrations in Context 49

number of ways to produce complexity and ambiguity.'24 Such meaning, produced by the combination of image and text, cannot be interpreted through a study either in isolation or in segregation from its sociopolitical context. Still, this does not take into account that the relationship between text and image is lost on illiterate or quasi-illiterate people. Indeed, though perhaps not as numerous for the Illustrated London News, some 'readers' of illustrated newspapers were illiterate or not literate enough to understand the text in its subtle link with the image that it addressed. So here I diverge from Sinnema and believe that it is important to consider both - the image in isolation from, and in combination with, the text. Though some meaning can be produced by the combination of word and image, it is also the case that some images have no text, or even if they have one, it may be redundant or inaccessible to some people. Still, these relationships between image and text and/or image and image are produced by real people working in specific conditions. So it seems essential to examine the relationship between a specific labour process and the way a paper constructs the news and translates important events into pictures and texts, since the relationship between these components of the content is influenced by the ideology and policies of the paper. Sinnema found two sets of readings in the Illustrated London News during its first ten years of existence: 'a resolution which functions as a type of ideological maxim/ and 'an underlying urge to fabricate a national identity.'25 Both transcended the content of the paper either in turn or as complements, depending on the circumstances. I have discovered similar sets of readings in my illustrated papers, notwithstanding their cultural provenance. The content of an illustrated paper was defined by, and chosen in order to attract, a particular readership. On a competitive market where readers are free to choose among many papers, given that they have the money for such a choice, the readers' decision to subscribe to (or buy an issue of) a paper is inherently determined by social, political, and cultural contingencies. The construction of a readership is part of the politics of a publication. The readership is not a preconceived external entity; it is shifting and ephemeral, but united in its reading practice. As such, it is, as Anderson would argue, an essential component of the publication, not only in financial terms, but also in its political and ideological content.26 In the case of the Illustrated London News, for instance, the readership was constructed as a 'nationalized/ 'anglicized' audience. The discourse was part of the manufacture of

50 Images at War

consensus among the readers. Important events such as wars or revolutions, serious accidents, deaths of royal figures or celebrities, and the like stimulated massive interest and created opportunities for a paper to reproduce and even reinforce the collective identity. The strategy was to stress some features of a subject and to omit others and, in so doing, to offer misrepresentations of the subject. This phenomenon was not limited to English illustrated newspapers; Wyckoff and Nash also note in their study of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, for instance, that the illustrations were selected to convey certain meanings celebrating some landscapes in the west and completely ignoring others: 'Culturally, the images of the West, therefore, helped to validate and define the evolving national ideology of the period.'27 In the Illustrated London News, as in other papers, constructing and reinforcing the notion of nationhood and good citizenship was done by publishing images carefully worked to be apolitical. Though the pictures were highly political, they were stripped 'of all signs of politics, history, and sovereignty on which the message and effect of this image relie[d]/28 These images had the function of levelling the class effect while strengthening the cultural aspect. At the same time, these strategies of publication were part and parcel of commodity production. For example, 'the Royal family had become not only a national symbol but also a cultural commodity for both national and international consumption/29 Morris saw a similar attempt to 'rouse loyalty to the crown' in other illustrated papers such as the Graphic and the Illustrated Times in 1871-2.30 Thus, illustrated newspapers had two roles: they contributed to the construction of collective imaginaries and to the production of cultural commodities. Part of their role was to represent events which would appeal to the largest possible readership. Important events related to the nation no doubt gave opportunities to increase the circulation of a paper. With the coming of the illustrated newspapers, the interest of the readers in these events perhaps went up one step, though I would not agree with Jones that the press was like a substitute for a participatory political culture.31 But one thing is undeniable: a war is, right at the beginning, an event important enough to increase the readership and then the profit of a paper. From the first generation, the readership of the illustrated periodicals was socially and quantitatively large. Prior to 1870 the oldest papers had furnished their readership with written and illustrated war reports: in France and England on the Crimean War; in Germany on the wars with Austria and Denmark; in the United Stated on the Civil

The Production of Illustrations in Context 51

War; and in Canada on the Red River Uprising. Therefore, by 1870, engravings depicting conflicts were not new to newspaper readers, especially since some of these papers were distributed in many countries. The techniques involved in illustrated reports from the front had been tested, and the workers had some experience. In 1870, when photography was still very difficult to use in newspapers, this group of illustrated papers offered by far the most attractive and important means of 'seeing' the news. Images of War

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Parisians, and French people in general, had access only to written reports for information about current internal and foreign events, including war activities, for which there were no journalistic images. The only available visual representations of such conflicts were either paintings or rare engravings later shown in books and not accessible to those with a small income. The first communication technology to transmit news rapidly was the telegraph in the early 1830s; this revolutionized the speed of the circulation of news, but not of pictures, since it did not have the technical means to transmit images. In any case, even when the telegraph was working, during the Crimean War for instance, it was not always available to journalists. Famous war correspondents, such as W.H. Russell, who worked for the Times, sent their written reports by regular post, and so did the artists with their drawings.32 The first war to be illustrated on a regular basis was the Crimean War (1854-6). Engravings accompanying texts were regularly shown in the Illustrated London News in London and in the Illustration in Paris, though the desire to give the news as rapidly as possible often prevented the artists and journalists from verifying their sources.33 This problem was not unknown during the Franco-Prussian War, the first war during which, according to Dupuy, the telegraph was used regularly by war correspondents to send their texts. Serious newspapers, conscious of their political role in influencing public opinion, particularly during such an important event as a war, published news and images from reliable sources. The wealthy papers sent their own special artists to various places while the more modest ones borrowed the images they published from other papers or counted on hearsay. Images of war have a special quality as they cover very hot current issues. War is a touchy and emotional topic, even for the papers com-

52 Images at War

ing from countries not at war. Very often these images are descriptive of what is happening on the front and may be seen as a form of documentary. Yet these images cannot but express some opinions and inten tions, either through the content itself, or by the sheer number of illustrations on a particular topic. These become even more interesting when examined in relation to their captions, or the text which accompanies and describes them. Images of war also have a close analogical relationship with what is really happening and pretend to be the exact truth and absolutely authentic, though their meaning cannot escape mediation through the producers, who do have an opinion. Ambroise-Rendu asserts that 'the image of war is always suspected, despite its purely informative claim, of having a hidden meaning/35 In 1870 illustrated newspapers were still relatively new, at least for the readership that could not afford the expensive periodicals on the market before the coming of cheap papers in the 1860s, and the illustrations coming from the front must have been taken seriously.36 Images of war are often judgemental, as a paper takes either a tacit or a blatant position for one camp or another, using crude stereotypes to represent the enemy. As such, they are ideologically connotative and necessarily linked to the concept of the 'national/ even when published in countries not at war. All the images of war I examined had a caption which was either redundant to the meaning of the illustration or contributed to giving it a new meaning. But it was mostly in the commentaries, often easy to miss because they were on another page, that a judgmental tone was to be found.37 In nineteenth-century illustrated newspapers, there were two types of illustration: engraved drawings and photographs.38 Drawings reproduced through engravings were certainly the most used type of technology until the end of the century. The technology to reproduce photographs as such in newspapers was not developed before the mid-1890s, and photographs were not regularly used before the beginning of the twentieth century.39 People were used to engravings and did not consider them as a product of the imagination, but rather as the representation of reality. However, whatever type of illustration used, images of war were not easy to look at and some situations could not, from an ethical and/or political point of view, be reproduced. For example, it was unthinkable to draw exact features which would reveal the identity of bodies shown in a scene. It was also impossible to reproduce the obscenities that a cannon shot could create in the human

The Production of Illustrations in Context 53

body. Politically, it was unwise and unsafe to draw a scene in such a way that the enemy could recognize where the opposition camp was located.40 Thus the ethical and political aspect of representing war activities seem significantly different from representations of other, less problematic events. Illustrations in various papers ranged from factual to sensational, and showed portraits, scenery, current events, paintings, or anything that could be drawn and engraved. Brown argues that it was the illustrated press that contributed to making the faces of politicians, actors, artists, and church representatives known to the masses.41 In war time, it was also the illustrated press that helped people to recognize the various uniforms of both armies. Few people in France and Germany would have been able to identify all the enemies if engravings had not been published, early in the conflict, to show and explain the divergent uniforms of the numerous regiments of each army. Images of war were, however, produced differently. There was an urgency in publishing images of the conflict which is not usually part of the weekly activities of an illustrated periodical. Producing Illustrated Newspapers Visual representations took up half the space of every paper studied, no matter how many pages there were. Editorials explaining the events of the week, articles commenting on the engravings and/or describing some activities that occurred during the week, and the serial novel formed the other half. Sometimes illustrations of the war and comments on them accounted for almost the entire paper's content, but always for more than half of it. It is therefore essential to discuss the role and general characteristics of the illustrations and the process of their production in 1870, and to give some information on the types of labour involved in their production. All publications had a similar format and presentation. Published in 'large in-octavo,' they all had illustrations on the cover and most of them on the last page.42 The rest of the layout was divided thus: two illustrated pages alternating with two pages of written text.43 The most complex aspect of the production was the reproduction of images. An excellent engraving must show superior quality in the four following aspects: the composition and arrangement of the elements involved in the scene, the presentation of trees and their foliage, the finesse of details, and the naturalness of the whole scene.44 Given that the pro-

54 Images at War duction of illustrated periodicals relied mostly on the speed of the process, it was hard to have engravings representing current events with that level of perfection. Still, some engravings in some papers were of high quality, made by talented and sometimes well-known engravers (see figure 1). In London, most engravers and draughtsmen were housed on Fleet Street and the Strand, near the headquarters of the enterprises producing illustrated newspapers.45 The wood used for engraving was called box wood and the box tree came from Italy, Spain, the south of France, the coast of the Black Sea, China, Japan, and Persia, the best coming from Turkey.46 The box tree was small and it was generally necessary to use several pieces of wood screwed together to produce the engravings shown in illustrated papers (figure 2). Newspapers, even weeklies, need to supply the public with updated content, be it illustrated or written. The producers of nineteenthcentury illustrated papers had to find a 'system of quick production ... which kept the paper on a level with current events.'47 Wood engraving was faster than copper in the production process since engraving in relief, as opposed to copperplate, could be integrated with newspaper print in the same way that the letter-press was. Though the wood plate needed longer prepa ation, it was still faster than having to print all the engravings separately. This special system involved a large staff of draughtsmen and engravers. Most of the time the sketch, the drawing, and the engraving were not done by the same person, so it was necessary to have a sketcher who had 'acquired by long practice a rapid method of working, and [could], by a few strokes of his pencil, indicate a passing scene by a kind of pictorial shorthand.'48 Sometimes, and more often in wartime, the sketch was made by an amateur and some description of details - clothes, equipment, etc. - would accompany the sketch to help the artists on staff draw a representation that was as faithful as possible. Then, one or more draughtsmen rearranged or remodelled it on wood. With big engravings, such as panoramic scenes, more than one artist, each specializing in architecture, military subjects, or portraiture, would work concurrently on the same drawing.49 Some artists drew directly on a block of wood, coated with Chinese white to imitate the texture and colour of paper, in which case the engraving more faithfully represented the drawing.50 When the drawing was accepted, it was sent to the engravers' workshop.51 In the production process of important papers such as the Illustrated London News, the Illustration, or the Illustrirte Zeitung, large teams of

1 Bouillon, Belgium, Graphic, no. 52, p. 508.

56 Images a r

2 Back of an engraving block, Jackson, Pictorial Press (1885), p. 316.

engravers were at work so that, very often, draughtsmen and engravers worked on the same picture at the same time. As soon as one section of the drawing was reproduced on wood, it was sent to the engravers who worked on it while the draughtsman drew another section. Since several engravers worked simultaneously on the same drawing, often the artist did not see his drawing as a whole before it was published in the paper. At the end of this labour process, the engraver-in-chief bolted all the pieces together and engraved the lines to make the parts of the picture look like a whole, and often signed the engraving.52 This system, which is a type of assembly line although the name was not coined, seemingly did not produce the most artistic engravings, but it had the advantage of being very rapid, the most important element for a newspaper. Usually, the final version of the illustrations represented the 'general truth' of the sketch or the drawing. In any case, engravings were constructions of real events. Jackson explains two ways to 'rework' the drawing or the sketch: 'faulty or

The Production of Illustrations in Context 57 objectionable portions [of the drawing] have to be left cut or subdued'; or a feature that is in the background in the sketch can become prominent in the engraving.53 We have a very good example of this with the illustration representing the capitulation of Napoleon III at Sedan in the Illustrated London News and in the Monde illustre. Though there is no way to know whether the engravings shown in the two papers were made from the same sketch - which could be possible since some sketches drawn by an artist were sent to more than one publication and the writing on the sketch is in French - figures 3 and 4 show that an engraving can be very different from the sketch, and figures 4 and 5 that draughtsmen and engravers manipulated the image according to what they wanted their readers to remember. As Jackson tactfully puts it, some of the illustrations 'evolved from the inner consciousness of the artists.'54 Even when the wood engraving was made, the process of printing was not over. Indeed, wood engraving was rather fragile and after a small number of copies, the images became smudged. So, at first, to mass-produce an illustration, several engravings had to be done by different artists, a process which considerably increased the cost of production. Soon, however, a process was developed to make a facsimile of the engraving in iron, a metal much more resistant than wood, which, when used for the type was easier and cheaper to reproduce if need be.55 This process, called stereotypage, is described on 31 December 1834 in the Magasin pittoresque. Each page of the illustrated paper, letters and engravings, was put into a metal frame. First covered with grease, the block was then brushed with a thin mixture of plaster of Montmartre, made to penetrate into all the cavities of the engravings and the letters.56 This task was repeated until the plaster was up to the level of the frame. When it was dry, the letters and wood engravings were taken out and a matrix was obtained that was the counterproof of the page that was to appear in the paper. Then, this matrix was enclosed in a metal box with two holes at the top and plunged in a container full of a mixture of hot iron and antimony, a combination used for the letters. The hot metal took the format of the matrix, but in reverse, with all its details. It was cooled and the plaster cast broken up and a new matrix, called the piqueur, was produced. This process could be repeated cheaply as many times as necessary for the printing of hundreds of thousand of copies. It was the only way, explained the Magasin pittoresque and the Illustration ten years later, to obtain relatively cheap illustrated newspapers.57 However, it was the

3 Sketch of Napoleon Ill's surrender, Sedan, Jackson, Pictorial Press (1885), p. 318.

The Production of Illustrations in Context 59

4 Napoleon Ill's surrender, Sedan, Illustrated London News, no. 1613, p. 285.

60 Images at War

5 Napoleon Ill's surrender, Sedan, Monde illustre, no. 701, p. 180.

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development of lithography that introduced the necessary technology to publish text and engravings on the same page and allowed, with the mechanical press, not only a noticeable increase in speed and number of issues, but also the publication of a cheaper illustrated paper. With the modernization of the postal and railway systems, the illustrated newspapers became available to the masses. This new kind of cheap press extended newspaper 'reading' to groups of the population which were not particularly attracted by the dense and intense content of the regular dailies or periodicals, as well as to families or readers in too much of a hurry to read long articles and who could seize the gist of the topic through the illustrations. England was the first country to take advantage of that technology.58 Joshua Brown describes a similar process of production for the American illustrated newspapers, particularly Frank Leslie's. The labour process was based on cheap printing, the division of labour in the production of illustrations, and a readership viewed as a marketplace and made up of a broad and diversified spectrum. The aim was to give the readers 'original, accurate and faithful representations of the most prominent events of the day.'59 A certain number of artists would send their sketches to the paper, and the 'art superintendent'60 chose one to be drawn by a staff artist and then engraved. The drawing was 'rubbed down in reverse upon the white washed surface of a block of Turkish boxwood,' this block made of smaller sections of wood secured by nuts and bolts.61 More details in washes and pencil were added by the draughtsmen, according to their own specialty. Engravers then carved the design under the control of a supervising engraver. Finally, the engraved blocks were sent to the composing room to be locked into a handset type and made into an electrotyped copperplate.62 Most of the time, the illustrations were very detailed, representing not only the individuals involved in the scene, but also great details about the surroundings. These details were important for people to ascertain the geographical context in which the event was occurring. There were as many different types of surroundings, according to the regions represented, as there were various types of persons.63 These stereotypes, corresponding to those generally known in society, were repeatedly used as they helped the readers to understand the reality of the image.64 However, apart from the portraits, the individuals remained anonymous; the details of their faces would not reveal the characteristics of any specific person. This was particularly important for sensitive scenes, like those representing the horrors of war, for

62 Images at War

6 Turco lying in wait, Journal illustre, no. 339, p. 249.

instance. A code of tactfulness not possible with photography, or at least not in a photographic close-up, was present in engravings.65 In most of the engravings, for example, it is impossible to see the expression on the faces of the individuals, soldiers, commanders, and all others, except for the portraits. A few, however, are striking as they show quite keenly the sentiments felt by the individual at the time of drawing. One of them, exclusively shown in the Journal illustre, is an unsigned engraving entitled Turco a 1'affut/66 It is a close-up of a French soldier from Algeria, a Turco, lying in wait behind a bush, his chassepot ready to fire. The interesting element of this engraving, however, is the expression of fear, expectation, and eagerness that the draughtsman and, then, the engraver succeeded in conveying (see figure 6). Indeed, some engravings are artistic in the sense that they give the readers elaborate illustrations of panoramic views or particular situations carrying emotional tones by the dramatic subject treated, but few, like this one, are tableaux in which the artist has been able to cap-

The Production of Illustrations in Context 63

ture the intensity and subtlety of expression, and even fewer of these are anonymous. Ambroise-Rendu identifies two types of anonymity in engravings appearing in illustrated newspapers: that of the producers and that of the personages.67 While I will discuss the former type in the following section, I would like to look more closely at the latter type here. Most individuals represented in war engravings had undefined features and no name, and as such they were personages and not persons. AmbroiseRendu argues that this anonymity assures the transfer from personal to collective, in the sense that the illustrated event is that of everyone and all people. It represents reality as a visual statistic, namely, in the precision of the details. Their minutiae and exactness does not represent any precise and individual reality, and therefore everyone can associate with it. In the case of a horrifying representation of the effects of war, it symbolized not only the soldiers' misfortune, but that of a whole nation. When published in a widely distributed illustrated paper, not only were the personages of the picture anonymous, but so were the people belonging to a huge readership. As such, the effect of collectivity was even enhanced as any particularities disappeared. The body of anonymous images constituted the 'kit/ to use Thiesse's word, of symbols, myths, and cultural icons that formed the collective imaginary of a large anonymous public.68 Producing Images of War French and English papers had a different approach to the publication of illustrations. Even Jackson, in 1885, had noticed that. Unlike the French papers, the workers for the English press - sketchers, draughtsmen, and especially engravers - rarely signed their products and were only occasionally mentioned either in the caption or in the comment. Anonymity had its effect on the meaning of the illustration. As Ambroise-Rendu notes, anonymity of the images transforms them into objects coming from nowhere, as it deprives the picture of a part of its context.69 This type of anonymity hides not only the names of the authors, but also the conditions under which they worked. Thereby, anonymous press pictures seem to exist in a kind of surrealist atmosphere which negates, at least partly, the realism sought by the newspapers. Still, these images are seen by readers as testimony of real events as opposed to fictional drawings. The denotation of an image is tempered, mediated by the connotations that it suggests. Though the read-

64 Images at War

ers know about that, the informative dimension of the image is not lost and often assumes a documentary value. This is an interesting phenomenon since newspaper engravings are pure artefacts issued from the construction of a reality which was expressed sometimes in very summary sketches, especially during periods of war, when the artists had very little time to draw a scene. Yet, though they offer less literalness than other types of illustrations, they suggest the truth, a truth which is an imitation of pure reality.70 This might be the reason why engravings coming from drawings were still used long after a new technology made it possible to reproduce photographs directly in a newspaper. An anonymous illustration also suggests that it has not been appropriated by anyone and, as such, it meets the exigencies of 'objectivity' claimed by newspapers: this thing is real, it has not been tampered with, it is the Truth. Yet, this anonymity is never total, the illustration is published and distributed by a specific newspaper, a fact that at once grounds the image in materiality. Still, because the image is not authored, it suggests a mechanical production deprived of any artistic intervention and intentionality. One then tends to forget that it has been socially constructed by people working under particular conditions of production. Nonetheless, not all news pictures in nineteenth-century illustrated papers were completely anonymous. In fact, various patterns of identification existed and they differed according to each publication. As mentioned above, an illustration is the product of a series of artistic acts that correspond to diverse specialities. Thus, involved in the process are sketchers (not always, but in war reporting it is quite usual to find that the person who witnessed the scene was not necessarily an accomplished artist), draughtsmen, and engravers. There are rarely three signatures on an engraving, as the sketcher's name is generally omitted from the final version of the images. However, some publications often mentioned the name in the caption underneath the illustration, a practice particularly associated with the Illustrated London News. The names most often publicized were those of the draughtsmen and the engravers, especially in French papers - which rarely mentioned the name of the artist in the caption. Rather, two signatures, sometimes only initials, appeared at the bottom of the engravings, often, but certainly not always, followed by the letters 'del/ which mean delineavit, 'has drawn/ or 'inv' for invenit 'has invented/ or finally 'sc' for sculpsit, which means 'has engraved/71 In Germany, it was often the engraving enterprise that was identified. For instance, in the Illustrirte Zeitung, many engravings were signed with the letters XA (for Xylogmphische

The Production of Illustrations in Context 65

Anstalt), thereby identifying the establishment founded by J.J. Weber, and not the name of the engraver. There do not seem to have been any rules of uniformity for the identification of engravings, not even within one particular enterprise, let alone one country or one industry. At the beginning of my investigation, when I saw two signatures on an engraving, I believed that the draughtsman signed in the left and the engraver in the right bottom corner of the picture. I soon realized that this was far from being the rule. Moreover, sometimes there was only one signature and it might have been that either of the draughtsman or the engraver: here again, there is no consistancy in this pattern. Finally, very often in French papers and to some extent in some English ones, the engravings were signed only with initials. Some of them were clearly printed, but most of them were hard to figure out, even using a magnifying glass. Besides, some engravers or draughtsmen - as long as they were able ,to sign the engravings themselves - teased the readers and hid their initials in some element which figured at the bottom of the picture, as if it were a game they were playing with the public. This, of course, cannot be called anonymity, but it is close to it, though the regular reader may have been able to identify such signatures. I have found this variation of patterns among the periodicals across countries or within a particular one. But does this suggest a hierarchy in the labour force? Aurenche saw no hierarchical pattern in the labour process producing the illustrations for the Magasin pittoresque.72 I have detected a suggestion of a hierarchy in the papers I have studied. For instance, when one identification was missing, it was almost systematically that of the engraver, particularly in English publications, even when the name of the sketcher was mentioned in the caption. True, the sketch and the drawing were produced by one person, an 'artist/ who conceived the ideas but was not necessarily attached to a particular paper. On the other hand, the engravings were made collectively and supervised by a chief engraver, most of the time, and especially for war reporting, since it was much faster. This suggests a hierarchy in the labour force.73 The only person who could have signed was obviously the chief engraver: perhaps some of them were somewhat uneasy about signing an illustration that they had not worked much on, especially since they may have had other occasions to identify their work, namely, in illustrated books. In any case, engravings published in books were more highly regarded than those published in newspapers. Different types of draughtsman worked for the illustrated press.

66 Images at War

Aurenche identifies three categories of draughtsmen involved in the production process for the Magasin pittoresque, which seem to correspond to the way illustrations were produced during the war.74 There were the 'occasional draughtsmen/ who were mostly art students or unknown artists and who were not considered to be professional. They were usually working under the supervision of a senior draughtsman. Then there were the 'known, and sometimes well-known, artistdraughtsmen/ such as Gustave Dore, William Simpson, Edmond Morin, or Gavarni,75 who would never send an unfinished drawing or a sketch to the paper. Finally, there were the 'engravers-draughtsmen/ who were doing both the drawing and the engraving of an illustration, in which case their name was followed by both abbreviations: del and sc. There were few artists, however, who fell into this latter category. The most well known were J.W. Linton, Henry Linton, John Andrew, and Jean Best. Hogart classified the artists somewhat differently: The 'artistexplorer' reported on discoveries and new events, the 'artist-naturalist' on new natural phenomena, and the 'artist-observer/ the most imaginative of them all, who 'looked at the world with a less literal eye. Called genre, scenes de moeurs or social satire, this more creative side of the documentary tradition was essentially an art based on an artist's intimate and first-hand knowledge of what he had to say, and saying it the way he thought best.'76 Finally, the 'special artist,' who travelled to find his subjects, may have included the qualities and purposes of the other three.77 Whatever the category to which they belonged, draughtsmen and engravers working for the illustrated press had a hard time being recognized. In fact, it was impossible for them to acquire a reputation only by illustrating news. It took some time before talented and well-known artists agreed to work for the illustrated press, which they considered unworthy of their attention. However, they soon saw the economic opportunities, and many prominent artists began their career drawing for illustrated papers: draughtsmen Luke Fildes, A.R.A., Birket Foster, W. Small, R.C. Woodville, C. Gregory, S. Read in England,78 or G. Dore, E. Morin, T. Johannot, and D. Vierge in France. Once known, they would usually quit the field of the illustrated press to turn towards the production of illustrated books. Those who became well known were either illustrating books written by already well-known writers, or participating in exhibitions in galleries. The same could be said of the engravers, who came to be indispensable very early in the development of the illustrated newspapers.

The Production of Illustrations in Context 67

Most researchers tend to agree on the fact that the illustrated press, starting with the magazines in the 1830s, revived an occupation which was in decline, that is, engraving.79 In the 1850s, engraving for the illustrated newspapers was the main source of income for engravers, especially those at the lower levels of the hierarchy and not very well known. This does not mean that the well-known engravers refused to work for a paper. Famous engravers like Charles Thompson, Fortune Meaulle or Eugene Froment, who was declared by Gusman the best of his trade in the second half of the nineteenth century, continued to work for more than one illustrated paper after they had become well known.80 Yet, engraving was a more obscure occupation than that of draughtsman as most engravers were only reproducing what other people had created. At the beginning of the development of the illustrated press, there were few engravers and all could earn a good living, but during the revolution of 1848, which spread through several European countries, France and other countries ceased the publication of illustrated books so that the illustrated papers remained the only source of work for the engravers. Many good engravers, such as Pierre Verdeil, could not find work and fell into poverty.81 The situation improved somewhat later on, but never came back to the 'golden age' of engraving. In fact, it seems that the hardest years were still to come with the 1870s, if one relies on the number of pathetic letters coming from unknown engravers and found in the archives by Blachon. Just the same, engravers were an essential part of the production process of illustrations. Indeed, the most beautiful drawing could lose most of its quality when badly engraved. More than one technique of wood engraving was used in newspaper production, according to the type of wood, of tool, and of method used to engrave. Until the end of the seventeenth century, engravings were made on pieces of wood cut along the fibre of the tree, called 'wood in line/ Thomas Bewick discovered another faster and more efficient method which produced better quality engravings by using wood cut across the trunk of the tree, called 'standing wood' engraving.82 With that technique, Bewick invented a new method, that of the white line, which was traced by a burin instead of a knife (pointe a graver}. The best kind of wood for this type of engraving came from the box tree, as stated earlier. With standing wood engraving, contrary to the technique of the soft cut on metal where the ink remains in the hollowed line of the piece of metal, the white part of the engraving was derived from the indentations and the black part from the reliefs, which means that one needed only two

68 Images at War

shots of burin to trace a black line, one on each side. That technique, then, was much faster than that of the wood in line and was rapidly adopted, at least at the beginning, in the production of illustrated newspapers. Two methods could be used for the publication of the paper: the 'white line method' and the 'black line method/ the latter being used later on, when the drawings started to be impressed on the piece of wood to be engraved, so that the engravers had to follow the lines of the drawing faithfully and carefully. This method was adopted by most countries producing illustrated papers, including France, Germany, and the United States, though Canada chose another technique, as we saw earlier. Generally, the method was taught by English engravers who emigrated to these countries in the early nineteenth century. France and England having been at war almost without interruption from 1793 till 1815, French engravers had to wait until a short interruption in 1802-3 to become acquainted with some English illustrated books and to be aware of the new technique. Not until 1807 did Charles Thompson, a pupil of Bewick, come to Paris to teach the new method, and it was 1816 before French artists could introduce it in their production of illustrations. Other English engravers followed Thompson in France.83 But for years, engravings for several magazines were done in London since there were no qualified engravers in Paris, until a workshop, L 'atelier ABL, was opened by John Andrew, Jean Best (who also launched the Magasin pittoresque with Charton and was responsible for its engravings), and Isidore Leloir in 1832.84 They began to train qualified engravers who worked for the Illustration in the 1840s. An important paper like the Illustration, which used many engravings, could not send its drawings to London to be engraved, for the process would have been too long and expensive. In short, engravers might have been the most important workers within the process of the production of illustrations in newspapers. Though engravings were produced collectively, the team worked under the close supervision of a well-known chief engraver. The illustration of news was more a bread-winner for an engraver than a means of becoming famous. Those who became famous with book engravings and/or exhibitions of their work were mostly English, since the studio teaching standing-wood engraving was in England. The best known, apart from Thompson, the Lintons, Best, and Andrew, were Meason, Cosson, Smeeton, Bertrand, and S. Williams. Yet, the best engraving could be ruined if it was not reproduced by a

The Production of Illustrations in Context 69

good publisher. Publishers had a very important role in the publication of engravings, especially with the reproduction of nuanced tints of grey, which were parts of the best works. To create these subtleties, there were two techniques: the first was called 'lowering/ which consisted of making the lighter zones of the work lower than the darker ones by caving them in a little more than the others; the other technique, which according to Blachon gave better results, was called 'underlay' or 'overlay' and consisted of covering with a piece of paper the zones where the colours were to be lighter. Since the steam press existed to speed the process of production, only the former technique could be used. This partly explains why the engravings in the illustrated papers were of lesser quality than those in illustrated books. Thus under the conditions of production of illustrations for periodicals, '[e]ven if little or no alterations were made, the wood-engraving process usually obliterated all the individual quality of the original drawing.'85 Still, an article published on 2 March 1844 in the Illustration describes how to produce, in an engraving, the nuances in tints shown in the drawing. It was necessary to use a technique which they called the mise en train, which produced various tints of grey which are always part of a drawing. It was applied by a worker called the metteur en train. Here is how it worked: The metteur en train draws on a piece of light cardboard a proof-sheet of the drawing to be printed. With a very sharp tool, he takes off on the cardboard the parts of the engraving which should not be entirely black. The lighter the grey, the deeper he has to dig in the cardboard. When this carving out is done, the cardboard is solidly glued on the engraving already set in the frame with the letters. It will then correspond exactly to the drawing, the deeper the carving, the lighter the colour on the engraving reproduced in the paper. This work can last many hours as the metteur en train does not dare take too much cardboard at a time to produce the exact tint.86

Contextualizing Production of Illustrations The final stage of production was also one which added to the transformation of reality. Thus, engravings in nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals, especially engravings of war, were undoubtedly political and ideological. They were the product of a selective process involving strategies of inclusion/exclusion based on codes and rules created by

70 Images at War

each publication. Moreover, their production was often the result of two types of anonymity: the anonymity of the people represented in the pictures, which had an effect in transforming the personal into the collective, thereby facilitating the identification of the reader with the picture; and the anonymity of the workers hiding the process of production behind each image and, at the same time, reinforcing the illusion of objectivity.87 Yet, the process of producing these illustrations was complex and involved several types of mediation: various categories of worker, not always well defined, interpreted the 'reality' expressed in a picture. To complicate the process, some engravings were shown in more than one paper at a time and even in books, and this exchange of services sometimes went beyond European countries, overseas to Canada and the United States. Furthermore, in periods of war, when speed was imperative in the reproduction of military events, the process was even more complex. Still, though one cannot overlook profitability as the first aim in the production of a paper, and notwithstanding the choice of drawings to be published and the many mediators manipulating the initial image, an important objective of the illustrated press during the 1870 war was to make history. In some ways, editors succeeded since the images that they published, during the 1870 war, for instance, have been (and are still) widely used in different types of historical works, including scientific publications. However, the next chapter will show that the periodicals had a particular way of making history.

CHAPTER THREE

Making History

By 1870-1 the illustrated press had become a very important part of the press industry as a weekly means of informing Europeans about current affairs. Periodicals and illustrations had existed separately for centuries, but had been put together on a regular basis only since the 1830s. It is only in the 1840s that we begin to find widely distributed illustrated newspapers spreading images of current events. These papers hired various types of artists and allowed them to make a living. 'These new picture papers were to become the most influential of visual communication of their time, providing artists with their biggest audience since the Middle Ages/ notes Hogart.1 Several attempts were made to launch illustrated periodicals in France, Germany, and North America in the 1840s, but only in England was the circulation large enough for them to be totally successful.2 The process of industrialization was more advanced in England than in other countries, leading not only to the construction of railway networks which allowed the distribution of newspapers outside big cities, but also to technological development and the expansion of literacy in new occupations. At the same time, the fascination of the public with newspapers that reported daily events grew. According to North, the dominance of the periodical press in those days was unequalled in any other period of time, even the twentieth century.3 In the nineteenth century, illustrated periodicals had very little competition, and for a long time they were the chief entertainment of the people. However, their role was not limited to entertaining, as their coverage of successive wars shows. They constituted weekly means of communication and information which allowed their readers to 'see' a war.

72 Images at War Illustrating War Illustrating war was part of a specific and very important process: it was the first time that readers could follow a conflict almost daily, through war correspondents' reports and artists' engravings in several weekly papers. As the Monde illustre pointed out at the beginning of the war, 'ouj- readers the world over are counting on us to receive news of the war, and we will do everything possible to be worthy of their trust/4 Interest was not limited to readers from the countries at war. Indeed, in its issue of 6 August 1870, the Illustrated Times asserted that the English public's curiosity about the Franco-Prussian War was at its highest: as soon as the newsboys appeared with the evening papers, they were pounced on by almost more buyers than they could deal with. Because illustrated newspapers were the only way that people could 'see' the war, a lot of pressure fell on their owners, editors, and workers, who had to keep track of current military activities. How did they manage? Every paper chose, within its own financial means, a team of artists who had to drop everything to leave for the 'seat of war,' as they called it at the time. They had to send their work back regularly and in time for the next issue, which meant that they had to find a relatively reliable means of transportation, since drawings could not be sent by telegraph. In the end, they saw their work more or less adequately reproduced in the papers. The speed of turnaround could be achieved only by an organization experienced in such coverage. Hogart asserts that the Illustrated London News took almost a decade to set up such an organization; it began by covering the 1848 revolutionary upheaval in Paris. Despite the lack of any rapid means of communication to transmit their work, a small army of artists accepted the responsibility of covering the event. Several French artists, such as Constantin Guys and Gavarni, worked for the London paper.5 To be sure, although the 1848 revolution was largely covered by the Illustration and the Illustrated London News, the event was not a war and its coverage did not have the same exigencies as those of an international conflict. With the increasing number of reporters from various countries' newspapers at the front, and the unavailability of rapid means of transmission, inaccurate, if not false, news blossomed. Many French newspapers published 'hearsay, false news and even fanciful hopes/6 There was a huge gap between the news they reported and the reality of the war. Undoubtedly, illustrators also put too much imagination into their drawings. Indeed, when a newspaper was published in the

Making History 73 country at war or, worse, in the country occupied by the enemy, the conditions of publication were very difficult. Rapid transmission of news was only one of the problems; lack of supplies was another. For instance, in France during the 1870 war, most papers had to at least decrease their number of pages, and more than half of them - the Journal illustre, the Presse illustree, and the Univers illustre - had to stop publication altogether, because of either lack of paper or lack of money to buy it. Although the Journal illustre and the Presse illustree gave up one month or so after the beginning of the siege of Paris by the Prussians, curiously the Univers illustre went on until 8 April 1871, though it had cut its number of pages by half on 1 October 1870. None explained why they stopped publishing, and all resumed business as usual after some months, writing as if nothing had happened.7 Artists covering special events like wars were called 'special artists' and were different from the 'artist-travellers/ While the latter could go from place to place in a leisurely manner to draw scenes which were to their liking, the former had to work rapidly and under difficult conditions to catch particular aspects of a specific event. As we saw earlier, wars of all kinds were prolific in nineteenth-century Europe, and, once well organised, a team of special artists was usually kept permanently busy by their paper. The special artist, as Hogart points out, 'had to be capable of making rapid descriptive drawings on location; to have the intuition of a journalist for knowing what to draw; and also to know by instinct or design when to be where, and to get there in time to catch the occurrence; and once there, to get his drawings done under any circumstances.'8 Last but not least, it was essential for him to be able to send back his drawings to his editor without delay. A conflict like the Franco-Prussian War was a good seller if a paper had an exclusive, or at least a 'scoop,' on one of its important events. Sending the drawings or sketches safely and quickly to the paper was one of the most difficult tasks of the special artists, as it often entailed a long walk in the middle of the night to a railway station or a long ride to an army postal coach. 'It also involved bribery, even the kidnapping, of artists by obstinate censors who held up important drawings.'9 From the end of July 1870, after the series of successive French defeats, journalists of any specialty and nationality were forbidden access to the French camps. The correspondent for the Figaro expressed his outrage in an article published on 24 July: 'The measures taken against the press caused some indignation among the reporters. How can the authorities doubt one moment of our patriotism?'

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Nonetheless, it seems that some articles and engravings had leaked strategic information which, according to some French military strategists, was what caused the defeat of the French army.10 We see here how illustrations brought a new and unique, if problematic, special aspect to war coverage, because some engravings showed places that really existed within the military camps. Therefore, a form of realism was added to war reporting that could be seen as more dangerous than a written report. Thus, suspicion of artists drawing sketches was high; they were regarded with anger by irate citizens and officials alike, and often arrested as spies because their drawings were seen as damaging to the French cause. In fact, during the Franco-Prussian War, the risk of being caught with drawings was so acute that some artists, like William Simpson, found clever strategies in self-defence. Simpson 'purchased the largest book of cigarette papers he could obtain, and on them he made little sketches, prepared in case of danger to smoke them in the faces of his enemies/ said Jackson, who was his superintendent.11 Thus, the artists sent to the battlefield, whatever their nationality, often worked in uncomfortable conditions. They underwent all kinds of deprivations; they ran the risk of being wounded by shot or shell (figure 7), of being arrested as spies (figure 8), or of working in very precarious conditions (figure 9).12 They were then often obliged to destroy their drawings or sketches for fear of arrest, a threat that was quite real. The saying among war correspondents, and particularly among special artists, was that there were four important things that they had to remember when covering a war: 'However interesting a battle may be, you must always get away before your communications are cut, for your material will be held up or never arrive. You must not be taken prisoner, for then you will be out of business completely. You must not get wounded, for then you become a useless expense to your paper; and if you get killed you will be an infernal fool!13 Though being a special artist might have had its appeal, especially for young people, most of these artists were obscure workers whose names were generally not even mentioned on their engravings and who very often died in poverty. Yet special artists had no competition from photographers until the early 1890s, when the Kodak box-camera was introduced, a tool that was light, portable, and manageable on a battlefield. Prior to this development, the immobility required by photographic equipment was a most unfortunate feature, particularly during an intense confrontation between two armies or a bombard-

7 Special artist's bedroom during a bombardment, Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 1437, p. 36.

Special artist under arrest, Graphic, no. 42, p. 269

9 A hasty sketch, Graphic, no. 53, pp. 536-7.

78 Images at War

ment (figure 10). This does not mean, however, that photographers did not work during wars. The Crimean War was the first during which photographs were abundantly taken, but they could not be reproduced as such in the papers. The illustrated newspapers preferred engravings based on drawings, as they showed the armies in action and movement, which of course the photograph could not do. Moreover, special artists were cheaper than photographers, not only because, as a rule, they were badly paid, but also because they did not need expensive equipment. They needed only a sketchbook (or cigarette papers!), a pencil, and sometimes a horse (most of the time they travelled by train or by mail coach). For all these reasons, photographs were not abundantly used by the illustrated papers until the First World War. Special artists worked in peculiar conditions. Pressed for time, they could not do much more than take shorthand of a scene or an event and, given the nature and the emergency of the assignment, they often could not finish the drawing. Even the most accomplished artists were little more than journalists on the front, aiming at a literal representation of what they saw, which was more or less faithfully reproduced in the engravings published in the papers. Because of these conditions, Hogart argues, 'the majority of Victorian newspaper illustrations all looked alike. Quality and style only varied in degree from country to country, and from journal to journal.'14 Why? Because the final version of the drawings and engravings was done by staff artists who worked too fast to pay attention to the little details that would have more faithfully represented the original sketch being reproduced, thereby annihilating the individual style of the special artist. Unless a paper enjoyed an exceptional group of staffed workers, the engravings published were usually of poor quality, especially the ones representing current events. 'All that can be said in their favour is that sometimes they displayed perceptive draughtsmanship with a sharp eye for the significant details of human behaviour, and an awareness of the inequalities and excesses, as well as the achievements, of the nineteenth-century scene.'15 And yet perception of significant details was certainly part of some of the illustrations representing the Franco-Prussian War, as we will see later. Since there were always more than one site of battle at a time, some had to be covered to the detriment of others. Most papers did not have the financial means to cover all the strategic sites and thus had to try to foresee the most probable locations of ensuing battles. It is important

Making History 79

10 A photographer at work, Illustrated London News, no. 1656, p. 605.

80 Images at War

to remember here that, given the means of transportation that existed at the time and the fact that it was a war period, it took days, and sometimes more, for a special artist to reach his destination, a lapse of time during which the outcome of battles might have drastically changed. So, for a paper like the Univers illustre, which lacked the means of sending multiple correspondents, it was a gamble to guess the one spot where the artist should be.16 For example, during the week of 13-20 August 1870, the paper sent its special artist to Strasbourg, where very little was happening, while it turned out that the strategic sites were Wissembourg and Metz. As a result, some sites were covered by some newspapers while completely ignored by others. Ignoring sites led to disregarding a series of events. Given the strategic importance of some of the missed events, this could only have been caused by one of the following situations: a shortage of artists to cover all important sites and interesting scenes; unforseen events, such as the arrest of the artist; or the inaccessibility of a means of transmission of information. Illustrators of War Illustrated newspapers did not refer to their artists very often, let alone praise them. Nevertheless, some events did force the editors to break their silence. A war was such an event. At the beginning of the FrancoPrussian War, some papers felt the need to explain their strategy of war coverage and of illustrating it. Although there is no point here in enumerating the names of the numerous draughtsmen and of all the engravers who were involved, it is nonetheless worth mentioning the most prolific. The Illustrated London News and the Illustration had sound financial resources and were the most likely to send a large team of artists to the front in order to cover the most important military activities. The London paper's experience of war coverage in Crimea gave the editor every confidence that his team would be up to the readers' expectations. On 30 July 1870, in an unsigned column entitled 'Illustrations of the War/ which continued to appear regularly during the conflict, it explained: The arrangements which have been made to supply this Journal with Illustrations of the War by the employment of several Artists, whose ability to delineate military subjects has been proved in former campaigns, will ensure the full and faithful representation of the most remarkable scenes and incidents.'

Making History 81

The Illustrated London News sporadically mentioned its workers. On 20 August 1870, it informed its readers that Simpson had been arrested in the Metz train station while he was sketching Napoleon Ill's carriage. On 1 October, obviously having been released from military custody, Simpson was said to have spent several days in the neighbourhood of Sedan producing the drawings shown in the issue. R.T. Landells was assigned to the Prussian camp. Jackson asserts that Landells was dismayed at being assigned to the Prussians because he thought that it was unfair to be sent to the losing side.17 Then on 14 January 1871, Landells was sent to Versailles to witness the crowning of Wilhelm as emperor of Germany. On 21 January 1871, it was Jules Pelcoq's turn to be in the limelight because of a series of sketches he had made in Paris under the bombardments. He consented to live in Paris during the long siege, in order to supply the paper with drawings representing the current events, and even produce a few 'scoops' from inside the fortifications.18 When the war was over, a column published on 4 March 1871 stated that J.C. Staniland was in Bordeaux, R.T. Landells in Versailles, F. Barnard in Cherbourg, and Jules Pelcoq in Paris. With William Simpson on the road in the French countryside, there were five staff draughtsmen who were working for the paper, in addition to other occasional 'artists,' often members of one of the armies at war.19 English workers had generally very little recognition from their paper; their names and activities were rarely mentioned in articles or even in descriptions of illustrations. Engravers were even less recognized than special artists. Very often engravings were not signed, and, if they were, they had usually only initials to identify those who had produced them. In the Illustrated London News, the fully signed engravings were those by foreign artists, such as F. Regamey and G. Janet, who also worked for the Monde illusive and the Presse illustree. A few belonged to C.J. Staniland and F. Barnard. Even the illustrations drawn by the famous William Simpson were unsigned. The Graphic was the first to mention its producers of images in two separate places: on 13 August 1870, an article entitled 'The French Army at Nancy' reported an unnamed artist's complaint about the bad conditions in which the artists in general were living; further on in the paper, a short paragraph revealed the arrest of one of their artists in Nancy while he was drawing a sketch. He was mistaken for a spy. Then, on 3 September, the same year, an article entitled 'Scenes in Paris (from our Paris agent), August 30,' mentioned the arrest of another draughtsman, again for the same reason. As none of the articles men-

82 Images at War

tioned any names, one does not know if they concerned the same artist. In fact, one has to wait two more weeks for an article entitled 'Our Special Artist's Return to Molsheim under Arrest' (see figure 8) to finally get a name: Sydney Hall. Because the engraving was exactly the same as that published in the Illustrated London News, with the same description of the event, one has to believe that this artist was working for both papers, and that it might have been to lower the cost of production.20 The only other time that the Graphic introduced an artist in an article was the following week, in The Bombardment of Sedan and Stampede of the French Soldiery/ in which the paper noted that the engravings covering that event were from sketches made by M. Mejanel; this was the first time that his name had come up. Only once more did the Graphic mention an artist, a man who had sent a letter, published on 29 October 1870, saying that he had bought a horse that he named 'Graphy' in honour of his employer!21 Yet many artists were working for the papers. In fact, the Graphic was the only English illustrated paper to have many, but not most, of its engravings identified with the complete names of the artists, and some more with initials. Among the most prolific draughtsmen (apart from Hall, already mentioned) were T.L. Rowbotham and E.J. Gregory, who often signed only with initials, and Godefroy Durand, who also worked for several French papers.22 Even so, a close examination of his drawings in each paper shows that most of them were different - a very prolific artist, indeed. The name of the engraver that appeared most often, at the bottom of signed engravings in the Graphic was that of H. Harral. As for the Illustrated Times, it never introduced the names of its artists in any articles or columns. Very few engravings were signed with the complete name of the workers, names which I have never seen elsewhere, and a few others were initialled. The Penny Illustrated Paper also remained silent on its artists, except for a very few badly identified engravings. Yet many of them were quite original and of good quality in comparison with other publications. They might have decided that it was more democratic for the workers to proceed that way.23 The Illustration was even more discreet about its artists. Nonetheless, since most illustrations had one and sometimes two and even three signatures - though some were only initials - the editors might not have found it necessary to formally indicate who was sent where. The only mention of their workers was in an editorial published on 23 July 1870 entitled 'A nos lecteurs' in which they remarked: During the period of the hostilities, our draughtsmen will never cease to

Making History 83 accompany the different army corps, and to provide us with the most authentic and rapid information. Some maps and plans will be carefully drawn in order for our readers to be able to follow the movements and the military operations of the troops, and our engravings will provide a faithful representation of the facts. In short, the Illustration will be, for the coming war, what it has been for those of Italy and Crimea, the written and drawn history of the events, (my emphasis)

The signed engravings of the Parisian paper informed the readers that a relatively large group of draughtsmen were regularly producing for that paper. All the portraits of military officers, royalty, and politicians were drawn by R. Gilbert and engraved by T. Robert, two names also seen in the Illustrated London News when the authors of the portraits were identified. As well, most maps were signed by F. Gillot and were published in more than one paper. As for the engravers, only a few well-known ones seemed to have worked for the Illustration: Smeeton, F. Moller, Morel, Babeville, and F. Meaulle were the signatures which appeared most often. The case of the draughtsmen was more interesting. At the beginning of the war, artists like L. Dumont, A. Darjou, G. Marichal, P. Blanchard, A. Deroy, and B. Andrieu signed several drawings. But as the war went on and the French army lost battle after battle, some of the artists enlisted in the army. Only A. Lanc.on and J. Gaildreau remained as regular providers of drawings. Other pictures came from soldiers and officers already enlisted. On 19 November 1870, a very long eulogistic article appeared in the Illustration, entitled 'Tableaux de la guerre: Etudes retrospectives/ It was signed by Theophile Gautier, a well-known French writer, and was about the drawings made by one of the most prolific draughtsmen during the war, Auguste Lanc.on. To put himself in the 'hottest' spots, Lanc.cn had enlisted in the Press Ambulance, one of the many movable hospitals which took care of the wounded during the war. Gautier tells the story best: This is not a question of an official battle, with an army of staff officers fidgeting around the victor and a few dead in good taste, to make a serious impression in the foreground, all against a background of bluish smoke so that the artist did not have to paint regiments. These are quick sketches, drawn from life in a travel notebook by a brave artist working on a mobile ambulance. There is not a single object that has not been seen; not one line that is insincere. There is no arrangement, no composition. This is truth in its unpredictable horror, its sinister bizarreness. Things

84 Images at War like this are not invented; even the darkest imagination would not go that far. The person to whom we owe these sketches, M. Lanc,on, is a naive artist. He is bonhomme, as they say in the studios; in other words he is interested in neither the style, nor the form, nor the chic in fashion. He renders what he sees, nothing but what he sees and, like a witness, recounts facts briefly and precisely. One can trust him. These rough sketches have a remarkable quality: the subject is always tackled with a characteristic stroke. Details may be lacking or be indicated by nothing more than a hasty line, but the essential is there, and the resulting impression is profound and sure. We will not insist on the fighting in the streets of Bazeilles. This is no longer war, it is butchering, extermination in all its horror. At least canni bals have the excuse of eating their enemies, which gives throat-slitting a useful and practical purpose. From all sides shells explode, walls collapse, roofs cave in, corpses are crushed under the rubble in pools of blood. Attila and his hordes must have proceeded no differently. We could even say that the mathematical precision of the massacre is worse than the disgust it inspires. How shameful to see the means of a supreme civilization put to the service of such savageness! What could be more appalling than this drawing representing the inhabitants of Bazeilles tortured for the crime of defending their homes? At the head of the funeral procession we see an athletic blacksmith, capable of splitting Vulcan's anvil with one stroke of his hammer, who has killed nine Prussians. His muscular arms are bound with ropes but his head is held high, with no regrets - his death has been avenged in advance - this obscure hero whose name will probably never go down in history. In the procession walks a woman who fired the shot. As a heroine she will be treated as a hero - and shot. With the refinement of ironic cruelty, music accompanies those who are going to die; the bloodthirsty music-lovers may be playing a Wagner march for them, (emphasis in original) The Illustration took its war coverage very seriously and sent, despite its relatively small distribution, a good team of draughtsmen to the front, some of them very famous at the time. The Monde illustre was the most widely distributed paper in France after the Journal illustre. Though half the price of the Illustration, the paper had good financial resources, being 'protected' by the emperor. On 23 July 1870, it published an article entitled 'La guerre/ in which it explained that their correspondents were already posted in different strategic places and that they would cover all events wherever they

Making History 85 were happening. L. Moullin, a reknowned veteran artist who had worked during the war of Italy in 1859, was to be attached to the emperor; Paul de Katow, working for the daily paper Gaulois, had in 1866, covered the war between Prussia and Austria for the Monde illustre, and offered to work for it once more; F. Lix, 'our assiduous collaborator as a draughtsman, is asking us to cover Prussia, and since the ground to be covered is huge, we cannot have too many resources'; finally E. de Berard was leaving for Cherbourg to cover the war at sea operations. Their experience with other wars had shown that 'they work as true and authorized historians.' Though only the Monde illustre clearly stated it, it was implicit that 'making history' was the ultimate aim of each paper in covering the 1870 war. The Monde illustre had a team of well-known engravers; R Meaulle, F. Moller, and Morel and Babeville (who all worked for the Illustration), and E. Coste, L. Chapon, and A. Daudenarde. The paper had a good group of sketchers as well, some belonging to the French army and identified as such with the number of their regiment. Finally, most of the portraits it published were drawn and engraved from photographs and sometimes signed by F. Bocourt and L. Chapon, contrary to the Illustration and to the Illustrated London News, which had most of their portraits signed by R. Gilbert and T. Robert. So, here was the team that had to 'make history.' Among them, only Lix was also attached to the Illustration. Two of the special artists, de Berard and Lix, would send drawings while the other two would produce only sketches to be interpreted by the staff draughtsmen. Another artist, Deroy, also working for the Illustration, was mentioned in an article, published on 6 August 1870 and entitled 'Avis a nos abonnes,' because he had produced a panoramic view of the Prussian regions which he drew from a balloon that was high enough to be able to have a good view of the military movements on land and at sea.24 This piece of work was offered for free to the subscribers and sold for 50 centimes to others. Finally, a last artist was mentioned in an article, published on 1 October 1870 and entitled 'Le bulletin de guerre,' as 'our intrepid draughtsman, M. Darjou.' Working also for the Illustration in the region of Calmart-Chatillon, he almost got killed as he offered to help a priest to collect the corpses of soldiers who had died on the battlefield. According to this unsigned article, Darjou wanted to be part of the action in order to produce more realistic representations. A last tribute to the artists who died or were wounded on the battlefield was given on 5 November 1870, by the Monde illustre, the only paper to do so.

86 Images at War

This article was even more exceptional in that it included the name of an engraver, and engravers were the most 'discreet' of them all. In fact, the Monde illustre was the paper which took the greatest care to identify clearly the authors of all the material it used, from sketches, drawings, and engravings to photographs. Because most illustrated periodicals studied here sent some special artists to the front, all their illustrations should have represented scenes that they had actually witnessed. For instance, when Theophile Gautier talked about Lanc,on's work in the Illustration, he implied that the engravings published in the Illustration were produced from Langon's original drawings, made by an eyewitness. In fact, almost all the drawings coming from that artist had, in the captions for the drawings, 'made on the spot (d'apres nature). Langon was a well-known draughtsman and, if we are to believe Jackson that no good artist would send an unfinished work to his paper, his drawings must have been ready to be engraved when the paper received them. The only other artist formally identified by that paper was Gaildreau, whose work was inscribed as sketches, and not drawings. A sketch, however, necessarily involved an urgency which suggested that it was made 'on the spot/ Both Langon and Gaildreau were established as 'our correspondents' in an article entitled Theatre de la guerre' published on 17 September 1870. No other artists were identified as such. In the month of December 1870, Auguste Marc, chief editor of the periodical, and Jules Claretie, who was part of its administration (before he resigned to survey military activities in the French provinces), began to sign engravings, and they were also designated as sketches in situ. Only four other engravings were termed as such, and they were by unknown collaborators. It is interesting to see that the Illustration identified only some drawings as being made 'on the spot.' Does that mean that those which were not indicated as such, were 'invented'? It may be that all the other sketches and/or drawings were faked, based on the written articles sent by telegraphy. This, however, is rather unrealistic. While some sketches and drawings may have been produced that way, it is hard to believe that half of the drawings of such a wealthy paper were faked, especially after the declaration of intention at the beginning of the war. Moreover, the periodical was published in the French capital, so it would be surprising if almost all of the drawings representing scenes of the siege of Paris were faked, yet very few were marked as being in situ. So there might be another explanation; it may be that only a few artists would think of stressing that their work was drawn 'on the

Making History 87

spot/ or it may be that the editor would put an inscription only for those staffed by the paper, or it may be a bit of both. The Illustrated London News had no such indication, but when sketches, made after the beginning of the siege of Paris, were identified as 'from balloon post/ one could assume that they were made 'on the spot.' Yet, again, not all their engravings had such inscriptions in their captions, which does not mean that all the other ones were faked. So, what was going on? According to Schlevoigt, some sketches representing some parts of the ground covered by the actual events were made in advance in order to speed up the process; when they received an article from that part of the front line, they just had to add the few specific elements which would represent the particular event.25 So part of these drawings would be done beforehand, perhaps even from nature, and the other part from the description in an article. Since speed was crucial in such circumstances, this explanation would appear plausible, but this process could only be applied to sketches or drawings because the technique used for the engravings at the time, the white line, did not allow such a practice.26 Two observations deserve our attention here. The first concerns use of the term 'in situ.' The Monde illustre did not start using this term before early October 1870; the Illustration had begun to use it in late July 1870. Does that mean that the former published authentic representations only after that time? I think not. However, the editor may not have found it necessary to identify the paper's illustrations as such until he realized that other papers were doing it and that it could be a good selling point or, perhaps, until he received some comments from his subscribers questioning the authenticity of the engravings. Readers often subscribed to, or bought, more than one illustrated newspaper, especially during an important conflict such as the Franco-Prussian War. They wanted to have as much, and as authentic, information as possible and 'see' as much as possible. Though some engravings were similar in different papers, most of them were different, so that reading more than one publication gave the readers the opportunity to see more. Therefore some of them might have wanted some explanation about the nature of the Monde illustre's illustrations. On the other hand, in the issue of 25 February 1871, two engravings were signed by Daniel Vierge; one was identified as coming from London, and was certified as 'a drawing made in situ,' and the other was identified as from Madrid, and was only indicated as a sketch from Vierge. For the man to have been in London and Madrid during the same week, and also

88 Images at War

for him to have had time to send his work to Paris, would certainly have been quite a feat in 1871, especially in winter. So one may assume that one of the drawings was either from memory, or from an article, or simply an old drawing 'revisited/ The other observation is related to the artists. Quite a few draughtsmen and engravers worked for the Monde illustre and the Illustration at the same time.27 Among the engravers, F. Meaulle, R Moller, Morel, and Babeville worked for both papers. It is surprising that four engravers would work for two papers at the same time, given that each paper usually had its own team of artists. As for the draughtsmen, at least eight worked for both papers: Lancpn, Provost, Marichal, Verdeil, Darjou, Deroy, Lix, and Marie; this seems intriguing since, as Hogart points out, it was a hard period for these artists to find work.28 Why would two periodicals use the same artists when they were competing, at least to some degree, for readership? Was it a question of sharing the fees? Or were good, and more particularly reliable, draughtsmen, so rare that a paper would rather hire a reputable one who was also working for its competitor than use less reliable workers? The Monde illustre had many draughtsmen, some of them quite famous, such as Edmond Morin and Daniel Vierge, who had their specific exigencies as to who should engrave their work. For instance, Morin's drawings were almost always engraved by F. Meaulle, who was also engraving drawings by less famous artists in the Illustration; this may explain the double employment of that engraver. Vierge's drawings were often engraved by Edmond Coste. Overall, the labour force used for the production of images in the French illustrated press was very different from one paper to the other, though, as noted, similar in some respects.29 However, it was different for the Illustrirte Zeitung. A large part of its illustrated production came from other papers and was not identified.30 The German paper did not mention the work of its artists during the war, either draughtsmen or engravers. Yet, some engravings were signed XA, the name of the enterprise of xylographs working for it. None of the three remaining French periodicals, the Univers illustre, the Presse illustree, and the Journal illustre, had any articles devoted to their artists. However, in the former two, almost all of the illustrations were clearly identified with the complete names of the artists. The Univers illustre hired excellent engravers, such as Froment, recognized as one of the best of the nineteenth century and who also worked for the Illustration and the Graphic and, Blachon tells us, for the Illustrated Lon-

Making History 89

don News.31 Most of the Univers illustre's artists worked for at least one other paper, and sometimes more than one. For instance, Yon, Dumont, Coste, and Marie all engraved for the Illustration and the Monde illustre, Gillot for the Illustration and the Journal illustre, Perrichon for the Illustration, and H. Harral for the Journal illustre and the Graphic. Among their draughtsmen, Dore and Bertrand worked also for the Monde illustre, Gluck for the Illustration. An interesting and rare occurrence was the signature on an engraving of two well-known engravers, Harral and Dumont. They both might have worked on the engraving, but the most likely explanation would be that Dumont reproduced an engraving done by Harral in the Graphic. As for the Presse illustree, since its owner, Dalloz, also owned the Monde illustre, many of its artists also worked for both papers. Some of its engravings were borrowed from the more bourgeois paper, and shown some time later. Finally, most of the engravings of the Journal illustre were either unsigned or unreadable.32 Among the few that I could read, most were of those working for one or more other papers. The only point worth mentioning about this paper was that it was the only one, among the cheap papers, which had its portraits signed by the duo Gilbert-Robert, as in the two bourgeois papers, the Illustration and the Illustrated London News. One of the interesting things about the reporting of this war was the seeming cooperation among papers. Often, especially in England where it might have been more difficult to receive 'fresh' news, one or another illustrated paper used information derived from reports published in other papers, usually dailies, and not only the London newspapers, but French and German as well. This 'borrowing' made sense since, as a rule, dailies had to produce 'hot' news while the weeklies' content mostly reviewed the news of the week, though they sometimes had the good fortune to come up with a scoop.33 One example of such cooperation can be found in the Illustrated London News of 1 October 1870, where the unsigned.column entitled 'Illustrations of the War' explained that the engravings shown in the paper that week were drawn by their special artist who was in and around Sedan for the French defeat and the emperor's capitulation. The drawings, they said, were so accurate that they greatly helped readers to understand the written reports published not only in their paper, but in others as well, including dailies. With these explanations, and with the large Engraving of our Artist's sketch under the eye, we trust the reader will be enabled to see his way

90 Images at War clearly through the published narratives, which may have seemed otherwise difficult to comprehend. Those which have appeared in English, written by actual eye-witnesses, are the letters of Mr. Holt White, correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette; Mr. W.H. Russell, correspondent of the Times; and Mr. J. Hilary Skinner, correspondent of the Daily News; with the letter of 'An English M.P.,' which was printed in the Times. These writers, having gone to different parts of the battle-field [sic], or having been in the same place at different hours of the day, had to report a diversity of observations; but their discernment, carefulness, and veracity are equally unimpeachable; and their accounts will be found substantially to agree with each other, as we have, indeed, found to be the case with every Sketch that he and the other Special Artists have contributed to our Illustrations of this campaign since the end of July. The following extracts are taken impartially from the letters of two or three newspaper correspondents, and from the Prussian official account published at Berlin.

This 'cooperation' was particularly useful for the coverage of big events like a war.34 In the Illustrated London News of 12 November 1870, a reporter relied on the Times's correspondent for an 'accurate' description of the surrender of Sedan. Since it was two months after the event, it was also advantageous for the Times to have another paper revive its old articles. This kind of 'borrowing' sometimes had surprising results. For instance, the information that the Illustrated London News borrowed from the Times brought a human touch to that particular report, which was unusual in that paper: 'We are not yet able thoroughly to realise the almost incredible scene we are witnessing. The more we think of it, the more does it seem like an impossible dream. Here are three field marshals, 50 generals, 6,000 officers, and 173,000 of the flower of the French army, filing out unarmed before less than 200,000 German soldiers, and giving themselves up as prisoners of war.'35 French periodicals also used other papers' contents. For instance, on 1 October 1870, Charles Yriarte, in the 'Courrier de Paris' of the Monde illusive, asserts: 'In the dreadful circumstances in which they [the Parisians] have been living for the last six weeks, the news from the various episodes of the disastrous campaign come from English, Belgian, or German newspapers;... they learn about their enemy's victories, the battles of their own troops, their situation, their marches, the resistance of fortified cities, and the decisions of the foreign courts.' Then, on 12 November, Yriarte found the Times particularly useful for getting information from the outside world, adding, 'I have to confess

Making History 91

that a newspaper reading has never been as moving as when those three issues brought by accident to this city shut by a blockade, where we do not know anymore whether Abdul-Medjid still reigns in Byzantium or whether the duke of Aoste is king of Egypt.' The French were eager to know about military activities occurring in the provinces, but they also missed receiving international news, since they were completely cut off from the external world for up to four months.36 Newspapers sometimes reached Paris through people who escaped the Prussians' vigilance at the borders.37 Other times, English papers such as the Times and the Daily News were expedited to the American ambassador in Paris, Mr Washburn. They 'were translated by some of the French papers,' which then reported the news to their readers. However, these stratagems were soon discovered by the Prussians. Bismarck threatened Washburn with cutting off his supply of foreign newspapers if he continued to put them at the disposal of French journalists. The American ambassador was forced to forbid completely the reading of his papers by anyone else, thereby eliminating the last source of information Paris received from outside its walls. Once communications were reestablished, it was again the English papers that informed the French of the conditions required by Prussia for an armistice. In his column of 25 February 1871, Auguste Marc revealed that Parisians were in the dark about these conditions until some London newspapers informed them. In short, there was cooperation at different levels of the labour force. The artists - draughtsmen or engravers - were seemingly working at an international level, notwithstanding any barriers of language, as the signatures found in papers coming from different countries (France, England, Germany, Canada, Italy, and the United States) show. Moreover, the editors, if not cooperating in the true sense of the word, at least tolerated having other papers using their content or their workers selling their work to other illustrated periodicals. This type of collaboration was possible in 1870 because of the level of development of some communication technologies. Technical Means and the Discrepancy of Circulation between Images and Texts To provide readers 'with facts which will give our subscribers a daily written history, with pen and pencil, of current events' and to enable them to 'go back over most important events with more information/

92 Images at War

was the aim of the Illustration and of other papers.38 As we know, the newest and fastest technology of communication of the time was the telegraph. While it was relatively easy to send text by telegraph, this technology did not enable the transmission of images. The problem was then to have text and images arrive, if not at the same time, at least within a span of time which would allow the publication of illustrations and texts related to a specific event in the same issue. Although this may seem quite obvious nowadays, it was not always possible during periods of war and, on several occasions, the papers had to apologize for having to postpone the publication of some engravings until the following week. On other occasions, the artists succeeded in sending their work rapidly. When, as we saw earlier, French periodicals informed their readers that the engravings were from a sketch or a drawing made 'on the spot/ and the English papers wrote that they had 'arrived by balloon post' (which of course meant the same thing since it was the only way for foreign artists to correspond with their papers during the siege), readers were assured that they had authentic information. These inscriptions implied that the engravings were genuinely illustrating an event as the artist saw it and as it was described in the article/commentary which went with it. For such an exploit - because it was indeed an exploit during this very intensive war - different strategies for transport had to be developed. In 'normal' times, the postal system was efficient and usually reliable as long as the artist brought his material to the post office himself;39 intermediaries could indeed be erratic. But during the siege of Paris and of other strategic cities such as Strasbourg and Metz, other means had to be found. Artists like Jules Pelcoq, who was working for the Illustrated London News during the siege, were trapped in Paris for several months; he took some photographs of his drawings and sent them by balloon post when possible. This brings us to the two main means of communication during the siege of Paris: the balloon and the pigeon; the latter did not work well without the former. Ballooning the News

Balloons were a French technology for communication, and had been in existence for almost a century when the Franco-Prussian War was declared. They were also called aerostats, a contraction of 'aerial station/ or mongolfieres, in honour of their inventors, the brothers Etienne

Making History 93

and Jo ph Montgolfier. At first, they were made of heavy linen paper in the form of bags which were about ten metres in diameter; the opening was held over a fire fuelled by sheep's wool, which filled the bag with hot air.40 This in turn allowed the balloon to go as high as 335 metres. The first testing occurred on 15 June 1783. Shortly after this, J.A.C. Charles, a Parisian physicist, started to use hydrogen gas instead of hot air to lift the balloon, which he made of coated silk fabric instead of linen paper. It was, however, only on 21 November of the same year that the first flight with people, one of them J.F.P. de Rozier, proved to be successful. Despite an accident which killed de Rozier in a flight in 1785, civilian flights continued in France until the uprisings in 1793. From then on, balloons started to be used as a military technology. The French army, adopting the tethered hydrogen-filled balloons, formed a military service, the Aerostatiers, that used balloons as reconnaissance platforms in 1793. Lanterns and pyrotechnics were used to signal ground forces about the movements of the enemy troops. According to Evans, the Aerostatiers, in the years following the Revolution, proved to be most useful, particularly during national crises, when the French Republic was under attack from Holland, Austria, and Great Britain.41 In 1793 the balloon called L'Entreprenant was used to observe Dutch and Austrian troop movements during the siege of Mauberge; it was tethered to heavy cables near the front line. Later, the balloon was transported to Belgium where it took part in the siege of Charleroi and Fleurus. But the usefulness of the balloon was mixed, mostly because communications with the ground were sometimes hampered by bad visibility. Thus, the service was dismantled by Napoleon I in 1802, a sign that he was not as visionary as is sometimes believed. It was an English aeronaut, Charles Green, and then an American, John Wise, who first brought important advancements to the balloon, the former with the invention of the guide rope, the latter with innovations linked to atmospheric conditions, which allowed free flight navigation and control still used nowadays. In fact, the Americans had taken a keen interest very early in the development of the French technology, with Benjamin Franklin stating, in 1784, that the balloon was a discovery of great importance. Following that declaration, attempts were made to introduce aeronautics for military uses in the American army prior to the Civil War. The first attempt was during the Seminole wars in Florida in the 1830s and 1840s. The next was in the Mexican war of 1846-8; John Wise wrote a treatise on the aerial bombardment of Veracruz, which might have won him a job with the Bureau of Topo-

94 Images at War

graphical Engineers. The usefulness of the balloon as a military technology surfaced again when Abraham Lincoln declared, on 15 April 1861, that an insurrection in the southern states was imminent. Thaddeus Lowe, who was convinced of the necessity to introduce aeronautics as a legitimate branch of the American military, suggested that a battery-powered telegraph, connected to the ground, be added to the balloon's equipment. It was hard to convince the military officials of the advantages of such a technology. Yet, on 17 June 1861, Lowe launched the balloon Enterprise across from the White House, with George McDowell of the American Telegraph Company at his side. Telegrapher Herbert C. Robinson sent a message to President Lincoln, who was witnessing the demonstration from his mansion. Following the experiment, Lincoln invited Lowe to stay overnight to discuss the potential use of balloons in the war against the South. Lowe convinced the president that the Union war activities would be greatly enhanced by the formation of an Aeronautical Corps that could survey the battlefields as well as the positions of the enemy. Moreover, coupled with the use of a telegraph, the Corps could direct the ground artillery to targets that the soldiers could not see.42 Though Lowe succeeded in convincing Lincoln of the utility of the balloon, it was John Wise who was hired to organize the service. But after Wise's first experiment with a balloon failed, Lowe was brought in and appointed Chief of the Corps of Aeronautics of the United States Army. The use of balloons during the Franco-Prussian War was quite a different matter. There is no record of their use at the very beginning of the war as strategic technology to help the ground troops, nor is there any evidence of their use by the German army at all, though the Graphic asserted that the Prussians attempted to use them with mixed results. In fact the war was too short and its onset too sudden, to have time to organize the use of such a 'weapon.' However, the siege of Paris and the destruction of all means of transportation and communication by the Prussians forced the French to innovate. They had to find a way out for some politicians and important dispatches, as well as a way for getting news and personal letters from inside Paris to the people in the provinces. So new means of communication had to be developed. Since the telegraph, as used by the Americans, was of no use to the French, as the enemy had cut the telegraphic lines, they had to think of other means. They then decided to use three complementary technologies: two old ones, balloons and pigeons; and a new one, microscopic photography. These three technologies used together

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allowed them quite an impressive amount of communication with the outside world. Let us first see how the pigeon and microscopic photography worked together. Pigeons had been used to send messages for decades, if not centuries. Nevertheless, in 1870, with well-developed postal and telegraphic systems, and transportation infrastructures, pigeons were more the concern of amateurs, who raised them in pigeon houses, than of politicians and journalists. Some raised racing pigeons, while others kept them either for the pleasure of seeing them come 'home/ or for food. When communications were gradually eliminated by the Prussians during the siege of Paris, pigeons, which were raised for leisurely journeys and not specific missions, started to look more interesting for communication purposes, and were mobilized for military duties for the defence of the nation. Paul de Saint-Victor, who wrote articles for the dailies the Correspondant and the Presse wrote, about the pigeons: 'There will not be a better legend than that of these saviour birds bringing back to Paris the promises of a remote France, the fondness and tender memories from families estranged by the war/43 Pigeons, however, were useful only under two conditions. Since they were trained to return to their homes and not to carry messages out to specific places, they could only bring back messages from afar. Moreover, some means had to be found to send messages in huge quantities that could still be transportable by pigeon. This is where the microscopic photography came in. In two articles entitled 'Poste aerienne' published on 7 and 15 July 1871, and signed by W. de Fonvielle, the Illustration explains that 354 travelling pigeons were sent by balloons but that only sixty came back, due to the rigour of the winter in 1870-1, the vigilance of the Prussian hunters, and the very small number of racing birds in the pigeon houses of Paris at the beginning of the siege. Most pigeons were com mon domesticated birds. However, de Fonvielle goes on, 'Thanks to microscopic photography, this small number of happy messengers was enough to see marvellous results.' Indeed, 250,000 messages were sent by pigeon.44 The film containing these messages weighed only two grams and could be attached to one pigeon, but they preferred to send the birds consecutively so that they could use an in-octavo format of four hundred pages. The Monde illustre published two articles, entitled 'Le service postal pendant le siege: Peripateia d'un astronaute photographe/ on 7 and 14 January 1871, respectively reproducing part of a report written for the Ministry of Defence by Dagron, then photog-

96 Images at War rapher in charge of the postal service and inventor of microscopic photography.45 Dagron was sent by balloon from Paris to Tours to organize a service of microscopic photography. Tours had become the seat of the national government after the investment of Paris by the enemy. To dispatch government information to Paris, people in Tours used a process based on the reproduction on thin paper of the messages to be sent, a process longer and less efficient than Dagron's technique. Indeed, the photographer asserted that it took only a few hours to do the photographing of about three thousand dispatches, while it took days to reproduce them on paper. Dagron used a sheet of collodion for the photographs, a light metal which reduced the weigh of the parcel. Moreover, the photographed dispatches could be projected on a wall; the transparency of the film was much more efficient than paper.46 These dispatches were everything from official documents, bank mandates, private telegrams, foreign reporters' articles, and answering-cards (today called post cards). It was also used for the reproduction of newspapers specially produced in a smaller format, with microscopic characters and on very light paper. Dailies like the Gaulois, the Journal des debats, the Petit journal, or the Siede produced some issues in this format to be sent to the provinces.47 It was a tedious task, the report said, as they had to reproduce the same dispatches between six and thirty-five times, with an average of twenty times, to make sure that at least one would reach its destination. The film was rolled into a cylinder made of pigeon feathers, supple and waterproof, and tied onto one of the pigeon's feet. As for the balloons, they were built and navigated by specialists, though pilots were far from having total control on a flight and were often forced to land in unexpected places.48 Most of the aeronauts who were navigating the balloons were sailors, who were used to manipulating cables, and who were now transformed into either postal or military aerostiers. During the course of the war, French scientists Godard and Yon established two workshops to build the balloons and two schools to train aeronauts, one for military and one for civil purposes. Most of the individuals who travelled by balloon were either politicians or specialists related to military activities. The first politician to leave Paris for Bordeaux was Gambetta, accompanied by George Sand, on 7 October 1870, in the Armand Barbes.49 Balloons could also be used for private purposes. Some wealthy individuals rented the service to go out of Paris in a 'rush/ for business or personal matters. Different types of people flew in the aerostats: administrators, officers, scholars,

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engineers, photographers, journalists, and pigeon breeders.50 All balloons were launched from inside Paris; it was seemingly too risky to have one come back and land inside the capital when the enemy was camping just outside the city. Very early in the process, balloons were launched during the night, so that they were more difficult to locate. Because an aerostat was too unreliable to be sure that it would land in Paris during the night if sent from another city, the journey back was executed by pigeons, which were carried in balloons to a specific site, loaded with microscopic photographs containing all kinds of information, and sent back home. Pigeons and balloons, then, were two essential elements of the French system of communication during the siege of Paris. The aerostat system in Paris was organized by Rampont, the director of the postal service, immediately after the beginning of the siege. The service lasted from 23 September 1870 until 28 January 1871, a little more than four months. During that period, sixty-four balloons were launched;51 at least nineteen crashed, either by accident or because they were shot down by the Prussians. The first balloons launched were old models that existed before the war. However, it took only ten days to build one, and as early as 7 October, some new aerostats were ready to be launched. Altogether, the balloons carried three million letters, of which two million were distributed. After the beginning of the siege, balloons were one of the few means available to foreign special artists to deliver their sketches and drawings back to their papers. A very few could use the Prussian postal coach, but many were sent by balloon, as the illustrations identified as 'from balloon post' in the Illustrated London News and the Graphic testified. The Graphic showed great admiration for the ingenuity of the French: It was left to Paris to inaugurate a new era in the history of aerostation by organising the first regular system of 'balloon mails' that has ever been attempted. The experiment has turned out highly successful, and not only have the Paris authorities been able to send despatches to the provinces and to forward tens of thousands of private letters to the anxious friends and relatives of the besieged, but journalists, by means of copious correspondence, have thus kept the world well informed of the state and feelings of the invested capital.52

In short, the ability of the French, in combining the three technologies of communication at their disposal, allowed not only them, but

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also foreigners who had decided to remain in Paris despite the imminent siege by the Prussians, to keep in contact with the outside world, despite the Prussians doing everything in their power to isolate them completely. According to Dagron, the delivery was rather rapid when no impediments came into the balloon journey. As an example, Dagron sent a message by pigeon from Poitiers to Paris requesting more photographic material. Five days later, he received the necessary products by balloon in Poitiers. The pigeon had taken only twelve hours to cover the distance between Paris and Poitiers. As Dagron noted, ordinary telegraphy and railway delivery would not have done better. Of course, not all journeys went so well. Most aerostats left from the Gare du Nord and Gare d'Orleans, but a few were launched from other places as well, including the Jardins des Tuileries. The first balloon to be sent, an old aerostat called Le Neptune, was launched from the Place Saint-Pierre in Montmartre at 8:00 in the morning of 23 September 1870, with a big crowd applauding its ascent. When it crossed the Prussian lines, it had already reached one thousand five hundred metres, and was thus out of range of the enemy's artillery. It landed three hours later near Evreux, where the aeronaut, Duruof, gave the mail bags to the prefect and the mail receptor, and left.53 Yet, some journeys were very turbulent to say the least. The Monde illustre reported the incredible epic that Dagron had to go through when he was sent to Tours to develop his technique.54 It is worth giving a summary of this report to show the numerous and various difficulties that some people travelling by aerostat could go through. Two balloons, the Daguerre and the Niepce, left Paris on 12 November 1870, for Tours, a two hundred kilometre flight. The Niepce was carrying Dagron, his son-in-law, his assistant, an engineer, and the navigator. The Prussians shot down the Daguerre when it crossed their lines near Paris. The Niepce and its crew barely escaped by throwing sand bags overboard as fast as they could, to gain some height. Indeed, balloons carried sand bags which had to be thrown overboard at some point for the balloon to gain height. Since the bags in the Niepce were too fragile and broke, the passengers had to scoop up the surplus sand with their hands, which slowed down the ascent considerably. When they finally thought that they were through the Prussian lines, they decided to land. However, a high wind carried them farther than expected and a lack of trees to stop them made the situation worse; they finally landed upside down, back in Prussian territory. A farmer

Making History 99

offered them his horse cart to finish the journey, and thus they moved from place to place, often hidden by good Samaritans, to avoid Prussian soldiers who were looking for them, until they finally reached the French lines, no doubt thinking that their ordeal was at an end. Once there, however, the French authorities did not believe that they had been able to cross all that territory occupied by the Prussians without being caught, and decided that they must be spies, thus refusing to help them. So, after many other adventures of the same type, they finally reached Tours on 21 November 1870, nine days after their departure. This story highlights some interesting points. We already know that balloons were often unreliable. Still, this unreliability could be caused by natural elements, like wind and lack of trees, as much as by the miscalculation of the aerostier. The balloons did not have sophisticated instruments to guide them like ships had, and often the decision to land was based on intuition more than on knowledge of the geography and typography.55 This story also shows that, although a balloon's journey was considered successful, as this one was, if it landed, it did not mean that it had reached its expected destination without troubles, but only that it had been neither shot down by the Prussians nor lost. The ordeal facing its travellers was not taken into consideration in the evaluation of the experiment, success being measured by the fact that the aerostat had crossed the Prussian lines without enough damage to hamper its journey. Another 'successful' flight, though less dangerous, was related in an article entitled 'Les curiosites du telegraphe' by Charles Boissay in the Monde illustre of 18 March 1871. The balloon Ville-d'Orleans, transporting Roller and Bezier, engineer and gunner respectively, left Paris for Tours on 24 November 1870. After a fifteen-hour flight, it landed at Mount Lid in Norway, some 1,650 kilometres from Paris! Once on the ground, the dispatch it carried followed an incredible journey. Here is Boissay's account: Transported from Paris to Norway by balloon, the aeronauts carried it [the dispatch] on foot, by boat, in a sleigh, on the railway, and by carriage until Christiania; there, they sent it by telegraphy: it crossed Norway on an aerial line, the North Sea on the first undersea cable, the English Channel on a second one, France on a third electrical line; and the acknowledgment of the dispatch arrived on 1 December 1870, from Tours by pigeon.' This is a beautiful passage that encompasses the use of all the technologies of communication and transportation available in 1870. It also

100 Images at War reveals the ingenuity of nineteenth-century people in overcoming what appeared to be 'invincible' obstacles. Consider the journey that this dispatch went through, and that it took only one week for Tours to receive the acknowledgment of its reception. Though balloons' journeys often went wrong, their mission was viewed as successful when there had been alternatives for continuing the dispatches on to their destinations. All in all, many balloons were lost, but only a few balloons were actually shot down by the Prussians, mainly those that had not succeeded in rising high enough before crossing the lines. The Graphic asserted that the Prussians even tried to use their own balloons to shoot the French ones down, but to no avail.56 Moreover, Pierre Veron, in the 'Courrier de Paris,' Monde illustre, 22 October 1870, asserted that the Prussians formed a cavalry unit specially for pursuing the French balloons as far as they could; this unit had little success, in spite of the fact that, at the beginning of the war, the newspapers were careless and revealed the date and place where a balloon would be launched. Veron suggested launching the balloons secretly during the night, advice which seems to have been put into practice. The French developed other technologies, either before or during the 1870 war, which were of use for the army. It was known that the French army, though perhaps not as well disciplined as the enemy's, was better technologically equipped than the Prussian army. Some military weapons like the breech-loader (chassepot) and the French machine gun (mitrailleuse), which could reach the enemy three kilometres away, were seemingly unknown to the Prussians. The Graphic, in an unsigned article entitled The Capture of the First Mitrailleuse' published on 24 September 1870, asserted: The Mitrailleuse, we fear, has much to answer for. It was one of the Emperor's surprises, like the rifled cannon, which brought him victory in the Austrian campaign ... At Worth and Forbach it was used at preposterous ranges against troops who were concealed in woods. But in the great battles before Metz, the value of the new weapon was placed beyond a doubt.' Unfortunately for the French, the advantage gained by the mitrailleuse disappeared when the Prussians first captured one. Some weapons, such as Schneider and Remington guns, used by the French army, were supplied by England and the United States and delivered in shiploads. The war was so short, relatively speaking, that most of the stock bought in these countries came in too late. In addition, as Charles Yriarte pointed out, the Prussians also had some powerful weapons, perhaps less so than the French in terms of long-range tar-

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gets, but more accurate.57 Among their military weapons, there were shells which were extremely damaging to the French. Since they could reach long-range targets, the Prussians could hide from the French soldiers while shooting them down. Hiding from the enemy was a new way to wage war, according to Yriarte. Long-range weapons allowed an enemy to reach sites that were kilometres away; they were the kind of weapons used by the Prussians to bombard Paris during the siege. This influenced the work of the draughtsmen. Indeed, there was so little hand-to-hand fighting that the war often had to be represented as two armies facing each other in an immense field with only a few white puffs to suggest military activities (figure 11). In this type of engraving, it is very difficult to imagine the cruelty of war. Another technology, developed for other purposes before the war but used for the military defence of Paris during the siege, was the beam of light. Bazin had invented this technology for naval use. Indeed, the ray could reach 'some depths that even the sunlight had never penetrated!'58 The sun being the most powerful provider of light at the time, the fact that technology could do even better was a marvel. As much, or perhaps even more astonishing, was the use of that beam during the night. Every night, after the siege started, beams of light flashed through the night, brightly illuminating the space occupied by the enemy around Paris, and obliging them to stop the military work they had started in anticipation of an attack. Here is the 'poetic' description of the journalist who, in an article published in the Illustration on 12 November 1870, stood in awe in front of such new technology: 'When the beam goes down, the space that it covers is illuminated to such a point that, with binoculars, the eye distinctly perceives all the details ... it seems that one can touch with one's finger those walls on which one can distinctly read the signs, the sentry who is on guard beside a barricade, all that is shown within the disk of light produced by the beam.'59 Some technologies, however, were not a French forte: railroads and maps were among these. Railroads were, of course, developed enough in France, although not all rail networks were built according to national standards. However, they could not meet the demands of the army, either as a means of transportation for weaponry and food supplies, or for officials and troop movements. In addition, maps were not accurate or updated. These technological shortcomings are said, by some historian, to have been instrumental to the French defeat.60 According to Dupuy, complete maps of Prussia were on sale in Paris,

11 The battle of Metz, Graphic, no. 42, p. 284.

Making History 103

and only very partial maps of France. Moreove o one had thought of providing the army officials with any of these maps. It seems that the generals believed that they were unnecessary. According to one journalist, when he enquired whether the generals had received maps, one of them answered: 'Maps, geography, topography, this is a lot of rubbish which only confuses the brains of honest people. The topography in the country is a peasant whom you put between two cavaliers and you ask to bring you to this particular place. If you succeed, you get 100 sous, if not these two cavaliers will break your neck.'61 According to Dupuy, this story is credible as the French army was very confident due to its superiority in military weapons with its breech-loader and the machine gun. But the means of communication at the disposal of the French troops was deficient in many ways, as the Graphic points out in a column called 'Foreign News' on 24 September: 'It is probable that in this instance [Sedan], as in many others during the present war, the French were out-manoeuvred for want of sufficient information of the enemy's movements, and, being out-manoeuvred, were presently outnumbered.' Finally, a not very glamorous communication technology invented during the war, and very much used due to the circumstances of the siege of Paris, was the post card. Unnoticed by most historians of the technology of communication, the post card was overused during the Franco-Prussian War for different reasons. First, it was an open correspondence, and thus not considered suspicious by the postal and political authorities. As well, it was cheap, and it did not take much space, once transportation and communication were cut off, to have it photographed and transported by pigeon and balloon. It seems that reporters used them regularly to inform their editors of their movements (figure 12). Making Stories? As can be seen, the making of history by the illustrated periodicals was influenced by various ponderable and imponderable conditions of production. These conditions were first associated with the artists who relied not only on the financial means of their employers for the capacity to cover important events, but also on their fortune in finding a way to send back their work rapidly, and on their misfortune if taken for spies. These conditions were also based on the artists' capacity to foresee coming important events. The making of history was also depen-

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12 Post card used by war correspondents, Illustration, no. 1435, p. 166. dent on military matters unexpected by the papers. For instance, longrange weapons led to situations which were often difficult to represent in an attractive way for the readers. As well, the siege of Paris provoked an uncertainty in the process of communication which, while it did not completely dry up news sources, translated into less illustrated news from the capital, wrong information, or just plain rumour. Various means of communication have an essential role in the transmission of information by reporters. Balloons and pigeons were instrumental in building the content of the papers. Finally, reporters, either special artists or journalists, wanted to give as much information as possible to their readers but met various obstacles. The French newspapers, for instance, had a loyalty towards their army and their government. Yet, French and foreign reporters used all kinds of strategies to obtain a morsel of information. In these conditions, each paper made stories rather than history, in the sense that only a part of the current military activities could be discovered, despite the fact that the papers used various means, ranging from sending a special artist to the front, to using officials' and officers'

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knowledge, as well as information coming from other papers not as restricted as their own, to get news. In the next chapter, we will see in more detail the elements that influenced the editorial choices among the many and various pieces of information that they received.

CHAPTER FOUR

Feeding Memories

The role of the press during a war is ambiguous. What is it going to report, uncover? How is it going to report it? How can reporters remain 'objective' when they cover their own country at war? Or even when they are invited to accompany troops belonging to one side or the other? And finally, how are the reports, especially the illustrated ones, going to be transmitted to the periodicals? Journalists, artists, and editors are mediators who must not only give as much, and as accurate, information as possible, but who have to sell it on the market. What they choose to report, whatever level they are working at, is what will feed their readers' memories. Thus, these mediators are capitalist makers of national memory. This role was made more difficult during the Franco-Prussian War because the outcome of the conflict contradicted all expectations. I will examine here the elements that influenced the press workers, particularly the editors and artists, in making their choices of which, among all the unexpected events and military activities, were to be published in their papers for their readers to remember. Choosing What to Remember In spite of the difficulties they met with, illustrated periodicals in the 1870s succeeded in covering the Franco-Prussian War from a variety of angles, abundantly using the illustrations that they received. However, because of problems with the transmission of information of all kinds, and due to the fact that war reporting was relatively new, people - officials, specialists, or even the population - were suspicious of this type of journalism, especially when it included illustrations of tragic events.

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So editors and owners had to be careful in choosing appropriate articles and the right images that would convince their readers of their worth. Choosing what was to be published gave them the opportunity not only of taking a position, but also of changing that position according to turns of events. This was reflected mainly in the themes covered by the regular war chronicles which appeared each week, and also in the themes represented in the illustrations. While the general themes covered by the papers were often similar, the events used to illustrate them were usually different. Moreover, as noted in the previous chapter, sometimes a paper had to postpone publishing some engravings that had not reached the paper in time to be shown with the articles that concerned the same event, an inconvenience that could be transformed into an advantage as it gave some papers the opportunity to take another look at a particular issue. Nonetheless, even when covering the same event, illustrated papers sometimes showed quite different points of view. The French victory at Saarbriicken exemplified this situation. Among all the periodicals which claimed that the French victory was of little significance, only the Illustrated London News devoted a great deal of energy to asserting that the victory was unimportant; at the same time, it spoke highly of the Prussian victory in Wissembourg: 'a brilliant victory ... achieved ... by the army of the Crown Prince of Prussia, under the eyes of his Royal Highness.'1 The contrast between these two opinions enhanced the insulting tone of the first claim. The Illustrated Times and the Graphic were more nuanced in their reporting and, though admiring the discipline of the Prussian army in their victories, they also noted positive points on the French side. Divergence of approach among illustrated papers from different countries, and even among those from the same country, was also evident in relation to more important events such as Napolwon Ill's capitulation in Sedan. In neither the Illustrated London News nor Harper's Weekly did Napoleon Ill's surrender and the fall of his empire call for any sympathy. In the London paper, the articles covering the event on 10 September 1870 concentrated instead on the kindness of the king of Prussia, who gave the ex-emperor a castle almost as beautiful as Versailles and granted the wish of Napoleon III not to see his troops, or what was left of them, humiliated. Even the bombardment of Paris did not change the periodical's position. In the same column, which appeared on 14 January 1871, it stressed the courage of the French people but, at the same time, insisted that the Prussians had no choice but

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to bombard the city since the French authorities did not want to surrender. The author asserted that the Prussians did not want to humiliate the French people, but that the French government forced them to do so, a position unsupported either by other illustrated periodicals, or by historians later.2 Two weeks later, when commenting on Exterior Affairs Minister Jules Favre's visit to Versailles to negotiate an agreement for an armistice, this same writer reiterated that the demands of the Prussians were just, and that the desire of the French authorities, especially Gambetta, to go on with the war 'was murder.'3 Moreover, the Illustrated London News was the only paper to refer to Paris as a 'captured city,' ignoring the terms under which Paris decided to surrender. The Parisians were accused of not acknowledging the city as defeated and of being insulted by the German army marching in its streets: 'They are not conscious that the Prussians could have marched in [sic] Paris en masse, but they were too civilised to do so.'4 The relatively small number of Prussians in Paris was not the result of their civility, but of a sine qua non condition imposed by the French government. The Prussians had to concede to that condition if they wanted to have Alsace and part of Lorraine (Moselle), and especially, money! The Illustrated London News also chose to blame the British government for interfering in the war, despite its official position of neutrality, when it sent some humanitarian relief to France. Like its American counterpart, Harper's Weekly, it supported every single action of the Prussians right to the end of the hostilities, when, referring to the conditions imposed by the Prussians for peace, it asserted that 'the humiliation is severe, but it may be borne ... In short, the elements of extreme humiliation are the essence of the German terms.'5 There was no ambiguity in the position of the Illustrated London News, nor was there in Harper's Weekly: what their readers were to remember was that the Prussians were good and the French bad.6 This position contrasted with that of the more nuanced stance of the Illustrated Times and the Graphic.7 Though pro-Prussian at the beginning, both periodicals respectively blamed the Germans for pursuing the war for the sole purpose of extending their territory and because the king of Prussia had a strong aversion towards the republicans. The Graphic had much sympathy for Napoleon III (and his wife Eugenie), even after his surrender. Still, some of its reports showed a deep concern for the French people and soldiers, even taking the side of the French generals.8 Several articles suggested that the Prussians were brutal and uncivilized. The paper was extremely troubled by the sue-

Feeding Memories 109 cessive Prussian victories, especially that of Metz. The editor, in his 'Chronicle of the War' of 5 November 1870, called that French defeat the biggest disaster ever seen in the annals of war, even more serious than the defeat of Sedan, because of the losses: 17,300 soldiers killed, as well as 6,000 officers, 50 generals, 3 marshals, and much heavy and sophisticated war materiel destroyed. Yet, three weeks later, the Graphic chose to adopt a more optimistic view: It seems evident that the military strength of France is increasing, while the position of the German armies is becoming more embarrassing.'9 The positive tone was occasioned by Paris's courageous and unexpected resistence to the Prussian siege.10 This contrasted greatly with the position of the Illustrated London News, which blamed the French authorities for resisting the Prussians for so long. This contrast emerged once more in reactions to the severe terms imposed upon France by the Germans as the price for peace. While the Illustrated London News wanted their readers to believe that these terms were just and reasonable, the Graphic claimed that 'it gives plausibility to the theory that it is part of the policy of Count Bismark [sic] to maintain that spirit of hostility between the two nations which has hitherto proved so effective a barrier against liberal reforms.'11 This statement was later confirmed by historians,12 this demonstrates that this paper was engaged in more in-depth analysis than its competitors. An aspect of the war that the illustrated newspapers wanted their readers to remember was the daily life of either the troops or the inhabitants of the besieged country. This kind of humanitarian image was generally, but not exclusively, used when there was not much news, which was often the case, especially at the beginning of the war and during the siege. It was also a testimony to those who were suffering. There were plenty of such engravings in most papers, which were given a 'trivial news' style.13 As the Graphic underlined in its 'Chronicle of the War' of 3 December 1870, they were part of the work of the newspapers' correspondents in Paris, 'who have endeavoured to enliven the monotony of life in a city under close investment by descriptions of the strange dishes they are accustomed to eat, [and who] do not seem to be aware that in the eating of cats, rats, and dogs they [the Parisians] are only following a very old Paris fashion in time of siege.' This, according to the author, was a recurrence of the 1590 siege of Paris by Henry IV. A little humour and irony was used by mos papers, with the exception, perhaps, of the Illustrated London News, to make terrible news more acceptable. Even the Illustration, though not

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using humour as such, assumed, on occasion, a more sensitive tone as the following example shows. Referring to the Breton mobiles' 'imperturbable serenity of soul/ the paper, as republican as could be in politics, suggested that they came by their serenity by attending mass: 'May that faith, worthy of the golden age of the Catholic church, transport the mountains which weigh down on us.'14 The coverage of the war by the Illustrated Times was close to the Graphic's. It showed some sympathy for the French people and even some praise for their army, but expressed some reservations about the lack of French moral principles. To be sure, on 13 August 1870, in an unsigned article entitled 'The Crisis in France/ the author blamed the French for showing very little concern over the war and, even worse, for being outraged by the presence of the Prussians on their soil, even though they had considered normal the idea of invading Prussia. While confessing a certain admiration for the French soldiers' courage, the paper stressed the incompetence of the army's commanders. In a long unsigned article entitled 'Neutrality/ published on 3 September 1870, the paper tried to justify its 'neutral' position by aligning it with that of England. The author explained that England was abused by both camps but, nevertheless, had more sympathy for the Prussians because of 'their honesty of intention and purity of motive/ an attitude, it was felt, that was not found among the French. Prussian reports of battles were more accurate and reliable than French reports, the author went on. The English believed that the French were wrong to declare hostilities against the Prussians, who had a right to defend their territory. The successive defeats of the French army provoked the paper's admiration for the Prussian commanders' military skills. A week later, however, after the surrender of Sedan, the tone suddenly shifted, and the paper began to praise the new French government, asserting that the people in power were honest and sincere and desired the well-being of the population.15 The author suggested that Napoleon Ill's surrender helped the unification of Germany and wondered how the new nation would behave. The same week, an article entitled 'Criticism of the Campaign' refuted the theory that the French were less resistant than the Teutons' and explained the French defeats by the fact that the soldiers were 'badly fed, badly trained, badly led, and usually inferior in number to the Germans.' Nonetheless, it was with the siege of Paris that the Illustrated Times became definitely proFrench. So, all in all, the Illustrated Times and the Graphic gave their readers a

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more balanced view of the war than the Illustrated London News. Both papers tried to look at the conflict with some 'objectivity/ stressing the strengths and weaknesses of both camps. However, the Graphic showed some foresight about Prussia's intentions, and particularly Bismarck's intentions; this was lost on the other paper. The Penny Illustrated Paper, like the Illustrated Times and the Graphic, adopted a pro-French position after the siege of Paris. The themes that the paper chose to cover were mostly of a humanitarian nature, describing the misery caused by the war, and particularly by the siege, to already poor and defenceless people. The month of December was almost entirely devoted to lighter topics, showing only four engravings of the war during the entire month, and even then, two of them were on rather trivial matters. Their engravings, though of very good quality at the beginning, adopted a style close to caricature in early 1871. Moreover, they were often out of step with the other newspapers, as if they were constructing their content on what had been shown and said in other publications. For instance, it is only on 7 January 1871 that an article talked about the siege of Paris, and the fact that the Germans could not enter the capital, as the 'great surprise of the war.' This despite the fact that the siege had been going on since the end of September 1870! Though Parisian periodicals' interpretations were generally the opposite of the London papers, sometimes the English reading of the situation endorsed that of the French and gave it credibility. To be sure, statements coming from papers published in a country at war are regarded with more suspicion than when coming from a 'neutral' country. For instance, in the column 'Histoire de la guerre' of 27 August 1870, the Illustration wrote that the French had forced the Prussians to retreat during the battle of Gravelotte, a battle where France was defeated, with huge losses on both sides. This statement seems to have been made in order to console their readers in the sense used by Schivelbusch and discussed in chapter I.16 However, on 24 September, the Graphic confirmed this version, saying: 'At Gravelotte, regiment after regiment attempted to storm the slopes where the mitrailleuses were posted. Even when the Prussians gained the breastwork, the light batteries were quickly run back, and a renewed discharge compelled the enemy to retreat.' So here is an interesting dilemma. What should be believed and what should not in statements coming from papers 'at war?' The situation was even more problematic in the case of the 1870 war. All articles and columns pub-

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lished in the French papers were signed, which, in some ways, should have given them more credibility and authenticity than the anonymous English reports. Indeed, reports of war are always suspected of hidden meanings. As Ambroise-Rendu suggests, anonymity strips them of an individual responsibility.17 An unsigned text puts the responsibility solely on a paper's owner-editor, a signed one involves both the owner-editor and the author. Reporters and columnists in French papers were well known for their seriousness and integrity: take, for instance, Henri Cozic, Jules Claretie and Auguste Marc for the Illustration, and Charles Yriarte, Maxime Vauvert, and Pierre Veron for the Monde illustre. So, we must ask, does a signed text from a partisan paper have more credit than an anonymous text from a 'neutral' paper? To its credit, the tone of the Illustration always remained matterof-fact, to the point of sometimes being tedious. In a long article entitled 'Le veritable auteur de la guerre de 1870,' published the day after Napoleon Ill's surrender, Emile de Girardin, republican, well-known journalist, and owner of several papers, asserted, citing de Montesquieu, that 'the party truly responsible for a war was the country that had made it necessary.'18 France's declaration of war, he argued, was provoked by Prussia. This idea certainly underlined most of the reports and editorials published in the French illustrated papers, at least at the beginning of the war.19 The Illustration's discourse changed after Sedan. In the column 'Courrier de Paris' of 10 September 1870, Cozic confessed that they knew, from the beginning, about the weaknesses of the French army and the incompetence of its military strategists, adding, on a disillusioned tone, in reference to Sedan: 'I do not have the courage to enumerate, once more, this last disaster that, from now on, will come repeatedly in front of the eyes of our readers.' Initial optimism had already made room for discouragement. The same week, Claretie's column 'En campagne' revealed the French soldiers' anger against their superiors: They had the victory in hand and with a bit of precaution ... but with leaders such as M. De Failly ...' Thus, the patriotism which obliged the newspapers to remain silent on their real opinion about military activities was crumbling with the fall of the Second Empire. However, another type of nationalism was taking its place, one involving the word 'revenge,' one that would lead to France's glory, to use Schivelbusch's words.20 Claretie was one of the first to claim revenge: 'By patriotism, let's tell the truth. Long enough, the press and the political powers have lied to France, and these lies have brought

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the country near an abyss into which we could not, and do not want to fall. The Prussians have a terrible force which stops, a formidable number which strangles, but there are those deaths which we have to revenge/ Thus, a shift had occurred in the discourse offered by the Illustration, and taken up by all the other French papers, a shift more or less reflected in the English periodicals. Nonetheless, it is only after 17 September 1870 that an important number of engravings illustrating the massacre of Sedan, with huge losses on both sides, were shown to the readers of the French, as well as of the Prussian and all the foreign papers (figures 13 and 14). One cannot doubt the veracity of these engravings. Yet, they lied, as all images of war do. As a matter of fact, the commentary stressed that these images could only show half the horror of what happened. So, even pictures drawn by the best possible artist, Lanc.on, and engraved by the best possible engraver, Smeeton, could not represent the full reality when it was too powerful. Politics and ethics oblige! An interesting turn in the war coverage, after the establishment of the French Republic on 4 September 1870, is that of the Illustration; it became a sort of mediator between its readers and the provisional government, in publishing not only engravings representing the events on the front, and texts describing them, but also government reports and dispatches, a role which had been filled by the Monde illustre during the Second Empire. The second most important event, after the defeat of Sedan, was the fall of Metz. However, Metz had the misfortune not only to be in the provinces, but to have its fall occur simultaneously with the capture, by the German army, of Le Bourget. It was overshadowed by the loss of this strategic place close to Paris, especially because Le Bourget had previously been captured by the French. For people like Henri Vigne and Henri Cozic of the Illustration, it was one of the most depressing events of all. In 'L'affaire Le Bourget/ published on 5 November 1870, Cozic explained the cause of the defeat saying that the military authorities had left only two small battalions to protect this strategic place for the defence of Paris, while the Prussians returned with fifteen thousand soldiers. Following this affair, the government relieved nine battalion commanders of their duties. Entirely neglected in the 1870 war coverage by the newspapers, either in articles or engravings, were women: wives, sisters, mothers, or girlfriends of the soldiers. To be sure, war coverage was mainly about military activities and people, and civilian casualties either dead or wounded. Nevertheless, Leo de Bernard wrote, in the Monde illustre,

13 After Sedan, Illustration, no. 1440, p. 261.

14 Napoleon III crossing the battlefield of Sedan after his surrender, Monde illustre, no. 701, p. 184.

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an exceptional article praising French women for their courage and generosity during the siege of Paris: They seemed to have the role of guardian between man and the vicissitudes of their fate. While the soldier was at the front, the housekeeper was queuing up at the butcheries, the bakeries, the wood fire providers, the city cafeterias. It was cold, it snowed, she was there, chilled but courageous and patient, feet in icy mud, waiting her turn to get her municipal ration. She never complained about the snow, nor the rationing; she suffered ... What touching scenes are those of mothers crammed in front of the stores ... Well, among these women from the popular classes, there is an altruism and compassion which many men would be incapable of perceiving.21

Jules Claretie also acknowledged, in the Illustration, the important role of women during the war, and particularly during the siege of Paris. He wrote a touching paragraph in his chronicle 'En campagne' on 3 September 1870, asserting that, for the soldiers, it was a consolation to be in action, to be able to do something for the nation. However, women, far from the front, at home and unable to protect their sons, husbands, brothers, or to do something for the beleaguered fatherland, were in a worse situation. 'A man dies; he falls at least in the fever of the struggle and the fury of the battle. But you, bruised in your sons, bruised by the loss of your spouses, your fiances, your brothers, you have to wait from afar, alone, anxious, and resigned.' Claretie was a fine observer and a good analyst of humanitarian subjects. He was also the only one to pay attention to the problem of pilferers, people who, during the night, 'harvested' a few vegetables. While short texts here and there in French and English periodicals pointed them out as thieves, Claretie, drawing a picture of a pilferer killed in a field, stressed the humanitarian side of this struggle for survival. Sad to see starving peasants trying to gain a few sous by harvesting some cabbages, he accused the enemy of killing these inoffensive people in order to keep the harvest for themselves. The cruelty of the war, and the siege in particular, was sometimes found in such small details as news reaching its destination long after the fact; a pigeon sent out with dispatches in November 1870 arrived in Paris at the end of February 1871, bringing with it news of victories. 'What can be more horrible!' Pierre Veron exclaimed in his 'Courrier de Paris' in the Monde illustre of 23 February 1871. 'Despite ourselves,

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we wanted to wring its neck. Thus are all the tomorrows of life. Old fashions, old signs, old love, old pigeons. We would have behaved foolishly for them a month ago. Today, in the saucepan!' Such was the transmission of news in the nineteenth century! The bombardment of Paris lasted from 25 December 1870 until 28 January 1871.22 During this time, noticeable changes occurred in the illustrated newspapers. Some criticism of the provisional government started to appear, particularly in the Illustration. One has to remember that this paper, unlike other publications, had always claimed that it was a political newspaper, but declared that it would remain objective in its reports. The editor-in-chief, Auguste Marc, in his 'La revue politique de la semaine' of 7 January 1871, blamed General Trochu, commander of the Parisian defence, for his lack of foresight and leadership. He did not demand his resignation, but asked him 'to be equal to the task/ According to Marc, Trochu was too soft, and put personal interests before the fatherland's interests. This kind of criticism did not appear in other papers, certainly not at that level, but later historians proved his views were right.23 On 21 January 1871, in the same column, the editor came back to the issue, this time with more insistence, stressing that there was a profound disagreement between the population and the authorities organizing the defence: 'Public opinion and the press ... never ceased to ask for action/ to stop the bombardment or at least to have a stronger defence of Paris. Trochu was then accused of treason, which he firmly denied. In his article 'I/offensive' published in the Illustration in the same week, Henri Cozic intensified the criticism and claimed that Trochu's tactics were 'as plausible as a homoeopathic medicine administered for acute illness/ He then asked for the return of Gambetta, who wanted stronger military actions but who had left by balloon for Bordeaux.24 On 4 February 1871, after the provisional armistice, Auguste Marc used the bitterest tone: 'This is the Fall of Paris/ The guilty, he then claimed, were the French people themselves. Indeed, whatever the government, people were too confident in, had too much admiration for, and had not enough criticism of their leaders, 'feeding on the insubstantial and mercantile prose of newspapers especially written to flatter their appetites, their weaknesses and their ignorance!' The fault of the newspapers was to pretend that the Prussian army was weak, that it would not withstand bad weather and long marches - 'didn't they have flat feet?' - and that their king was mad. 'It is time for our mea culpa,' he finished. We can clearly see, here, the intellectual path

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adopted by the editor, which would lead later to a reversal of the press's discourse, going from lamenting a defeated France to acclaiming France's glory. The bombardment of Paris attracted much attention from the press. Indeed, on 14 January 1871, three columns in the Illustration -'Revue politique de la semaine' by Auguste Marc, 'Courrier de Paris' by Henri Cozic, and 'Bombardement' by P.P. (for Pierre Paget) - explained the horror of the German bombardments: 'Everything is bombarded, stores, museums, schools, hospitals, universities, colleges, libraries/ night and day and without warning, wrote Paget. This was a novelty in war, a novelty considered as barbaric since, in previous wars, the bombarding camp had seemingly always warned their foes before going into action. In the face of such suffering, the French papers complained that the Prussian administration had nothing better to do than create an empire by unifying the confederation of North-Germany with Prussia and the south provinces, hence turning their king into an emperor, this just when France had got rid of its empire: The Prussians feel the need to resort to a fruitless imitation [of the French empire] which represented the annihilation of all freedom and the profligacy of absolute government/25 The armistice brought about nationalistic feelings among the French; this, according to Schivelbusch, is a typical reaction of a vanquished nation. Cozic, in his 'Courrier de Paris/ the Illustration, 4 March 1871, called for the strengthening of national feeling to counter the abandonment of France by other nations. He introduced his plea with a poem in which he praised the dignified attitude of the Parisians when the Prussians entered Paris on 1 March. Yet, the English newspapers, on which the Illustration seemed to rely so much for other matters, showed engravings with a crowd of Parisians looking at the Prussians marching by.26 The Illustration refused to publish any engravings or articles on the event. Still, in saying that he was not going to talk about it, Cozic was doing exactly that. The Monde illusive did not wait until March 1871 to resort to nationalistic feelings. Early in the war, Charles Yriarte, broken by the French defeat in Wissembourg, wrote in his 'Courrier de Paris' of 20 August 1870: 'We were vanquished, but some defeats are victories ... I advise those who have not yet lost their love for the native land ... to turn towards English and German newspapers to get some consolation as, everyday, they publish the details of the great battles delivered on French soil.' This justification of nationalistic feelings by means of for-

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eign newspapers was rather paradoxical, especially coming from German publications which offered details on the way French soldiers had fought back the Prussians. This consolatory tone was seen regularly in the Monde illusive, not only in the texts, but in the engravings as well, as we will see in the following chapters. As Pierre Veron said in the 'Courrier de Paris' of 5 November 1870: 'Everything that can stimulate patriotism is good for me.' It is in that spirit of national pride that the paper published an engraving and two articles on the particularly touchy issue of deserters (figure 15). On 1 and 8 October 1870, Maxime Vauvert stressed the cowardice of these soldiers who refused to defend their fatherland and insisted that they deserved to be executed. The defeat of Le Bourget was also strongly felt by the Monde, illustre, which was desperately looking for a means of consolation. To be sure, the Illustration had always been as much republican in its politics as the Monde illustre had been pro-Napoleon III, at the beginning of the war, at least.27 Therefore, it was in the latter paper that the capitulation of Sedan had the most serious impact, provoking a drastic shift from its preceding discourse. In the 'Bulletin de la guerre' of 24 September 1870, Vauvert had harsh words for the ex-emperor, much more so than any other French paper, and of course more than the English and Prussian papers, accusing him, among other things, of cowardice. But the accusations were also directed towards the new national government. Indeed, one week after the surrender, Charles Yriarte informed the readers that the paper came to learn, 'by fortuitous circumstances, of a conversation between King Wilhelm and Bismarck in which the latter was planning to cut Paris off of any means of communication. This conversation was immediately reported to Trochu, who would have had time to do something about it, but did not.' It was the Monde illustre's way of blaming Trochu, an indirect, tortuous way, quite different from the Illustration's clearly stated manner. It was the only time that the paper mentioned Trochu's faults, and even then, only indirectly. True, it had warned its readers, at the beginning of the war, that the artists and journalists would not cover political matters, unless absolutely unavoidable. The editor kept his word. Since the Monde illustre had promised to keep away from politics, it had to turn to something else. The humanitarian aspect of the war was explored in every way, particularly the lack of food brought in by the siege of Paris. Five long articles were dedicated to that issue.28 Two of them were written by Maxime Vauvert, who explained in minute

15 'Cowards!' Monde illustre, no. 704, p. 236.

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detail the Parisians' struggles for adequate food and firewood, stressing that the Germans' determination to starve the city was immoral. It was particularly hard on newborns and their mothers, added Veron in December. But, Parisians were ingenious and had found all kinds of ways to get food. This brought Yriarte to the following nationalist declaration, in the 'Courrier de Paris' of 21 January 1871: The bombardment is the frightful reality of the moment. The Prussians waited three months before deciding on this extreme means. Paris resistance, its improbable supply of food, the wisdom of the population shut up in the city, gave them the proof that neither interior anarchy, nor discouragement, nor the fiery forces of the enemy could come to terms with us: heroic acts are necessary to meet the cruelest of extremities, the bombardment of a city of two million inhabitants. Any other people would have drawn back from such a responsibility; history will not forgive it.

As Schivelbusch notes, the Parisians, and the French people in general, had faith in their own superiority.29 All the same, when an incredible supply of all kinds of food arrived miraculously at the market the day after the armistice, the surprise provoked another reversal in the Monde illustre's position. Pierre Veron this time stressed the 'risk of dishonour that faced the Parisian population.'30 Indeed, both the Illustration and the Monde illustre discovered that some French people had contributed to starving the Parisian population by hiding their supply of food so that they could sell it at a high price when the war was over. Moreover, they also realized that a significant number of Parisians had witnessed the arrival of the German army in Paris despite the fact that the papers had strongly advised them against it: 'Whatever we do, indeed, whatever we say, whatever the newspapers' supplications and instances of patriotism, you will see that, when time comes, some badauds (ninnies) will emerge from nowhere, and some gavroches (urchins) from the sewers to line the road of the march of the invaders.'31 Indeed, the march of the Germans into Paris was one of the most painful moments for the Parisians. The Monde illustre, like the Illustration, refused to give any representation of the event. In his 'Courrier de Paris' of 4 March 1871, Charles Yriarte explained: 'We cannot suppress history, and however great the French desire to forget about that event, it is necessary, whether we wish it or not, to leave some traces of that horrible march of the enemy troops in our neighbourhoods ... Paris has put on black crepe and received the enemy in silence and with a mournful

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spirit ...'A week later, the paper published an engraving on its front page showing the Parisian population cleansing the places where the Prussians had been in the city!32 As for the three other French papers, all had to stop publication at some point during or soon after the conflict. Consequently, they did not show much originality in their positions. The tone of the articles and columns was close to that of the two main papers, particularly that of the Monde illustre, adding some humanitarian failures of the enemy's actions, and pointing out the barbarism of the Prussians and the courage of the French soldiers. The Journal illustre was the most intriguing of the three cheap papers. Though it had been publishing during the first two months of the siege of Paris, the paper had no engravings to illustrate the event, which is rather surprising since it was produced in the capital. It was in the week of 18-25 September that the paper published the most significant discourse on the war. It discussed the distressing situation of Strasbourg and the heroism of its inhabitants, attacked from all sides and bombarded by the Prussians. The Illustrirte Zeitung attempted to be rather sober at the beginning of the war, at least. In its regular column The Chronicle of the War/ created for the occasion, the author used a descriptive tone to discuss the battles. On 10 September 1870, for instance, the chronicle commented on Napoleon Ill's surrender saying that he had sent a letter to King Wilhelm informing him of his capitulation, a letter which was followed by a meeting between the two leaders. No white flag was mentioned, only the tenacity and courage of the French soldiers. In another column published on 24 September 1870, the periodical reported the Prussian people's joy when learning of the French emperor's surrender, as it meant that the war would be over soon. Interestingly this shows that the Germans did not expect the conflict to continue after 2 September 1870. Since Napoleon III was responsible for that war, his surrender meant that there was no more need to go on. Nevertheless, as the German army was blamed by the press from all countries for the levelling of Bazeilles, and the massacre of its population, which happened just before Sedan, the Illustrirte Zeitung began to be more defensive. In a long analytical article which appeared more than two months later, on 19 and 26 November 1870, the author accused the inhabitants of Bazeilles of being responsible for that massacre because of their 'undisciplined and fanatic' behaviour in defending their village. The burning of the houses and the killing of most people in the village was what they deserved. For the German army,

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said the author, it was 'a simple tactical necessity.'33 So, whatever the provenance of a paper, discussing the current situation and analysing important events were two of the most favourite activities. The Illustrated Periodicals Analyse the War One of the regular practices of nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals was to do a retrospective analysis of an event and to speculate on its real causes and consequences. As their declarations of intention and their offers of hard covers to bind half a year's issues into 'history' books show, editors believed that they were making history. To do it properly, they published analytical articles and columns. I will first examine some of these analyses, looking for corroboration from veteran soldiers' stories as well as from historical works on the FrancoPrussian War. I will end this section by reviewing some representations of the war in literature, novels, and memorials. Rather surprisingly, for a paper whose editor claimed that he wanted to make history, the Illustrated London News was not very much inclined towards retrospective investigations, though it was keen on analysing current events. The first editorial, in an unsigned column published on 11 February 1871, attempted to draw a parallel between French and English administrations. The main purpose was seemingly to congratulate the British government for being 'more stable' than the French, and thus only burdened with minor problems. A matter-of-fact tone was used to inform its readers that the conditions imposed by Prussia for peace could mean the ruin of France. These opinions were strange as they gave the impression that this particular paper's collaborator was entirely disconnected from reality. A report published on 22 April 1871, and entitled 'Our Coloured Illustration: The Surrender at Sedan,' a definite post-event representation, was more realistic. The author maintained that Napoleon Ill's surrender was 'a subject of great historical interest, and sure to be remembered and discussed by future generations.' This event should have put a stop to that war, he continued, but the Prussians were not satisfied and decided to pursue this conflict: so much blood was lost, so much damage done already for so little gain, that they had to go on with the war. The article concluded on a lighter note, informing the readers that Napoleon III had found refuge in England after the war, something that no other paper, either English or French, had mentioned. Such articles, though retrospective, were hardly analytical; they contained only a few comments on past events.

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The Graphic was more open to post-event analysis than its competitor. Starting very early in the war, an unsigned 'Chronicle' published on 27 August 1870, examined some of the war's effects on French society: 'One of the most alarming features of the war excitement in France is the manifestly increasing ill-feeling towards the clergy, which, however, has hitherto attracted little notice out of France. The exemption of priests and theological students from military service appears to be at present the chief ground of complaint; and no day passes without this subject being brought in some way before the Chamber of Deputies.' This interesting aspect of hierarchical discrimination in French society, where Catholicism still dominated, had not been put in the public eye by any other illustrated papers, not even by the very republican Illustration.34 Still, in order to appeal to readers, a publication could not brood on such an issue. Indeed, the causes and effects of the series of defeats that the French army had just experienced were more likely to attract readers: The partially revived popularity of the Emperor Napoleon, which, however, appears to be chiefly confined to the rural districts, is one of the most remarkable features of the history of the war. Nothing can be more certain than that the Napoleonic system, even more than the Emperor's unlucky passion for playing at generalship, is to blame for the terrible disasters of the last month. Not only has the great army, of which France was justly proud, been almost destroyed during that brief period, but circumstances have suddenly revealed the fact that the great National Guard, of which Marshal Neil made so much, has been wilfully maintained in a condition which renders it perfectly worthless in time of war.35

The reflection was far-sighted, and was later corroborated by historians.36 It was the more insightful since, according to Dupuy, the news of Napoleon Ill's surrender became known by the newspapers on the evening of 3 September 1870.37 Much later, on 18 February 1871, the same column asserted, it was after they had been aware of the results of the elections in France, that the 'rural voters have evidently lost their admiration for Napoleonism.' So had the Graphic, which did not follow the path of its competitor, the Illustrated London News, on this issue, and risked sharp criticism before anyone (except the ex-empress Eugenie) knew about Napoleon Ill's surrender. The paper also blamed, though indirectly, the French generals for keeping the troops in a useless condition. This was the most direct criticism addressed to the French authorities among all the papers.

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The Graphic also attempted some speculation on particular events. For instance, the visit of Marshal Bazaine's aide-de-camp to Versailles led the periodical's 'Chronicle' of 22 October 1870 to speculate on the cause of such an important move, arguing that 'such negotiations could have no other object than to arrange the terms of a capitulation/ However, a week later, the paper asserted: 'Confident in the strength of his position as the head of the only French army which still exists, Bazaine, we are told, considers himself entitled to exercise not a little influence on the question whether peace shall be made or hostilities continue. He would gladly make himself indispensable; would gladly be the dictator with whom the enemy should have to treat, taking the lead both of the Government which sits at Tours and of that which is shut up in Paris.' Many papers denigrated Bazaine, accused him of lying impudently and organizing 'pretended attacks/ and saying that 'Bazaine confined himself to military inaction and pursued political adventure/38 Yet, though clearly aware of Bazaine's manoeuvres for power, the Graphic kept defending him, saying that he was not to blame for the defeats, that he was a very capable general, and that he could have an important role in the future of France.39 On 28 January 1871, the Graphic came up with the astonishing news that 'Empress Eugenie, with the approval of Emperor Napoleon [meaning Napoleon III here], had formally consented to the German terms of peace/ The author discredited the news because, from his point of view, 'neither at Versailles nor at Wilhelmshohe ... can there be any doubt of the worthlessness of such an attempt to bind the French nation/40 In response to such insinuations, and at the same time validating the English columnist's opinion, Auguste Marc, in his 'Revue politique de la semaine' of 25 February 1871, used some English dailies to show the stupidity of such a project. The Times, as well as the Daily News and the Telegraph, could not understand, he said, how the ex-emperor could decline any responsibility for all France's misfortunes since he was the only promoter of the war and that his '"corrupted and corruptive administration has annihilated the public spirit of the people and perverted the army." He whose diplomats were as impotent as his marshals/ For Marc, it was clear that French people would never put Napoleon III back on his throne. In any case, the Monde illustre had already, on 11 February 1871, stated as much when Pierre Veron in his 'Courrier de Paris' had maintained that Napoleon III had been warned ten times over that he had committed an error in provoking Prussia. The fact that this same man was trying to come back to power was unimaginable.

126 Images at War Still, the Graphic did not approve of Gambetta's plan to pursue the war and to refuse to sign the armistice under the conditions imposed by the Prussians. The author, once more, read the situation in an insightful manner, which again was substantiated by historians later. He claimed that the situation in Paris during the temporary armistice 'afford[ed] some ground for the view that Paris was too much oppressed by her own misfortunes to negotiate in the name of the whole country; and that the Government ought to have confined itself, like the Emperor at Sedan, to treating merely for the city and the vanquished garrison until permitted to deliberate under less embarrassing circumstances.'41 A week before, the Illustrated London News, in its usual unsubtle manner, had expressed the same idea asserting that, in the circumstances, one should consider that 'Gambetta's war is now murder.'42 The authors of these opinions were experienced journalists who had probably worked for papers when content was mostly political analysis. This style seemed to return to them easily, though the papers for which they were working had proclaimed their 'neutrality' at the beginning of the war. The Illustrated Times spent some time discussing the so-called neutrality of England and its newspapers. Reproducing part of the article published in 1870, which I discussed above, the paper extended its analysis to the positions of members of the government of the two political parties. In an unsigned article published on 14 January 1871, and entitled 'English Sympathy with France,' the author states: And it is curious to note that men at the two extremes of political opinion - Conservatives and Radicals - are agreed in this, though for different reasons. At the outset, Conservatism at once ranged itself on the side of France - mainly, we suspect, on two grounds: firstly, because it was supposed that Liberalism, and the Government as representing it, would take the part of Germany; and, secondly, from a secret sympathy with autocracy, as embodied in the Emperor Napoleon [meaning Napoleon III here], and an occult dislike of free thought, which was believed to widely prevail in Germany. From their point of view, speaking in a partisan sense, perhaps the Conservatives were justified in this; at all events, they have the unwonted satisfaction of having popular sentiment with them now ... if they be consistent, they must still long for the restoration of the fallen empire in France; for from, and out of, that very fall originated the change of public feeling in England, and the apparent rapprochement of sentiment between Radicals and Tories. France Imperial, though the admiration for Conservatives, was the abomination of Radicals; but France Republican,

Feeding Memories 127 thoug nly nominally so, at once fired the imagination and enlisted the sympathies of English Radicals ...

The author insisted on the consistency of English opinion despite the reversal of its position. The English, he said, were consistent in supporting what is right. The author argued: 'It is no fault of ours if Right and Wrong have changed sides. Public opinion in England has simply followed the change/ This reversal, from originally supporting Germany to actually upholding France, illustrated the strength of the English people in their determination to refuse to become involved in the war, he went on. The Penny Illustrated Paper, however, did not follow these 'logical' rules. Clearly pro-French at the beginning, it did not flinch from its position. An unsigned article entitled The Franco-Prussian War: The Capitulation of Paris,' published on 4 February 1871, turned its attention entirely to the French. This could be interpreted as an absence of information about the victors' side but the following article prevents me from believing that. Indeed, the tone used by that paper was very sympathetic towards the French: The last shells in Paris, as our centre Engraving is entitled, will give the reader an idea of the awful visitation to which the Parisians have been subjected, the Illustration representing in the foreground the Tuileries - the palace of the Emperor, who brought this overwhelming disaster on his subjects.' This statement, in the light of a number of other graphic descriptions of French suffering, their strength, and their remarkable endurance in the face of 'the horrors of bombardment/ could not but reveal the author's empathy for the French. The article insisted on the destruction of French hospitals and the brave but not entirely successful attempts to save 'the poor little children/ It even extended its concern to politicians, stressing the 'terrible months of trial M. Favre and his colleagues must have undergone during the siege [which] have naturally earned for him and them such cordial sympathy in this country that, should he, after all, come to London to attend the Conference, there is no doubt that a demonstration would take place in his honour/43 In contrast to some London papers, the Parisian illustrated periodicals, particularly the Illustration and the Monde illustre, very early on regularly involved themselves in retrospective analyses.44 Some referred to the noble national character of the French and the cunning mentality of the Prussians. Much was said on the causes and effects of the successive defeats, especially that of Sedan. On 27 August 1870,

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Auguste Marc, in his 'Political revue de la semaine/ aware of the insignificance of the French victory in Saarbrucken and the meaningful French defeat in Wissembourg, complained that the English newspapers had already proclaimed, 'with ferocious pleasure/ the fall of France and 'seem[ed] to believe that the Prussian ogre ha[d] only to open its mouth once to swallow it all.' Continuing his international review of the papers, he reported a Berlin paper's comments: There is, in the national character of France, an energy and self-sacrifice capable of the strongest resolutions which the history of the wars during the Republic and the first Empire has revealed. Let's not be too euphoric about our first victories, and despise our enemy and its power of resistance.' It was indeed very clever of Marc to come back to an old issue of a German publication to emphasize the superiority of the French character. It gave the statement much more strength than if it had come from him or from one of the French papers. Life in Paris under siege was a favourite object of analysis of the Monde illustre. For Pierre Veron, 'helping historians' was one of the purposes of the columns published in newspapers. Thus, in his 'Courrier de Paris' of 19 November 1870, he explained in detail the changes forced upon the city by the siege. He believed that it was important to give an authentic and sincere representation of the city so that historians could trace its physiognomy later. The main topic of that particular column was the contrast between Parisian day and night life: days were full of activities as if nothing had happened, but at dinner time, the streets emptied and the 'arcades and boulevards, usually so lively at such a time, became sepulchral.' Part of life in Paris was, of course, the new 'gourmet' food sold in most butchers' shops (figure 16). Cats, dogs, and rats were on the menu of the best restaurants, Veron remarked on a light tone, which contrasted with that of Leon Creil's 'Dog Butchery' in the Illustration of 24 December 1870. Creil analysed the problems raised by the arrival of the late 'delicacies' sold by the butchers during the siege of Paris, explaining that the sale of horses as meat for consumption was well regulated, as they were inspected by a bureau especially opened for that purpose. However, the sale of cats and dogs (he did not even mention rats), newly arrived on the market because of a shortage of horses, was submitted to no such sanitary control. People found the animals on the street or in the city sewage system, and then brought them to the butchers who killed them, skinned them, and sold them.45 In fact, the huge increase in the ratio of deaths, registered during the month of the bombardment

16 Cats, dogs, and rats sold in butchers' shops during the siege of Paris, Monde illustre, no. 712, p. 80.

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of Paris, coincided with the coming of cats, dogs, and rats to the market. In a short article entitled 'Mortality in Paris during the Siege' and published on 11 March 1871, the Illustration revealed the rate of mortality during the period from 18 September 1870 until 25 February 1871: 64,154 deaths compared with 21,978 during the same period the preceding year. The deaths were said to be due to bombardment, starvation, and cold, but some, I believe, could safely be attributed to food poisoning. This high rate of death was obviously not prevented by the seemingly good system of ambulances developed at the beginning of the war, as ambulance activities were limited to military casualties. One of the best ambulance services was that organized by the press. In 'La souscription patriotique de la presse: Medaille commemorative,' Cozic explained the role of the press during the war.46 The press, he said, had not shied from its duties and, at the beginning of the war, launched 'an appeal for capital to organize the Ambulances de la presse which, until now, have been so tremendously helpful that the government has just annexed its establishments to the War Ministry. This is in remembrance of the fact that the press participation in this terrible war was so great that a medal was awarded to the press in general, to stress its two roles: the press has fought with words, and has supported our soldiers by its humanitarian initiative/ There was plenty of material to be analysed on this particular issue since there were different types of ambulances, mobile and stationary, supported by various groups. While those organized by the press and the Christian brothers were mobile, going to the front to care for the wounded and take care of the dead, stationary ones were opened in different places in Paris, such as the Comedie Frangaise and some churches. These were abundantly represented in engravings, especially those published in French papers (figure 17). Analyses of the war are part of the culture of defeat, Schivelbusch argues, as they are a first step towards the healing of the wounds caused by a defeat, followed by the national revival.47 In his 'Passe, present, futur/ published on 4 February 1871, Cozic analysed the past mistakes which led to the bitter French defeat, mistakes that had to be avoided in the future. France accumulated fault alter fault, he said; its behaviour was based on vain delusions: 'But should we despair of France? M. Louis Blanc said that one of the greatest minds of England, John Stuart Mill, told him, referring to France: "If this light should be allowed to be extinguished, the world would sink back in darkness." The Prussian triumph takes nothing away of what is true in these appeasing words ... We have given too much importance to our material power and

17 Stationary ambulance at the Theatre Francois, Paris, Univers illustre, no. 833, p. 721.

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neglected too much our moral power.' Again, England, through its intellectuals, came to the rescue of France to boost its spirit. It is most interesting that the Perfide Albion, with whom France had been at war fo so long, starting with the English invasion in 1430, suddenly became its ally. However, the English papers' support of France seemingly brought some discomfort to Queen Victoria who, while she claimed her neutrality in the war, had nevertheless immediately recognized the legitimacy of the new German empire and of its emperor, and just as promptly refused to recognize the French government of 4 September 1870. Yet, if vanquished France found comfort in the magnitude of its superior national character, this was partly because it despised the character of its triumphant enemy, Prussia. Neither the Illustration nor the Monde illustre was short of epithets to vilify the behaviour of the Prussian army, or of examples to illustrate its barbarism.48 Once more using the words of strangers, in the sense defined by Georg Simmel,49 Henri Vigne, in his Tolitique etrangere/ published in the Monde illustre of 11 February 1871, quoted papers from Russia, Hungary, Austria, England, and even Germany, which had admired the French resistance; they all criticized the Prussian administration for the extreme conditions imposed on France while suing for a permanent armistice. Much later, Cosic explained that the Moniteur - a daily paper created by Bismarck to compete with the interpretation of the war published in French newspapers - strongly denigrated the members of the French national government and denied that Jules Fabre had gone to Versailles to negotiate a peace agreement, as had been published in the Illustration.50 Cosic wonders why Bismarck took every opportunity to humiliate the French instead of having the civility to recognize the just honour that was due to the French soldiers: 'Opinion, yours and ours, will say that you are strong, but that you are not great!'51 The Illustration began the year 1871 with Auguste Marc's Tolitique etrangere,' which gently blamed the United States for not helping the French during the war, despite the fact that France had not hesitated to help the Americans during the War of Independence in 1762-4.52 It would have been a fair gesture if the United States had come into the Franco-Prussian War to stop the bloodshed, he claimed. Still, Marc acknowledged that many reasons opposed this kind of intervention, and the most powerful is probably the extensive German immigration to the United States. Germans have invaded the American land, and they have acquired consider-

Feeding Memories 133 able weight in public affairs; in changing fatherlands, the immigrants keep sentimental ties with their old country and remain profoundly German. However, while profound, this anti-French sentiment exists only in a part of America, and the American debt towards France still exists. It would have been dignified and great to acquit it. In his 'Courrier de Paris/ the Illustration of 4 March 1871, Henri Cozic also blamed European countries for having abandoned France when it needed them so much. French newspapers' recriminations against European countries, particularly England, were numerous and varied, so much so that the Illustrated London News and the Illustrated Times saw a need to justify their position and that of their country. France knows but little of what is felt or what is written about her by friends or foes, but when the struggle is over, and it has an opportunity to study its history though [sic] the eyes of those who watched it, France will have small cause to complain of the attitude of Englishmen. They did not look at the opening of the war with abhorrence, nor did they regret that the invasion of Germany was repelled, and that chastisement fell upon the authors of the strife. But as soon as victory has fallen to those who deserved it, and castigation assumed the form of retaliation, Englishmen, though they could not say that the Germans had no right to revenge, could feel nothing but sorrow at the prolongation of the war.53 These denials from London did not convince the Parisian periodicals, which were already engaged in the process of reconstructing the French national identity. Using the conditions expected to be imposed by the barbarous Prussia for accepting peace, Cozic's words and tone addressed the issue directly: This week will be, in history, the Calvary of France. The great saviour of all people has suffered in every way; raillery, betrayal, abandonment, flagellation, and capital punishment. The nations that it built have scoffed at her. The world which it enlightens has disavowed her. Europe, whose hope she is, has abandoned her. Prussia, which dares call her 'an ungodly land' tears away from her (or extorts) the fatherland of Kleber and Joan of Arc. The insatiable avidity of the German meurt-la-faim pressured her to bring five billion [francs].

134 Images at War And when the outcry of consciousness and justice rises to say: 'Enough! the intractable victor enters Paris to offer its victim gall at the peak of the spear.' Well! As for the torment of the Just, one can also say that the torment of our dear fatherland helps France to go from darkness to heaven, for, following a word of truth coming from over the Atlantic, all that lower France bows humanity's head (italics in the original).54

This long laudatory complaint is part of the vanquishers short euphoric road to recovery, a process well discussed by Schivelbusch.55 Part of that road is also the denigration of the enemy, which the French papers did repeatedly and with relish. This complaint was provoked by the triumphal entry of the Prussians into Paris after the signature of the Traite de Versailles. Another self-flattering article entitled 'I/entree des Prussiens a Paris/ published in the Illustration on 4 March 1871 and signed P.P. (for Pierre Paget), though less pompous than Cozic's, first reproduced a proclamation from Thiers (then the elected president of the new republic), asking the population to remain calm during the Prussian sojourn in Paris, and then analysed the Parisians' reaction to that additional outrage, a discourse, once more, which called for national unity and identity: This call for the population's patriotism was heard and the inhabitants remained united and calm. Note that the language used by the newspapers greatly contributed to that unity. The attitude of the Parisian press, during the sojourn of the Prussians in Paris, was dignified without boasting, firm without being ostentatious. And note this remarkable fact: a unanimous sentiment dictated a patriotic protestation from all newspapers. They stopped publishing (from 1 to 3 March) ... Access to the places occupied by the Prussians was not forbidden, but the population, almost in its entirety, has decided not to use that freedom of circulation.

Here we see an interesting digression. Indeed, the engravings published in the French illustrated periodicals on 4 March 1871 showed empty streets, while those produced by the English papers represented the streets filled with curious Parisians. Since most engravings are social constructions of reality, one may infer that this reality had been culturally and politically different for French and English newspapers. As for the Illustrirte Zeitung, its approach on this topic was closer to the

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English papers, showing a crowd of people watching the German army coming into Paris. This was hardly surprising. The road to recovery took a different turn for the Monde illustre. One common element with its competitor, however, was discrediting the Prussians. In a long article entitled 'Nos bons Allemands/ already published in the daily Liberte, the paper used irony to explain how the Prussians, educated bourgeois, ministers, professors, etc., before the war, had turned into undisciplined barbarians during the conflict. 'Even their wives and their young daughters become again, as in the time of the Cimbres, some bloodthirsty furies.'56 To be sure, the German character diverged greatly from, if indeed it was not opposed to, that of the French. So it is no surprise that there should be some confrontation at that level. The Prussians were also said, by Yriarte in the 'Courrier de Paris' of 21 January 1871, to be cowardly. 'In our misfortunes, we were hoping for a hand-to-hand fight, but they preferred to bombard us from afar, and destroy our homes housing our women, old people and children/ Still, there was more to come. In his 'Bulletin de la guerre' in the Monde illustre of 29 November 1870, Maxime Vauvert explained that Bismarck had refused, for the last twenty-five days, to let any food cross the borders, which were guarded by the Prussians who pretended that it was coming from a territory they occupied and that they needed it. Vauvert argued that this excuse did not hold upon close examination, since the food came from the provinces, not from the suburbs, and could easily have been brought to Paris had the Prussians decided to do so. However, what the journalist's analysis did not reveal was that starving Paris to accelerate its capitulation was part of Bismarck's strategies. The same was true for firewood. In his 'Bulletin' of 7 January 1871, Vauvert brought up this issue, explaining how the particularly cold 1870-1 winter had provoked a shortage of wood. To manage this difficult situation, the government had authorized the cutting of some trees in Paris parks. Vauvert then began to worry that Paris would not have any parks left after the war. The Illustrirte Zeitung did not allude to the Parisians' misery, but concentrated on the bombardment of Paris in four 'Chronicles of the War' on 7, 14, 21, and 28 January 1871, which used a descriptive style to stress the superiority of the German army. As for the armistice, two 'Chronicles of the War' were used to discuss it, on 4 and 11 February 1871. The author explained that the German victory was 'a reward for

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the patriotism and courage' of the soldiers. Interestingly, the surrender was justified in military terms, as being the consequence of the superiority of the German army over the French army; this explanation was contrary to that in most other papers, except for the Illustrated London News, which explained the surrender of Paris in terms of ending the suffering and starvation of its inhabitants. Using a rather arrogant tone, the German paper compared the superiority of German culture based on discipline and courage to the depravity and decadence shown by French people in general and soldiers in particular. These contrasts, between the German and French interpretations of military events, confirm the ideological and also financial necessity to be discriminatory when feeding readers' memories. It is, however, worth noting at this point that the Illustrirte Zeitung was also feeding the Univers illustre's readers' memories, as the two papers closely collaborated, at least before and after the war.57 The analyses published in the periodicals, though not always accurate or far-sighted, showed not only divergent positions according to each paper, but also that for the French, it was an essential part of a process which would help them to get over the bitter defeat that the Germans had inflicted on their country. This process was not limited to the illustrated newspapers. A Post-Mortem of Some Participants To what extent do the recollections of the participants and the works of the historians coincide with the information published by the papers at the time? Did the periodicals report what was really happening on the front line? Were they as objective as they claimed? Could they analyse the situation in a way that truly informed their readers? Many books and works of all kinds have been published on the Franco-Prussian War, and it is impossible to review them all. Thus, the criterium that guided my choice was that there be a fair representation of all the various participants in the event. Lecaillon's book, which reproduces letters to families and friends, as well as personal diaries written by members of the French troops, is a good place to begin to look at the representation of the war from 'below,' and more particularly from those at the centre of the action.58 To do that, Lecaillon chose 101 letters, half of them written by lieutenants and captains and half by soldiers and noncommissioned officers. This book provides a new angle to our understanding of the war, based not on a tone of consola-

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tion or words of flattery or praise, so often used by the illustrated papers of the time to keep the French population in a delusion of grandeur, but on the feelings of some of the participants in the war. Testimonies reproduced in the book invalidate in many ways the statements published in newspapers - at least the French ones. Lecaillon summarizes the grievances of those who actively participated in the war: complaints about the badly prepared French army with its weak military logistics that ill prepared the troops for a 'modern war'; the incapacity of the military authorities to impose their discipline and decisions on troops frightened by the spectacle of a butchery even worse than that they had known during the Crimean War; the great superiority of the Germans in artillery and tactics so that they could avoid hand-to-hand combat, which was the strength of the French soldiers; the poor discipline of the French troops, brave and proud but not always patriotic or dignified; and finally the soldiers' rapid exhaustion after the first errors committed by the military authorities and the disorders that followed and from which they never really recovered. In short, there was a general feeling of a complete loss of control. While a few of these points were covered, especially by the English periodicals, most of them were not spoken of, or else unnoticed. Jules Claretie constituted a kind of bridge between historians and participants. Indeed, journalist, writer, historian, and member of the Academic franqaise from 1888, he was the art critic for the Illustration when the war began, but gave it up in July 1870 to become a journalistsoldier, visiting different battlefields in France. He kept a diary from 9 September 1870 until the end of January 1871 and sent articles to newspapers, including the Illustration. From his observations, Claretie published an abundantly illustrated book which was printed on cheap paper to lower the price and make it available to those with modest incomes.59 Thus available to the largest possible readership, his work became a republican national monument, a lieu de memoire, part of the popular history of France. Referring to the 1870 war, Claretie said: This is the history of the sad awakening of a nation which believed that she had the world in her hands and realized, one morning, that it was only ashes ... It is also the efforts, the struggle, the desperate resistance of a people whose distressing, and often glorious outcomes I want to retrace.'60 The book begins with the sinister adventure of France in Mexico in 1863 and finishes after Bazaine's trial and the accession, in 1873, of MacMahon to the presidency of the French republic. Claretie, anti-

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imperialist and prorepublican, was also anti-Prussian, not because of nationalism - a position adopted in several works written either by conservative, republican, or imperialist authors - but on principle and from abhorrence of the nature of the acts committed by the enemy during the war. The book covers four themes: the Saarbrucken victory, the battle of Sedan, the siege of Paris, and the march of the Prussians into Paris. Claretie asserts that Saarbriicken was a rather insignificant battle whose only importance was to boost the soldiers' spirit and their will to fight, and especially to give Napoleon III a victory to offer his people. In order to decrease their anxiety, he maintained, the emperor boosted the importance of the victory to the point of ridiculing the French army, which was used to winning real battles.61 The author, here, validates the point of view of more than one English periodical that minimized the importance of Saarbriicken. Still, historians seem to disagree on the importance of that French victory. While Roth maintains that 'it took the articles in the foreign newspapers to bring the "victory of Sarrebruck [sic]" back to its true dimension, namely, a simple skirmish without any military consequence,' Becker and Audouin-Rouze argue that, though Saarbriicken was a small victory, it was an important one because it was a strong moment of mobilization of national energies.62 Though, as we saw earlier, French periodicals knew that this victory was insignificant in itself, none of them dared to mention it at the time of its occurrence. The idea was to boost the spirit of the French soldiers and the people, and it seemingly worked. Indeed, the day after this victory, the French periodicals' tone suggested that French people were united against the Prussians, whatever their class, their political allegiance, or the region from which they came. Yet, according to Roth, only people living in the cities were aware of the seriousness of the situation, and 'only a minority of this minority were favourable to the war.'63 The battle and capitulation of Sedan, called a providential defeat by some because it brought the fall of the empire, was an unavoidable theme, and Claretie used it to contrive a harsh critique of the role of Napoleon III. This critique, in retrospect, is close to that written by Maxime Vauvert in the Monde illustre, the competitor of the Illustration in which Claretie published his observations: The battle was lost, but we could still save the honour. Yes, Napoleon [meaning Napoleon III here] could follow the poor and desperate advice of Wimpffen and rally around him the last soldiers and, marching on Bazeilles, open a passage towards Carignan, or die in fighting a last battle. Heroic

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destiny did not tempt this crowned impostor ... He gave up ... He appeared cold, resigned, impassive, and pitiable. The response that he gave to General Wimpffen's advice was the white flag of capitulation, the torchon, as the old soldiers said.'64 The soldiers of the imperial guard were furious, according to Claretie, and immediately started to cut off their mustaches and break their sabres. Many historians assert that Sedan provoked the immediate crumbling of the neo-Napoleonian imaginary and the brutal delegitimizing of the empire.65 Even the Germans thought so. Indeed, Claretie, sent to Germany in September 1871 by the daily L'Evenement for the meeting reuniting the emperors of Russia, Austria, and Germany, wrote an article in which he said: The German opinion is that, as the historian Kinglake said, this is a "passing thing called imperial France" which they defeated. This is the disorganization of the empire which was revealed by the Prussian organization/66 There were a few revolutionary reactions, especially in Paris and Marseilles, but the general state of mind was despondency and dejection. Yet, according to these historians, this pessimistic state did not last because the formation of the Government of National Defence exorcised the military defeat and gave some hope to people even after the beginning of the siege. The siege of Paris was undoubtedly the second big event of the war, after the capitulation of Sedan, though, at the beginning, none knew that it would last so long and would be so costly in terms of the number of deaths and the destruction of institutions and buildings. In fact, according to Claretie, the French people, rather optimistic, were convinced that Paris could not be surrounded: such a big city, how could the Prussians lock them in? However, soon enough, the city was completely transformed: 'Nothing remained of the old habits but the public meetings and the newspapers.'67 Even then, the government forbade the criers to announce news of victories that did not exist, because the French, incensed by this dupery, were inclined to manifest their anger rather noisily. During the whole siege, 'the sorrow was deep,' but nothing in comparison with the news of the denouement, the fall of Paris, which, Claretie contended, was what provoked the Commune.68 The siege of Paris was a very important event in the 1870 war, and in the history of France, for that matter; however, it has been erased from the French national memory, including many history books, by the remembrance of the First World War. The suffering did not end with the end of the siege. The march of the Prussian army into Paris, after

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they had forcibly appropriated the provinces of Alsace and part of Lorraine - immediately installing a government of their own after their victory - and their demand for eight billions francs in reparation,69 were traumatic events for Parisians. Though some people, as Claretie states, were 'carried away by an unhealthy curiosity' and went out to look at the Prussians' arrival in the afternoon of 1 March 1871, in the evening, 'Paris took on the prodigious and strange aspect of a sleeping city. No lights, very few pedestrians, no omnibuses, no carriages ... a lugubrious silence landed on the capital. The long lines of boulevards, black and dark, mourned the city. Paris was superb in its suffering.'70 The process of consolation still continued into 1873 as the tone and nationalistic feelings revealed in Claretie's book show; the culture of defeat did not come to an end with the recovery of glorious France. According to Becker and Audouin-Rouzeau, despite the trauma of the fall of Paris and Gambetta's call to pursue the war, most Parisians, and the French people in general, were relieved to have the armistice signed, though there was a mixture of complex feelings arising from the conflict between the desire for peace and the realization of the price to pay for it.71 The elections of 8 February 1871 confirmed this interpretation since, except for Paris which voted for the left and the continuation of the war, there was a huge majority for the very conservative Thiers government, so much so that the left accused them of preparing for an Orleanist restoration.72 According to Zola, this election resulted in a split vote between Paris and the provinces, which manifested itself in the parliament of Bordeaux, where the assembly had moved before the siege.73 The press had an important role to play in the 1870 war, but a role which was later considered detrimental to the French army, as some papers were accused of publishing military information which helped the Prussians. According to Dupuy, on 19 July 1870 the newspaper La Liberte published the detailed strategy which had been developed by the French army to vanquish the Prussians.74 He maintains that the newspapers from foreign countries, especially the Belgian dailies, were in rivalry with the French in printing articles informing the Prussians of the military movements of France. Claiming they wanted to offer good information to their readers, they regularly crossed the French frontiers to gather intelligence which was profitable to the Prussians. This analysis, however, should be taken with a grain of salt. As we saw earlier, the Prussians had a very good system of communication and transportation. Therefore, the news published in French and/or

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English or Belgian papers might easily have been available to the Prussians beforehand. The news published by foreign papers might even have come indirectly from Bismarck who knew how to use, if not manipulate, the press. Actually, Roth asserts that though the newspapers had, after the fall of the empire, total freedom to publish whatever they wanted during the siege of Paris, the foreign journalists were 'submitted to Bismarck's, or his staff's, intoxicating attempts at disinformation/75 Moreover, 'Prussians sent some news to the Parisians, mostly to manipulate and demoralize them.'76 Post-War Effects Some of the consequences of the war had long-term effects, especially in the artistic domain. Two main literary approaches came out of the conflict. The naturalist approach was first seen in March 1880, with the publication of Les soirees de Medan, a collection of six short stories, now considered as the true symbol of naturalism in French literature.77 The publication had a scandalous success as, in the nationalistic universe of consolation which developed in the culture of defeat following the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, it was a brutal disclosure of what had been repressed. The brothers Jules and Emile Goncourt and Emile Zola were the main figures who supported the emergence of this literary movement, which wanted to go farther than the realism dear to Gustave Flaubert. Naturalism was in reaction to a literature which, until then, privileged the expression of interior life, in a direct line with romanticism, and which used bourgeois heroes and heroines. The young authors adopting the new style - most of them soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War - found their inspiration in the way the war was happening and in the series of inglorious defeats. The most famous of the six short stories was undoubtedly 'Boule de suif' by Maupassant. Still, all their works had a common point: the absurdity of a war where the French, too confident, were surprised, ill prepared, and rapidly and successively defeated. They offered caustic visions of French frivolity, and ridiculed the excess of glory in response to the few insignificant victories at the beginning of hostilities, as well as the depression following the defeats, the general disorganization, illnesses, occupations, and immediate cowardice in the face of the occupying enemy. Les soi rees de Medan provided a unique enlightenment, being at the same time objective by the naturalist rules, and subjective by the specific point of view of each writer concerning the current events. In fact, naturalism

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went against the culture of defeat by denouncing idealized interpretations of the war in particular, and of French society in general, but at the same time participated in it, for the authors who took this new approach eventually contributed to the glory of France through their lasting international fame. Another important literary approach was developed following the war by Leon Bloy. In Le Desespere, published in 1886, Bloy developed what some called a surnaturalist approach, which, contrary to the naturalist movement, proposed an eschatologic reading of the 1870-1 events, seeking in the atrocious a kind of sublime.78 However, for all that, he also concentrated on the 'little' people. In 1893 Bloy published Sueur de sang (1870-1871), which included illustrations on the theme of war. The book was dedicated to Francois Achille Bazaine, the French general accused of cowardice and lack of patriotism, whom Bloy saw as a bouc-emissaire. The book, made up of thirty short stories, described ordinary actors in a savaged world, in a way that was at the same time dreamlike, grotesque, and sublime in a metaphysical manner. It was a style radically opposed to that of the naturalists, an approach where human evil was confronted by apocalyptic divine justice. Dupuy asserts that many of the works inspired by the FrancoPrussian War were immediately raised to the height of a Hugolian epic. This, he argues, was encouraged by the texts of newspaper articles which systematically exasperated the public by writing of About and Sarcey; one could add Claretie and Vauvert, who knew the value of words, as well as poorer quality writings: 'Much before artistic domains such as Poetry, Theatre, Novel, Nouvelle, popular and even school Literature got hold of the elating and profitable themes of a "sacred" patriotism, until then unknown, and a "necessary" Revenge, the Newspaper had already created the psychological conditions for their success. Most authors of popular narratives inspired by the events of 1870-1, which abounded during the following fifteen years or so, borrowed their topics, from the general story to the smallest details, from the events reported by the periodicals of the time.'79 The events remembered by these works were the most striking ones, such as the capitulation of Sedan and the siege of Paris. Nonetheless, this war was a cruel one, with an incredible number of deaths among the armies on both sides, and among civilians during the siege; the suffering and atrocious conditions in which it happened triggered the imagination. True, the Crimean War had known a terrible number of deaths in the armies, but that war was much longer and the largest

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portion of fataliti was due to illness exacerbated by bad ambulance service and cold weather.80 Further, although the First World War saw more deaths than ever before, it must be remembered that it lasted four years and involved more than two countries with larger populations. In fact, in terms of proportional ratio, the Franco-Prussian War was the most murderous of them all in terms of soldiers dying on the battlefields. So it is scarcely surprising that these themes would have been appropriated by various artistic domains. It is not too astonishing either that this war was abundantly illustrated by engravings representing various scenes of battles, often very gruesomely, as we will see in the following chapters. Makers of National Memories Feeding memories in nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals was thus a complex process based on various strategies. While the content of the periodicals shows that each of the papers attempted to give news of the war that was as accurate as possible, it also suggests that each paper's position was based on economic incentives: the papers had to be sold to their targeted readership. Therefore, the periodicals' interventions were influenced by their position as capitalist makers of national memories. Yet, the content was also affected by their ideology and culture, and changed according to the turns of events. This was most noticeable in the French papers, which went clearly from a nationalism of consolation to one of glory. Still, while one expects nationalistic feelings to be much stronger in papers published in the countries at war, the 1870 war seems to have been a good excuse for periodicals coming from other countries to boost their readers' national memories. This was the case particularly for the Illustrated London News, and to a lesser degree, the Illustrated Times. However, the papers' stances resulted from an even more complex process. As we saw in the previous chapter, papers with limited financial means often 'fed' on other, better provided for, periodicals, and this produced a definite hierarchy in the production of the news that fed memories. Can capitalists' strategies to feed readers' memories be associated with making history? Some papers could make such a claim, perhaps. For instance, retrospective analytical articles of, or editorials discussing, some events were based on a thoughtful and serious examination of these events, taking into consideration additional elements that were not available at the time they occurred. This type of article gave

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the opportunity to come back to an issue to either reinforce the original position or to change an opinion, explaining in detail the reversal. Such texts may have given the papers, and their editors, some credibility as 'historians' at the time. The next chapter examines how illustrations were used for such purposes.

CHAPTER FIVE

Preparing for War Coverage

Illustrated periodicals were rather slow to respond to France's declaration of war on Prussia. Except in Germany, where periodicals had full confidence in their military forces, everyone thought that the French army had such superiority over the Prussians that the war would be short and of no consequence. All the French papers were enthusiastic about the coming of the war, actually taking it lightly, and they all approved of the action taken by their government. Only some English and American papers were more or less sceptical about the outcome. As for the Canadian papers, they expressed concern about the fact that war could be declared for such a trivial reason, asserting that war was the most extreme means of resolving a conflict of opinion, to be used only after everything else had been attempted, which they did not think was the case here. Taking Positions The preceding chapter looked at the general strategies adopted by the various illustrated periodicals to cover the 1870 war; this chapter and the next one examine more closely the picturing of some specific events. Only by focusing on the numerous engravings published during the war by each paper will it be possible to know whether the rather divergent initial positions of the illustrated periodicals on this war were in accordance with the politics and ideological stands revealed in their declarations of intention. Were their positions expressed in illustrations also based on nationalistic elements? Were the divergences generally occurring among papers published in one country reinforced in the illustrated content? Finally, were the initial posi-

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tions of each paper maintained during the whole conflict? Or were there some events that forced some of them to modify their approach to war coverage? French Periodicals

While it is no surprise that all five French papers openly took the French side, it is somewhat astonishing that none represented the portion of the French population that was against the war (anti-war demonstrations occurred in Paris).1 The Illustration was the most straightforward about its support for the war, despite the fact that it was the most republican of all. On 16 July 1870, an article signed by Henri Cozic and entitled 'Le prince Leopold de Hohenzollern' expressed what was supposed to be the indignation of the whole French people: The secret intrigue of his [Prince Leopold's] candidature to the throne of Spain has been, for us, a humiliation which Prussia believed we would accept, as [we did] many other outrages. But the cup is full and France is not inclined to let a network of Prussian sentries establish a guard on all the borders/ The Monde illusive was less candid but more definite about the support of the French people. Though their statement began by asserting that none wanted a war, it claimed that because of the 'hard, but inflexible necessity of the present times, the war against Prussia is supported by all good French people; it is eminently popular.'2 Its patriotic tone, as well as that of the Univers illustre, was enhanced by the fact that neither of them illustrated the demonstrations against the war, while they did represent those in favour of the war. With sixteen pages each, they were not short of space to represent both sides of public opinion. This, however, cannot be said of the eight-page paper, which would have had to have been more discriminatory because of shortness of space in which to display the engravings that it chose to publish. The Presse illustree was more nuanced. The tone of a front page article, published on 23 July 1870 and entitled 'La Marseillaise/ was highly patriotic, stressing the soldiers' determination to defeat Prussia: 'Let the blood of our most knavish and insolent enemy soak the fields which they dare trample/ Just the same, on the following page, a letter was reproduced which was written by a soldier who complained that he would have been better not to get any education since it was of no use in the army where he had to live in miserable conditions, even sinking to robbing poor peasants. The Journal illustre was the least

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enthusiastic of all towards the war, limiting its involvement to praising the patriotism of the Parisians and to acknowledging that, henceforth, the content of the paper would be almost all dedicated to the war. So most of these papers started their war coverage with rather strong statements. How were they going to proceed to meet their readers' expectations? While all French papers were more or less unanimous in supporting the war, the means they took to cover the conflict were divergent. Among all French papers, the Illustration was the most explicit in its descriptions of the strategies that it was going to adopt to feed its readers visual and written information. In an editorial entitled 'A nos lecteurs/ published on 23 July 1870, the editor established clearly that, since the Illustration was 'the only political illustrated newspaper ... [it] alone [had] the right to cover all the issues, all the events [related to the war], and give a complete account,' thus establishing itself, among all the French illustrated periodicals, as the only legitimate provider of war news. How was it going to meet this huge self-inflicted responsibility? Wars had been covered by other papers in France and in other countries, including the Crimean War (1854-6), the Italian war (1859), and the wars of Prussia against Denmark (1864) and Austria (1866). But this one, according to the Illustration, was different as it involved the 'two leading military nations of the world ... [and] the use of means of destruction unknown until now gives to that gigantic duo a character that one would vainly search for in the preceding history of wars. To give a faithful representation of that particular character and more depth to these new aspects of the present war is the aim of the Illustration, a goal that more than any other publication, this paper is capable of reaching.' Thus, the Illustration intended to focus on the novel aspect of this particular war. To do that, it would send correspondents and draughtsmen to all the important sites of the conflict. These people were going to accompany various regiments on both sides of the conflict to get authentic and rapid information and faithful representations of the facts. Maps and plans would be provided in order for the readers to be able to follow the troops' movements and military operations.3 The Monde illustre completely ignored the Illustration's aggressive declaration of exclusivity over war reporting, thus continuing, as it had done in its initial editorial, to disregard this competitor. With a circulation twice that of the Illustration, the Monde illustre could afford such an attitude. In 'La guerre' and 'Le bulletin de la guerre' published

148 Images at War on 23 July 1870, the editor explained in detail the strategy adopted to cover the various events of the conflict.4 He also planned to send reporters and special artists to various battlefields.5 In the 'Courrier de Paris' of 13 August 1870, Pierre Veron asserted: 'Usually, this paper scrupulously avoids crossing the often imperceptible borderline of politics. But today this borderline is erased by bloodshed.' The successive French defeats forced illustrated periodicals, even those usually dedicated to literary and art topics, to become political, and to increase the sources of information.6 Indeed, in the same issue, 'La guerre' informed its readers that, in addition to the regular draughtsmen Moullin, Paul de Katow, Lix, and de Berard, who had covered the war until then, the paper had added additional artists, officers in various regiments: 'We perceive the extent to which our readers, in the entire world, rely on us, and we will do everything to be worthy of the trust they put in us and to update them on our struggles and, God helping, our victories.' This, as the 'Bulletin de la guerre' reminded its readers, was necessary for a publication that wanted to participate in the making of history: 'Pen and pencil will work to give an account as complete as possible, a document which will remain in our subscribers' hands as the most serious and the most truthful.' In the same spirit, a book entitled Histoire populaire illustree de la guerre de la Prusse, was to be published as 'A True National Monument.'7 The only other periodical which mentioned something resembling a strategy of war coverage was the Journal illustre. In his 'Chronique parisienne,' the editor asserted: This is it! Until the end of the war, no more twaddle and babble which have often been part of this column.' However, as we already know, the paper stopped publishing on 30 October 1870. When it resumed on 6 August 1871, the only comment was that the Journal had known a huge success prior to its interruption and was therefore adopting the same formula. The Univers illustre did not elaborate on its strategy of war coverage either and, though it did not interrupt publication during the war, it reduced the number of pages by half, going from sixteen to eight pages between 1 October 1870 and 1 April 1871.8 After an interruption from 8 April to 17 June 1871, the publication also resumed, informing its subscribers that a difficult situation had forced the paper to stop publishing, but that it was going to reprint some issues so that readers would have all the events pertaining to the war. Finally, the Presse illustree did not seem to have even thought of any strategy of war coverage. Perhaps the editor had decided, at the very beginning of the conflict, to take a break, which, in

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fact, occurred between 8 October 1870 and 18 March 1871. Though the text of a column signed by Edouard Hubert and entitled 'En causant: Amis lecteurs' was about the war, it was entirely concerned with the 'special menu' that the Parisians had to adopt during the siege, thereby accompanying an engraving published on the front page and entitled 'Alimentation de Paris pendant le siege.' The interruptions were mostly due first to the difficulty of getting paper, and then to getting paper cheaply enough to be affordable for a publication. The high prices of what was available during the siege created a gap between the wealthy papers, which were able to survive this scarcity, and the others, which had to shut down. English Periodicals

At the beginning of the war, all English periodicals claimed that they were adopting a neutral position, matching Queen Victoria's stance. This policy did not last long, though some papers made an obvious effort to be fair to both camps. By early August the position of each paper was clearly established, at least until unexpected events made them revise their opinions. While the Illustrated London News took every opportunity to use sarcasm against the French and praise for the Prussians, the approach of the Illustrated Times was milder, and that of the Graphic more nuanced. Though both disapproved of France's declaration of war against Prussia for a reason that 'had already been removed,'9 the successive French defeats, and particularly Napoleon Ill's surrender in Sedan, forced both publications to revise their initial proPrussian position. However, the Illustrated London News never showed any inclination to do so. On 27 August, an article entitled 'Foreign and Colonial News, Paris Aug. 25,' was published in that paper; it discussed the formation of new regiments for the defence of Paris, which seemed in danger: 'But Paris, which is more than France, is pronounced to be in danger; and the capital is literally crowded with improvised defenders of the national soil, in novel and more or less bizarre uniforms, who, for the most part, occupy themselves in strutting about the streets or lounging outside the wine-shops and cafes, evidently proud enough of their warlike plumes.' The sarcastic tone was very effective in belittling any positive aspects of the French troops. The tone of the Illustrated Times, though more moderate than that of its competitor,' had a tendency to be moralistic, especially when it

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referred to the French. On 23 July 1870, an article entitled The War' used terms such as 'madness/ 'foolishness/ and 'jealousy' to describe France's sentiments towards Prussia. In fact, the discourse of that paper was often ambivalent. For instance, in the same article, it criticized the incompetency of the French generals and the intransigency of the Prussian officers who 'consented to sacrifice a company or two of Uhlans' to misguide the French troops. At the same time, it praised the French dragoon who 'is well up to his work; alert, active, and yet formidable in a charge, useless as his dash and energy have proved against the masses of German infantry armed with the needle-gun. The llth Regiment, a detachment of which is represented in our Engraving, has done hard service during the war, and is among the crack corps of the Imperial army.' Though some articles were very critical of the French soldiers, pointing at their nonchalance and lack of discipline, others spoke highly of their courage and endurance in battle. The paper did not seem to have a general approach guiding its war coverage of each camp, evident in other publications. Some reports sometimes contradicted each other, so that the readers might have been at a loss as to how to form an opinion on the issue. The Graphic and the Penny Illustrated Paper had the most neutral approaches to their war coverage, at least at the beginning of the conflict. The Penny Illustrated Paper's articles were more descriptive than critical, in an obvious attempt at not taking sides. It was somewhat successful, at least in its written discourse, if not in its illustrations. The discourse carefully used a matter-of-fact tone that prevented any clue as to which camp the paper was siding with. When dealing with touchy issues, such as the Prussians' inclination to drink, the author would use a humorous rather than a sarcastic tone, as this passage from the Graphic's 'Chronicle' of 3 September 1870, shows: 'If the German army in its march on Paris has occasionally gone short of sausages, it is probable that no army was ever before enabled to indulge in so much drinking of champagne ... every requisition has demanded extravagant quantities of this exhilarating fluid, and there is no reason to doubt that there has also been a considerable private consumption; we can only hope that it has always been paid for, at the strict rates of exchange.' Moreover, unlike the Illustrated Times and the Illustrated London News, the Graphic, when critical of the French emperor, did not use a moralistic or humiliating tone. The author of the 'Chronicle' just explained that the Napoleonic system was to be blamed for the French defeats.

Preparing for War Coverage 151 At the beginning of the war, with the exception of the Penny Illustrated Paper, which published more pictures from the Prussian side than the French, the illustrations in each of the papers, even in the Illustrated London News, which was so obviously pro-Prussian, mainly showed the activities of the French camp. It is even more intriguing that none of them outlined their policy on war coverage, all of them affecting neutrality. So, then, what was the cause of that early unbalanced coverage? The artists' lack of experience? Many had covered other wars. The belief that France would easily win? Perhaps, but the explanation is more likely to be found in the fact that, at the beginning of the war, France was quite accessible to reporters from all countries, while access to Prussian information was well controlled by Bismarck. This began to change as the Prussian army started to win important battles; the balance in the number of engravings representing each side was re-established as the Prussians, growing more confident, slowly provided access to their information while the French gradually closed theirs. Canadian Periodicals The Canadian Illustrated News and the Opinion publique did not begin to show interest in the Franco-Prussian War before the end of July 1870.10 There was more than one good reason for this. First, Canada had no shortage of its own war news. Expansion in Western Canada had triggered what is now called the Red River Rebellion, led by Metis leader Louis Riel; the rebellion occupied much space in the papers' texts and engravings. Riel had seized Fort Garry and proclaimed his provisional government on 30 April 1870, and Canadian troops were soon dispatched to the Red River. On 18 June, Desbarats, the papers' founder and one of their owner-editors, dispatched an artist to the Red River, who sent vivid drawings of the rebellion activities in situ. Almost at the same time, the Franco-Prussian War began in Europe, and the owners un-doubtedly lacked the financial means to cover both conflicts. Then, an editorial published on 23 July 1870 in the Canadian Illustrated News announced that, contrary to what the European papers had initially believed, it was presumed that the war would be lengthy, bloody, and fruitless, which gave both papers enough time to cover the most interesting parts of the conflict. Sending a special artist to cover a war in Europe was expensive, and it had to be worth it. Having no artist in France, the editors had to buy illustrations from other papers. At

152 Images at War the time, it took at least three weeks to cross the sea. So the 'current' events had to wait to be illustrated. This delay no doubt explains why coverage of the Franco-Prussian War in the two Canadian papers was largely limited to articles and columns. According to Sutherland, the Canadian Illustrated News covered the European war 'by raiding the pages of British and continental magazines.'11 This became obvious to me when I looked at the content of the two periodicals. Both made many references to English, French, and even German papers. Still, the editor of each paper had his own opinion on some issues. In fact, very few texts were reproduced exactly, and when they were, it was only portions of articles already published in the European papers. The editor of the Canadian Illustrated News expressed a divergent opinion on 19 November 1870 in an article called The War Complications.' He lamented the current state of civilization and asserted that there was not 'much chance for human progress in the way of national development' if international policy was based on a system of warfare. Following that, Canada was praised for its progress, in contrast with France with its preference for war. Though the general tone of the discourse seemed to incline this publication towards support for Prussia, on 10 September, in an article called The Battle before Metz on the 14th ULT,'12 the author gleefully recounted the French successes against the Prussians, revealing an obvious bias towards the former: The fire was so well directed, the precision so great, that each fire was positively mowing [sic] the Prussian ranks, who were fighting in a desperate way.' This assertion was the more surprising in that, though the battle was a very harsh one and there were many dead and wounded on both sides, the French were beaten, and forced to surrender. Still, the Canadian Illustrated News did not stop there in its praise for France. In the editorial of the same issue, the author qualified Napoleon III as a great leader, even though he had surrendered to King Wilhelm in Sedan. Two weeks later, the editor came back with more praise, saying that Napoleon III showed cleverness in surrendering as it would reinforce the authority of the fading imperial power, while delegitimizing the powers of the newer Republic. How he could have such reasoning is, it seems today at least, beyond comprehension. In any case, the weeks, months, and even years following the event have shown that the editor was not very clever in his evaluation of the situation. Even so, the Canadian Illustrated News, more than the Opinion publique, published contradictory articles and columns, sometimes criticizing the Prussians, other times praising them, and doing the

Preparing for War Coverage

153

same thing with the French. Perhaps their constant fluctuations were the editor's idea of remaining neutral, or more likely because there was more than one editor and they were of opposite opinions.13 Extensive coverage of the Franco-Prussian War started in the Canadian Illustrated News on 30 July 1870 with an unsigned editorial that made a clever analysis of the prewar situation. Beginning with the treaty signed between France and Prussia at the end of the Austro-Prussian War in 1868, it discussed the political games going on between Napoleon III and Bismarck. It is obvious that the author believed that the emperor was not sharp enough to cope with the Prussian politician. Bismarck, he said, gave his support to France to get what he wanted from that country, and at the same time devised a European coalition against France. The following week, the paper came back to this particular issue with an article entitled 'Franco-Prussian Diplomacy' occupying the full front page. The article asserted that the direct exchange of lies between the cabinets of Paris and Berlin revealed to the world a deeper shade of trickery than was supposed to be permissible in modern diplomacy, which it was believed should be based on serious demands and high responsibilities. In this case, both Bismarck and Napoleon made a mockery of diplomacy, and thus Europe should not have felt safe in their presence, despite the failure of their secret proposals. Bismarck double-crossed the emperor after the Austro-Prussian War, the author continued, enumerating the successive aggressions of Prussian policy - with broken alliances and false promises - as responsible for renewed animosities.14 Starting in the same week, a column called The War News' was dedicated to the Franco-Prussian War and described, and sometimes commented on, the military activities of the week - or more accurately of the week before, since, being fed by European publications, illustrated or not, the paper received its information with at least a one-week time lag on actual current events.15 Quoting in an article published on 24 September 1870, the author of an interview given by General Grant of the American army to an American journalist at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War the Canadian Illustrated News reported that the general expressed his respect for Napoleon III, whom he knew personally and asserted that the Prussian strategy was poor, 'both in terms of deployment of man power and their move to Paris.' Relying on foreign papers for information, however, had its drawbacks. Indeed, on 22 October 1870, an article lamented the fact that the information received by the paper about the siege of Paris was confusing, and even contradictory, some articles saying that Paris was

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under Prussian control, others that the city was resisting. On 17 December, The War News' attacked the Gazette, a Canadian daily, for misinforming its readers on the war, by pretending that the situation of the French army was good, while the reality was that the battles were rough and bloody. This suggests that the paper was also relying on information from Canadian dailies; this would partly explain the misinformation it published, and it also obliged the editor to rectify the situation. On 10 September 1870, after the capitulation of Napoleon III, the tone of the column changed. At that time it announced a drastic transformation for both Prussia and France, not only because of the exemperor's surrender, but also because one of the best French generals, MacMahon, was wounded in the Sedan battle. Moreover, though it was not clearly stated, this shift of opinion was also partly caused by the fact that King Wilhelm, despite having said that he was only at war with Napoleon III and that the emperor's surrender would induce Prussia to accept France's offer for peace, changed his mind and decided to march on Paris. In the following week, the Canadian Illustrated News emphasized the outrage that the French, especially the Parisians, felt when they learned about the capitulation of MacMahon and the surrender of Napoleon III. The paper sent out its message in a subtle manner, never openly taking sides, but presenting the news in a way that indirectly supported the French, particularly after the surrender. The Opinion publique was not so subtle and expressed its support for France without any ambiguity. The bombardment of several cities by the merciless Prussians, causing substantial casualties, even among civilians, was another aspect of the war that gave both papers the opportunity to strongly criticize the Germans.16 At the same time, however, the Anglophone paper was informing its readers of important victories for the French, and of crucial defeats for the Prussians, with a high rate of deaths, illness, and destructions on both sides.17 The Canadian Illustrated News, ambivalent in its stance, adopted a position close to that of the Illustrated Times, namely, a balance of praise and criticism for both camps. Nevertheless, as in the case of the London paper, this could not last very long. Indeed, on 15 October 1870, an editorial finally showed open sympathy for the French. The discourse suggested that the author had analysed the contents of European periodicals and had come to the conclusion that, despite huge losses on both sides and an offer of peace from France, the Prussian administration had decided to pursue the

Preparing for War Coverage 155 war because they wanted to enlarge their territory more than they wanted peace. The Canadian Illustrated News suggested to its readers that it was time for this war to finish, not only because the expansionist policy of the Germans was illegitimate, but also because the Garde Mobile, which was supposed to defend Paris, was ill prepared, despite the late training it had received. This brought the editor, a week later, to a long discussion of the merits and shortcomings of standing, as opposed to recruited, armies. The massacre at the village of Bazeilles, which had scandalized all of the French papers, but which had been barely noticed by the English publications, provoked outrage in the Opinion publique and the Canadian Illustrated News. Though the latter had published an article on 3 November 1870 which implied that the Prussian army had no choice but to destroy the village in the face of the inhabitants' refusal to surrender, the editorial harshly criticized Prussia for its action and accused its government of stopping at nothing to see its strategic international purpose through. In its process of political and military planning and engagements, the paper continued, Prussia had alienated and angered almost all its neighbours. Here, again, an ambivalent position emerged. By early November 1870, six weeks after the beginning of the siege of Paris, neither the Opinion publique nor the Canadian Illustrated News had mentioned it. This reveals the difficulties of covering a nineteenthcentury war, especially when relying on overseas publications. Indeed, the Parisian papers could not get out of Paris because of the complete severing of their means of communication by the Prussians, and the English and Prussian periodicals were not in a much better situation than the Canadian papers for the same reason. War coverage by both Canadian illustrated newspapers was peculiar in many ways as they were relying on competing papers.18 The articles published in both publications made a lot of noise but not much sense, in that the authors tried to put everything they knew together in the same text: the National Assembly meetings, the activities of the troops before Paris, the misery and deaths of children in poor families, and the ex-emperor's concern about the fact that France would commit its destiny to an illegitimate government. For instance, among these heterogeneous articles, the Canadian Illustrated News published one that carefully explained the process used by the Prussian army to destroy the forts on the edges of Paris so that they could more safely shell the heart of the capital. Though other papers had mentioned the impor-

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tance to the Prussians of winning these forts, none of them had paid much attention to the way they were proceeding, which suggests that the information was coming from a German paper. Another particularity of both Canadian papers was their silence on important events such as the unification of Germany and the crowning of King Wilhelm as its emperor. To be sure, since neither Canadian paper devoted all of its content to the conflict, choosing what issues to cover might have been difficult. Nevertheless, it is rather surprising that they often focused on military activities that seem rather trivial nowadays, such as the march of the Prussian army in Paris, 'in the middle of crowds of French onlookers, some shouting at them in defiance/19 Though owned by the same group, the Opinion publique's war coverage diverged from that of the Canadian Illustrated News in many ways.20 In the latter, according to the English tradition, none of the articles, columns, or engravings were signed; on the other hand, in line with the French practice, all of the important texts of the francophone paper were signed, mostly by J.A. Mousseau and L.O. David. This practice involved the authors' responsibility more closely, as we saw earlier. Moreover, the paper was quite obviously and clearly pro-French and even to some degree anti-Prussian. At the beginning of the war, the paper showed some pro-Napoleon tendencies. However, it became more critical after his surrender, like the Monde illustre in France. In fact, the position and opinions of the Opinion publique were much closer to those of the Monde illustre, a conservative paper, than that of the Illustration, which was a republican publication. Indeed, the paper was in the hands of a Catholic editorial team that made constant reference to the church and even to God's commandments. In this context, the victory of a Protestant Germany over a Catholic France was seen as a catastrophe.21 Indeed, the paper made it clear, at the very beginning of the war, that the coming of the Hohenzollerns to the throne of Spain was not only a disaster for that country, but also a menace for France, both militarily and religiously. In an article called 'Les sympathies,' published on 11 August 1870, L.O. David condemned the religious divisions which guided the Franco-Prussian War: the Latin-Catholic nations against the Celtic-Protestant. He had a romantic notion of old France as the carrier of civilization and the humanities, similar to that of some French editors, particularly in the Monde illustre. On 13 October 1870, J.A. Mousseau, in 'Les deceptions,' revisited the topic of religion. He disapproved of the fact that France, and particularly Napoleon III, had retrieved the French Zouaves from Rome, where they were fighting for

Preparing for War Coverage 157 the pope, to enter the battle against Prussia. In doing that, France had deceived God and betrayed the Catholic religion, he said. Finally, in an unsigned article called 'Demonstrations en faveur du pouvoir temporel,' published on 6 April 1871, the topic was revisited with the author discussing the role of religion in the Franco-Prussian War. The clear strong Catholic position taken by the Opinion publique differed greatly from that of the Canadian Illustrated News, which never mentioned any connection with the church in its discourses. Was the editorial team of the francophone paper doing this to please the Quebecois church of the time? Or was it because of personal conviction? Quebec was a society based on ultramontane values and it might have been difficult for a francophone paper not to link its content to religion, especially since the intention expressed in the first editorial was that the paper would be sent freely to schools for use by the staff and students. Another specific aspect of the Opinion publique's discourse was its recurrent reference to Ireland, which was, according to the paper, entirely pro-French, undoubtedly due to its people's religious beliefs. According to an unsigned article entitled 'Franc.ais et Irlandais/ published on 28 July 1870, the Irish, carrying French and Vatican flags, had taken to the streets to show their support for France. This put Ireland at odds with the position of England, to which it still belonged. Though the Opinion publique and the Canadian Illustrated News might have had divergent ideological positions, they agreed on several political issues. For instance, on 21 July 1870 in his 'Nouvelles de 1'etranger/ Mousseau asserted, as the anglophone paper had done before, that the war could extend to other European countries, including England and Italy, and to the United States because they were all furnishing both sides with weapons. The following week, Pierce Ryan in 'La situation coloniale' claimed that the colonial situation of Canada made the country vulnerable, and sometimes victim, not only to England, but also to France and the United States. He was afraid that Canada would be brought into the war because of these relationships. The same concern had been expressed in the anglophone version, though differently. If the Canadian Illustrated News looked largely towards the Times of London and the Montreal Gazette for news, the Opinion publique, though occasionally referring to one or the other of these papers, mainly depended on the Evenement, a Quebec paper; the Liberte, published in Versailles by Bismarck; and the Monde illusive for its information. Indeed, its tone was similar to that of the Parisian paper, emotional and somewhat arrogant, claiming that the civilized French could never be

158 Images at War beaten by the barbarous Prussians. In fact, the Opinion publique was even more patriotic than its French counterpart and at one point used the king of Prussia's words to support its opinion.22 In short, the articles covering the Franco-Prussian War in the Opinion publique, like those in the Canadian Illustrated News, included several topics which were more or less discussed according to the importance that the paper gave them. The opinion expressed in the francophone paper adopted a strongly nationalistic tone. This was a highly original stance if we consider that it was based on the traditional idea of nationalism based on religion, especially Catholicism, a position that none of the other European papers, I believe, would have dared to adopt. Its anglophone counterpart, on the other hand and contrary to what Sullivan asserts, adopted a position often expressed in the English papers.23 Their war coverage, however, certainly showed that these two papers, though under the same ownership, were very different indeed, trying to attract two culturally divergent readerships. A German Periodical Not surprisingly, the Illustrirte Zeitung, published in Leipzig, was entirely pro-Prussian.24 The editor had no qualms about being strongly supportive not only of the Prussian army, but also of the unification of Germany. In the preface to the bound volume for July-December 1870, he stated that he was surprised France had attacked its neighbour, and that this aggression had developed, in all German regions, an esprit de corps to fight the enemy. The role of the press is to sustain the love of the fatherland and the Illustrirte Zeitung's duty was to be present all during the war to keep its memory. Our draughtsmen and writers immediately left for the front so that our paper would not be full of fantasy but report real, vivid, and true images ... All the images and texts are a translation of the reality ... but the most important consequence of that war is the foundation of a great Germany with an emperor at its head/ According to Nipperdey, this esprit de corps even extended to Bavaria.25 This author asserts that the Bavarian patriots, very much against the unification of Germany, and even more against their integration into the new nation, nevertheless voted to participate in the war, both as soldiers and as providers of financial aid, at the side of the Prussians. Nevertheless, here we have contradictory reports. Indeed, Wawro asserts that although the Bavarians were part of the German

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army, they contributed little to the victory due, in fact, to their 'scandalous lack of discipline, at least as bad as the French.'26 They were in some way a liability for the army. Yet, the German authorities revealed these facts only much later so that during the war the army presented an appearance of unity. The fourteen-page illustrated periodical never devoted all of its engravings to the war, but did restrict them to politics, the war having taken the space of culture.27 In the foreword to the issue of 7 January 1871, the editor reiterated his support for a united Germany and applauded the coming of peace. He apologized for having been late in the reporting of fashion because of the siege of Paris, and ended his text saying that he 'hoped to find again an independent capital of France' that would allow the paper to bring back the latest fashion. So we can see that while the IHustrirte Zeitung's position at the beginning of the war was very supportive of the Prussian army, and did not change at any time during the war, at the same time it wanted the French capital to preserve its specific cultural characteristics and attractions. Thus the position of each illustrated newspaper at the beginning of the war was markedly different from the others, though there were a few similarities, particularly in the ambivalent approach of the Canadian Illustrated News and the Illustrated Times. As well, each paper had its own way of preparing for its war coverage according to its financial means, but also to its general policy and ideology concerning content. The Illustration, for instance, had a completely divergent approach from the Monde illustre, more emotive. The next section examines how these divergences were reflected in the themes, particularly those related to the illustrations, which each publication chose to cover in the early stages of the war. Breaking the News: A Franco-Prussian War Is On! As we saw earlier, for reasons of their own, not all illustrated periodicals were prompt in reporting the outbreak of the war. Nevertheless, unexpected turns in military activities forced them to pay more attention to the conflict and provoked a shift in their regular agenda.28 Not only was an event as important as the Franco-Prussian War impossible to dismiss in journalistic terms, but it inevitably had an effect on the papers' agenda. To be sure, the successive defeats of France at Wissembourg, Woerth, and even Saarbriicken, where the French had at first

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won the battle, forced all the papers to take the war seriously, so that most, if not all, of their content began to be devoted to that event. The Illustrated London News of 13 August 1870 explained: Since the bombardment of Saarbruck [sic], an affair that was small in itself, but which led to great disaster, a series of brilliant actions has taken place. The French have been beaten from Saarbruck [sic], beaten at Weissenburg [sic], beaten tremendously at Worth [sic]; and now ... a great battle is expected somewhere near Metz.29 With such incidents as these to fascinate the gaze of Europe, people have little time to take stock of a few legislatorial achievements, over which we have been wrangling for months to an extent which now makes us feel an illogical wonder ... We have no time to look back over our disputations.

The message is clear; the European events had become so serious that the editors of illustrated periodicals decided that international events took priority over national affairs. Still, such directions were not just limited to a drastic shift in content. Indeed, although many of the illustrations were the same from one paper to another, others even crossing national boundaries, the editorial positions varied greatly from paper to paper, as we have just seen. This divergence was also reproduced in the engravings, not at the level of general themes or crucial events represented, which were often similar, but at that of the subthemes, which are the most revealing of a newspaper's approach. Different types of ruptures emerged among the papers studied, despite the short length of the war. What were these ruptures, and what triggered them? Ruptures Paul Ricoeur holds that the collective memory is fragile because its foundations are constantly threatened.30 In the first place, it is difficult for a collective imaginary to remain the same over time as it is constantly confronted by other memories that may partly destroy it. Second, memory often emerges from violent events, either psychological or physical, that may be best forgotten. So to construct and then preserve a collective memory, some ruptures with reality are called for. I suggest that this concept may be used to understand the way the illustrated periodicals studied here attempted to shape conflictual imaginaries related to the Franco-Prussian War. I point to three types of

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rupture used as strategies to shape the readers' imaginary in particular ways: eventuation, political, and periodical ruptures. Eventuation ruptures occurred when the newspapers used the event of the war to replace their regular story line-ups with carefully chosen elements related to that event, ignoring all others. Political ruptures emerged out of a situation where different newspapers offered diverse political interpretations of the same event, neglecting other possibilities presented by their competitors. Finally, periodical ruptures took place when an unexpected event enabled, or forced, a newspaper to shift significantly from its initial position. These strategies were meant to support particular points of view, and were influenced by the principles and policies sustaining each paper's creation and publication. Though I am using the same approach for the analysis of French, English, German, and Canadian illustrated periodicals, I am taking into account that the ruptures were based on strategies adopted by papers published from ideologically diversified approaches and in culturally different countries, two of them being at war.31 For example, while political ruptures were not expected among the English papers, which claimed their neutrality, they might have been exacerbated in French papers. Yet, whereas some publications attempted to keep a balance in their war coverage between the representation of the French and Prussian armies, it became increasingly difficult, with the very obvious Prussian superiority, to remain 'neutral.' Some shift, then, occurred in the papers' initial positions, due to particular events. What made these papers adopt different positions? How did they translate this divergence in terms of the themes adopted in their engravings? Did all papers show the same war for their reader to remember? Each paper had to choose from among unexpected military events which ones to offer their readers. The general themes varied according to the military events du jour. General recurrent themes were battles, the siege of Paris, the armistice - obvious issues that did not reveal much about a paper's particular approach. To understand fully the strategies used by each paper, not only to keep its readers but also to feed them the kind of information they wanted them to remember, I look at the specific themes attached to each rupture. Indeed, the press was the only source of information available to the population, and the illustrated periodicals were the only way for them to 'see' what was going on on the front line. As a columnist of the Presse illustree said on 18 August 1870: 'In Paris, as everywhere else, the talk is limited to the exploits of our brave soldiers. We buy newspapers and read them to

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the last word to have some news. News! There is never enough!' News, and particularly illustrated news, was for papers of all countries subject to three different, though related, ruptures: eventuation, political, and periodical. This section deals with the first rupture; the next chapter will analyse the last two. Eventuation Rupture FRENCH PERIODICALS

The 23rd of July 1870, a few days after the official declaration of the war against Prussia and two weeks after the initial announcement in the Conseil legislatif of France's intention of going to war against its old enemy, marked an almost total rupture from all the papers' previous agendas, except for the Univers illustre.32 Apart from the serials and some columns on theatre and fashion, the papers were filled with military news. While the Univers illustre only gradually devoted its entire content to the war, the Presse illustree and the Journal illustre immediately provided their large readership with the latest news on military preparations for the war. The very first engraving on the war, 'La marseillaise - "Aux armes citoyens!"' signed A. Dutheil et Godefroy Durand (142: 1), was shown in the Presse illustree.33 It represented France, symbolized as a winged female figure with a sword in her right hand, flying over a regiment to show them the road to victory. In front of the soldiers, a woman and her child lay dead on the ground, their cart destroyed near them. The message was clear: France was counting on her soldiers to defend innocent people against the barbarous Prussians. Though the Presse illustree attempted to be fair in showing as many engravings of the Prussian as of the French armies, the tone was unmistakable: national pride and a high level of confidence in their army. Two elements are worth underlining in the Presse illustree and the Journal illustre. First, there was an obvious effort, early in the war, to orient the collective memory towards positive thinking with the same engraving shown on 14 August in the former (147: 5), and on 21 August in the latter (341: 269), immediately after the first French defeat in Wissembourg. It represented a victorious general during the defence of Paris in 1814. The reference to history to stimulate confidence in the present was a subtle thought. Another one, on 18 August in the Presse Illustre (148: 8), was clearly intended to awaken a desire of revenge. It was a sentimental engraving representing a dog, whose owner had

Preparing for War Coverage 163 fallen in the Wissembourg battle, coming to die beside his master's body. In the same spirit, in the Journal Hlustre of 21 August this time, Taysans de Soultz faits prisonniers et fusilles,' signed by L. Loeffler (341: 268), was extremely powerful. The Journal Hlustre, like the Presse illustree, attempted to be fair, at least at the beginning of the war, and to show an even number of engravings from both sides. However, contrary to its competitor, which had several neutral, and even a few positive, engravings of the Prussians, the Journal Hlustre managed to show the Prussians in disadvantageous situations (e.g., 342: 280; 343: 284). Most engravings published in these two periodicals during this early period, provided information and useful knowledge to the readers. A few engravings showed anger and resentment against the Prussians: one, 'Exactions des Prussiens dans la Prusse rhenane,' signed by G. Dore (PI 146: 8), showed a few Prussian soldiers arresting a group of civilians (old people, women, and children) to steal their goods, cattle, and horses; another, 'Requisition de chevaux faite par 1'armee prussienne/ signed by B. and DV (PI 154: 8), depicted a group of Prussian soldiers stealing the horses of the peasants of a small village. However, most engravings remained relatively stereotypical and devoid of emotion, despite the fact that the last week of August was full of bad news. Indeed, in addition to the defeat at Wissembourg earlier in the month, there was the defeat at Forbach, as well as the death of quite a few French officers and generals. Yet the tone remained optimistic until the terrible blow of early September 1870. In short, the themes explored during the first period of the war by the two low-priced illustrated periodicals were mostly stereotypical and banal. They might not have had much choice, since it undoubtedly took some time to send correspondents to various battlefields and then to have their drawings sent back to be engraved and published. As we saw in chapter 3, while texts could be sent by telegraphy, this was not the case with drawings. These had to be carried by messengers or sent by the postal service, which was not particularly reliable during the war. So the engravings in both papers were about the soldiers' enrolment and departure, pieces of military technology, the uniforms of various regiments of the French and the Prussian armies, and portraits of generals and commanders from both armies. This knowledge was undoubtedly useful to the French, who had to learn not only about the various regiments of their army, but also about the uniforms that each regiment wore in order to distinguish them from the enemy. Indeed,

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Eugen Weber explains that it was difficult for peasants and other people living in the country to recognize their own soldiers since the uniforms varied greatly from regiment to regiment, and they could not know, unless they saw it in an engraving, the subtle differences between their allies' and their enemies' uniforms.34 So mass-distributed illustrated periodicals were useful in publishing information on military details for their readers; this was the kind of knowledge that, for these people, could make the difference between life and death. Towards the end of August, the papers began to reproduce scenes observed and drawn by their correspondents. Even at this early stage, each paper started to reveal individual particularities. The Presse illustree carried some original engravings on the French victory of Saarbrucken (146: 4) and the defeat of Wissembourg (148: 8). The paper also covered light-hearted news such as the soldiers' daily life in various camps (144: 8; 145: 1), the patriotic role of the empress (143: 4), and a subtle but very telling engraving entitled 'Depart des troupes pour 1'armee du Rhin - Chemin de fer de 1'est,' signed by Gustave Janet (142: 5). It showed two civilians saying goodbye, one with a high rigid hat, shaking hands with a soldier, the other with a soft hat, embracing a soldier. This suggests strongly that the first one, a bourgeois, came to say goodbye to the soldier he hired to take his place in the army, while the other had come to say goodbye to his son. Even the war was class oriented at the time, in a country like France where you could buy a 'good number.' As for the Journal illusive., two particular engravings are worth mentioning. One, Tmprimerie de campagne,' signed by Gould and Ferat (338: 244), showed a closed carriage with the inscription 'Imprimerie imperiale armee,' which depicted the way the military dispatches were produced and transported; the other, Turco a 1'affut,' was unsigned (339: 249; figure 6) and was quite unusual in the sense that the proximity of the reader to the soldier allowed one to feel his emotion keenly. The message of this engraving, the courage and daring of the soldier, was, however, spoiled five pages later by an engraving, 'Comme on s'instruit en voyageant! Je connaissais deja les rats a trompe, les veaux a deux tetes, mais pas encore ces oiseaux-la!' signed by Dorandeau (339: 254); it was a caricature of the Turcos, a regiment coming from Algeria, a French colony. The ridicule found in this last engraving diminished, if not erased, the impact of the first one. Memory of oneself and memory of the other (memoire de soi et memoire de I'autre] are constantly intermingled. Thus, one publication had

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to cover the French defeats, so important and impossible to ignore, but would, in counterpart, juxtapose illustrations of the resistance of the French people, who only gave up and left their houses and villages when forced by Prussian barbarism. As well, intermingled memories occurred when each small victory by the French army was presented as a big defeat for the Prussians. These memories were constructed from evidence of courage, determination, and pride on one side, and barbarism, unfairness, and cruelty on the other. Even the periodicals that attempted to be fair by showing an equal number of engravings of each side were entrapped in that kind of representation. Thus some themes developed to sustain that kind of interaction between the two types of memories were used by all papers, though sometimes in an individual manner. The Univers illustre, which targeted the same readership as the Monde illustre, had a very different strategy, especially at the end of the war. However, early on, this periodical, like the others, focused its engravings on useful knowledge such as military technology, the French army's defence strategies, the capability of their army, the science and knowledge of their generals, confidence in the emperor's capacity to lead the country to victory against the Prussians (812: 497) and finally, the empress's devotion to her country (812: 505), themes that were seen as necessary to the construction of the French people's memory. Actually, this paper carried more positive engravings of the imperial family than its competitors, even the Monde illustre, which was protected by Napoleon III. The Univers illustre, like some other papers, published an engraving, the 'Arrestation d'un correspondant de journaux, a Nancy,' signed by E.G. (814: 541). It showed a newspaperman arrested by a group of four civilians and two soldiers of the imperial army. A column entitled 'Chronique militaire' explained the event. However, although the theme was similar to that covered by other papers, the illustration was different.35 Many characteristics were unique to the Univers illustre during that period. First, the content of its engravings was almost entirely devoted to the French side. There was no attempt here, as with the cheaper periodicals, at objectivity. The paper obviously wanted its readers to know which camp it sided with. Moreover, there were no engravings of Wissembourg and Forbach, two important French defeats of that period, so we can assume that the editor either wished to hide the bad news from his readers or did not have the financial means to send a correspondent to these two sites of war. Yet, one finds many engravings on

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the battle of Strasbourg and the heroic resistence of its people, a theme neglected by the other periodicals, including the two main ones. This paper was also the only one to represent the receiving of the declaration of war by the king of Prussia (811: 481). In all these engravings, and in the articles accompanying them, an optimism was evident which would, however, soon be replaced by other sentiments. Finally, despite its relatively low price, the Univers illustre had very goodquality engravings. Most of them had original style. The contrasts were more pronounced, and the lines neater so that it was easier to read the facial, though perhaps they still had less subtlety than more nuanced drawings. Since many of the draughtsmen were the same for many papers, the difference must have been in the engraving itself. The Illustration is a special case in the sense that its official position as the only political paper was evident in its engravings. Its content, both visual and written, was the most substantial in terms of information on the political aspects of the war. Its engravings were of two kinds: those that needed to be accompanied by written information in order for their true meaning to be understood, and those that did not. Among the former were panoramic views of battlefields (see figure 11). Though beautiful, these scenic views were not very significant as the only signs of a conflict were two regiments, far apart, with small puffs of white smoke rising into the sky. Without a commentary, they could mean anything. Some engravings, however, represented specific issues, such as the horrors of the war, with dead bodies of soldiers and horses (see figure 13). Those did not need explanation; indeed, often the comment accompanying them was incomprehensible without the illustration. In these instances, one is tempted to believe that the article had been written from the engraving. Whatever the types of engravings, most never gave a view close enough to recognize the individuals. The people were always too small, or the facial features too indeterminate, though the whole picture may have generated very strong messages and feelings. The Illustration, the most bourgeois of all French papers, seemed to expect its readers to be interested in more than illustrations. The paper published long articles explaining not only the engravings, but also the larger context of the war and the difficulty of reporting it. Yet these articles did not offer a fair balance of information covering both sides. In fact, even more than the Univers illustre, the Illustration limited its visual contents to the French side, including the Prussians only in reproductions of some specific battles and, then, always in very dis-

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advantageous situations, showing them as barbarous, unethical, and nasty.36 Nevertheless, their articles gave a great deal of information on the Prussians, often in a negative light, and the visual and written content were usually complementary. The symbol of the eventuation rupture in almost all papers was an engraving of the destruction of the bridge over the Rhine which linked Prussia to France (figure 18).37 This seemed to be the event that made the editors of the periodicals realize that this war was a serious matter and not just a short skirmish. After this, engravings representing maps of the theatre of war, various military camps (mostly on the French side), and voluntary enrolment and the soldiers' departures were abundantly represented. People's patriotic demonstrations, either in the streets or in cultural spaces, such as theatres and concert halls where the artists and their public sang the Marseillaise, were also shown in most newspapers, except for the two cheaper ones.38 Numerous portraits representing different levels of French military authority, as well as some Prussians, were published during this initial period. The Illustration, like the other papers, exploited these general themes, but also carried some original ones. After 23 July 1870, its content was marked by an enthusiastic optimism and a patriotic sentiment which seems to have been present in almost all the engravings. Even the illustrations of useful knowledge about military technologies, soldiers' departures, and the like, seemed to generate a nationalist tone, hostile to Prussia (or, to be sure, any other nations which might have any idea of invading France's national boundaries). One article stated that France was certainly not about to let Prussian sentinels surround the country, referring here to the taking over of Spain by the Hohenzollern prince. Though the paper showed enthusiastic crowds supporting the war (1430: 73, 76), it was the only one to publish also a demonstration against it (1430: 76). The Illustration was also the first one to show the various physical characteristics of the soldiers in specific regiments. Two engravings in two consecutive weeks - 30 July and 6 August 1870 - depicted soldiers in the Rhine regiment, the first week in leisure activities such as swimming and fishing (1431: 105), and the second week in more serious activities in preparation for the war (1432: 117, 124). After one victory (Saarbriicken) and two defeats (Wissembourg and Forbach), the Illustration remained enthusiastic and confident. In the first week of August, the paper reproduced 'La guerre Arrivee de S. M. L'Empereur a Metz. Entree du cortege imperial par la porte Serpenoise,' signed by Gaildreau and Smeeton (1432:112), which

18 Dismantling the Rhine bridge, Canadian Illustrated News, no. 8, p. 117.

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seemed to boost both patriotic feelings and confidence in a French victory. The 'Courrier de Paris' of 6 August 1870, wrote: Tor the last three weeks, France has had a fever; before the end of the next three weeks, we hope, a victory will have cured it. A belligerent, enthusiastic, patriotic fever, whose intensity proves to the least perceptive that the heart of France is always as fiery and as great as in the past, and that predicts one more glorious chapter at the Gesta Dei per Francos!' The enthusiasm, however, would not last very long. Driven by great optimism, the Monde illustre, in its 'Bulletin de la guerre' of 23 September 1870, foresaw its historical role: 'When victory, as our French heart hopes, crowns our valiant efforts, the Monde illustre's readers will be able to read a vivid and complete, gripping and conscious account of the Franco-Prussian War.' It is with this goal in mind that the paper then developed its strategy for war coverage, a strategy based almost entirely on the publication of engravings involving the French camp. As for the other papers, the Monde illustre's optimism took the form of a supportive point of view at the beginning of the war, saying: 'Hard but unbending necessity of the present times, the war against Prussia meets the feelings of all good Frenchman; it is eminently popular.'39 The themes explored by the paper clearly showed this optimism. Some, common to other papers, included the French people's expression of patriotism (693: 52; 694: 68), the departure of French regiments (693: 49), French men's voluntary enlisting (694: 73), French military technologies (693: 53), French and Prussian major-generals' portraits (693: 60; 694: 71), and of course the destruction of the Rhine bridge (693: 61, 65).40 The Monde illustre was a wellestablished paper and, throughout the war, its artists produced some excellent and original engravings, though this initial period of thematic rupture was not the most original and productive of all, as testified by 'Paris - Les membres du Cercle Imperial (Champ-Elysees) prennent part a la manifestation et distribuent des bougies et des drapeaux' (693: 52) signed by Godefroy Durand and A. Daudenarde. These members of the imperial circle did not mix with the crowd, however; they stayed apart, separated by a wall and a fence. The Monde illustre also had some original engravings. One of them, 'Uniformes des forces militaires de la Prusse,' signed by H. Dutheil and A. Ecosses Fils (693: 56-7), extended over two full pages and very clearly showed and identified each uniform associated with every regiment including those of the Prussian army. This kind of representation was undoubtedly useful for interpreting the engravings produced by

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all illustrated periodicals.41 Another rather intriguing engraving entitled 'Manifestation a la caserne de Loureine - Les soldats jettent de vieux vetements aux volontaires/ signed by Rx (693: 64), depicted some soldiers throwing pieces of their uniforms through opened windows to newly enlisted soldiers, suggesting that the army did not have the time, or the money, to manufacture them. Finally, another engraving, seen in no other papers, showed the Zouaves disembarking from the vessels that had brought them from Rome to France (694: 77). This regiment, like the Turcos, had an important role in the French army and the fact that the Monde illustre took the trouble to represent their arrival on French land shows that the paper appreciated their participation in the fight against the Prussian enemy. ENGLISH PERIODICALS

English people looking at only one of the four illustrated periodicals studied in this book would have perceived the war in different ways from those reading any of the others. The Penny Illustrated Paper was the first to publish, on 16 July 1870, an engraving related to the conflict: 'Ready for war: The morning parade, Berlin' (459: 40).42 It was quite early - immediately after the declaration of war by Mr Ollivier in the French Senate, but before the official beginning of the war, which was set by historians as 19 July 1870. The Illustrated London News and the Illustrated Times followed suit on 23 July, the former with an engraving entitled The war: Soldiers leaving Paris/ which was unsigned (1604: 89), and the latter with 'Trials of a new French cavalry rifle in the camp at Chalons,' also unsigned (800: 36). The Graphic began its war coverage a week later with several engravings of the conflict. Thus, English readers did not find out about the war all at the same time. Then they were presented with quite divergent views. For instance, the readership of the more modest papers saw that the Germans were clearly ready for war; others saw that the French army was getting ready. Though this may seem a trivial differentiation, the effect of seeing one army getting ready instead of another may certainly have influenced the opinion of the readers. The London periodicals only gradually paid attention to Napoleon Ill's declaration of war on Prussia. As we saw, Victorian newspapers did not take the event seriously until the successive and surprising defeats of the French army. As for the French publications, this unexpected turn of events forced each periodical to transform its agenda to cover as many aspects of the conflict as possible. Some

Preparing for War Coverage 171 papers alluded to the fact that the successive French defeats placed England in a situation where the English army would have to come to the rescue of its old enemy to fight the Prussians. After all, the French had helped the British army to defeat the Russian troops at Inkerman during the Crimean War. Certainly the Parisian illustrated press remembered that event, as Loredan Larchey reminded the perfide Albion in Memorial illustre des deux sieges [sic] de Paris, 1870-1871.*3 Yet, except for the Illustrated London News, none of the other three papers was entirely devoted to the hostilities. The Graphic, for instance, had a certain number of illustrations representing other topics. In the preface to its third bound volume containing issues from 7 January to 24 June 1871, the editor explained: During these six extraordinary months, our artists have never been in want of incidents for their pencils; on the contrary, desiring as we do to make this Journal a complete Pictorial Record of the times in which we live, we have experienced considerable difficulty in finding accommodation for the abundance of subjects which have poured in upon us. We ven ture to think, however, that if our readers will kindly re-examine the contents of this Volume, they will admit that the principal events of the half-year have been faithfully chronicled there by our artistic and literary contributors. Given the lack of interest, the engravings depicting the beginning of the war, in July 1870, were rather unexciting. Many of the common themes were the same as those in the French periodicals, namely, portraits of royalty and generals, pro- or antiwar demonstrations, the departure of French or Prussian troops, military technologies, and voluntary enrolment. In fact, most English papers had fewer engravings of the war during the month of July than the French did: both the Illustrated London News and the Graphic had three out of eleven, the Illustrated Times two out of ten, and the Penny Illustrated Paper eight out of seventeen.44 The latter had the most original illustrations of all in July, showing, among other things, German vivandieres (461: 72), the king of Prussia and his army (460: 60), the Napoleon monument on the battlefield of Leipzig (461: 69), and the 'porte des Allemagne' (sic) in the Fortifications of Metz (460: 60). Once these periodicals got interested in the 1870 war, that interest did not provoke a spontaneous eventuation rupture; rather their content went through a gradual transformation reaching, after a few

172 Images at War

weeks, a point of almost total rupture with their prewar agendas. This transformation was partly at the readers' requests. Indeed, on 6 August 1870, the Illustrated Times commented upon an illustration showing a crowd actually mobbing the newsboys who were carrying papers with the latest news from the front. It explained the eagerness of the public to know more about an event in which England could eventually be involved: The engraving on the preceding page represents a scene which may be witnessed any day at various central points of London. The long delay that has occurred in the commencement of actual hostilities has whetted public curiosity to the utmost, and when the newsboys make their appearance in the streets with the morning or evening papers quite a rush takes place upon them, and they are barely able to deal out their wares fast enough to meet the demand/ Among the English papers, the Illustrated London News produced the greatest number of illustrations of the war. This publication also offered the largest variety of topics, especially in relation to the various battlefields. It was indeed a particularity of that paper that engravings came from different cities, suggesting that it had sent special artists to many sites of war. None of the other papers had such extended coverage, not even the bourgeois Illustration. Nevertheless, though the engravings included a wide range of battles,45 they concentrated only on three cities: Metz, Sedan, and Strasbourg. Strasbourg was the capital of Alsace and Metz of Lorraine, and were both, as a result, very close to Germany. These cities were strategic places for both armies. The Illustrated London News devoted ten engravings to the former and thirteen to the latter, showing them in all types of situations. For Metz, it began with a panoramic view of the city (1611: 252-3), and for Strasbourg it included its fall, on the front page of 8 October 1870 (1617: 365). The London Illustrated News had quite a few themes of its own: an engraving illustrating the deposition of the ex-emperor: The revolution in Paris: Jules Favre proclaiming the deposition of the Emperor in the corps legislatif/ which was unsigned (1613: 301);46 it was a picture never reproduced in the other papers. Another showed The war: Interview between the Emperor Napoleon and Count Bismarck at Donchery, near Sedan,' signed MB (1613: 292). Almost all the papers showed the interview with the Prussian king in different manners, but not that with Bismarck. In fact, many of the original engravings of the paper showed parts of the Prussian camp, such as the headquarters of the crown prince of Prussia at Luneville (1611: 233), Prussian lancers

Preparing for War Coverage 173 bringing in provisions (1611: 248), Bavarian light dragoons passing the headquarters of the crown prince of Prussia at Ligny (1612: 261), Prussian lancers during a halt, and Bavarian jeagers on their march to the front (1612: 264), graves of German officers near Sedan (1614: 329), and finally Prussian troops and munitions crossing the Rhine to go to Paris, and the Hill of Cheveuge from which the king of Prussia watched the battle of Sedan (1614: 332). Many more engravings representing the Prussians were produced over the course of the war but, generally, the paper attempted to show an equal number of engravings of both camps, although this does not mean that its position was neutral, as we have seen. Most engravings showed the French in disadvantageous positions, and though circumstances were inclined towards such depictions, other papers represented the French soldiers in courageous situations. Some light topics such as 'Discussing the war in a Paris cafe/ signed by TB (1613: 297), using stereotypes to portray the French (figure 19), were also used, a rare occurrence in the Illustrated London News. The Graphic had an entirely different pictorial approach from that of the Illustrated London News. For a start, it had many more original engravings than its competitor, and those which had the same theme were usually presented from a different perspective. For instance, the paper did not cover as many cities as the Illustrated London News did.47 The cities of Strasbourg, Metz, and Sedan were, here again, the most extensively illustrated, though there were only five engravings on each of these cities. Among the original engravings of that publication, many showed the French soldiers or people in positive situations such as angels of Mercy (40: 217), a French press ambulance passing through Reims (40: 237), and a Zouave's last will (36:121). The Graphic also had more engravings on light topics than the Illustrated London News: the National Guard refusing to charge the people (38:173), French soldiers washing their clothes (39: 201), a Prussian soldier being teased by some French people (68: 241), or Bavarian officers languorously smoking cigars (figure 20). A particularity of this paper was to offer a series of engravings called 'An artist's tour on the main'48 that reproduced the attractions of small towns in the French provinces. The goal of the series was clearly to inform the Graphic's readers about various aspects of France.49 There were also some original engravings of the Prussians: Uhlans entering a French town (42: 268), soldiers examining the first captured mitrailleuse (43: 289), the crown prince visiting the wounded (43: 300), and the Prussians and the 'populace' in Nancy (43: 292).

174 Images at War

19 Discussing the war in a Paris cafe, Illustrated London News, no. 1613, p. 297.

Thus, the message from the Graphic was very different from that from the London Illustrated News, which was based on repetitive engravings showing the power and control the Prussians had over the war's outcome, and the weakness and the foolishness of the French. The Illustrated Times was a special case, as a very important part of its engravings came from other periodicals such as the Monde illustre and the Illustration. It is difficult to know whether this 'borrowing' was the result of a choice or was rather an obligation to take what was offered. If the latter, the paper was clearly not really responsible for the messages sent to its readers. However, one must assume that the editors had at least some choice, so it is worth looking at its original engrav-

20 German soldiers having a smoke, Graphic, no. 43, p. 308.

176 Images at War

ings, which might have come either from its own artists or from some engravings that other papers had decided not to publish. I have found only a few of these that cover the Germans as much as the French camp: German troops in the grand palace in Mousson (808:168), sortie at Strasbourg (808: 169), French soldiers tearing the eagle from their shakos (military hats) after the proclamation of the Republic (809: 177), and the fortress of Montmedy (809: 185). As we saw earlier, the Illustrated Times was trying very hard to be fair to both camps in its articles, but the moralistic tone used did not allow for much fairness to the French side. However, the engravings taken alone had a different message, especially since they mostly came from French periodicals. So here is an interesting case of digression between written and illustrated discourses in which the engravings held a different message from that delivered in the texts. It is my contention that in such a case, the images were used to express a message that was difficult, if not impossible, to convey by words. The Penny Illustrated Paper began devoting almost all its engravings to the war very early in the conflict, trying to balance articles and engravings covering both sides. Its strategy was either to publish the same number of engravings for each side in one particular issue, or in consecutive weeks. Actually, the Penny Illustrated Paper was the only one of all the papers studied to have such a strategy. Its engravings were very good, sometimes even astonishingly beautiful for such a cheap paper, and were rarely signed. Since many of them were original, one is inclined to believe that they had their own artists.50 So why the anonymity? There are two possible explanations. The tradition of the English papers was seemingly to publish unsigned engravings, as we have seen earlier. Still, the Penny Illustrated Paper being a workingclass periodical, the editors might have considered anonymity as a form of egalitarian policy, especially since the engravings were usually made by a team of workers but signed only by the chief-engraver. Though the paper regularly covered issues similar to those addressed by other publications, the engravings to illustrate them were generally different and unique to the penny paper. While the newspaper devoted most of its engravings to the war between the end of July 1870 and mid-February 1871, some issues included other lighter topics such as engravings of animals, or the marriage of Princess Louise. Only two issues, those of the 17 and 31 December 1870, did not offer extensive war coverage, with only one engraving on the front page. Even the Christmas issue produced five illustrations related to the conflict.

Preparing for War Coverage 177

Although the Penny Illustrated Paper was the first publication to publish an engraving on the war, on 16 July 1870, the eventuation rupture of its agenda did not occur before 30 July, when the paper devoted its front page to the event with an engraving entitled 'Off to war: The cantiniere's farewell to Paris' (461: 65). It also included nine other engravings on the event in addition to two long articles. Yet, though this cheap illustrated periodical took some original turns in the course of the war, it offered the same kind of engravings as the others at the beginning of the conflict, and showed military weapons, encampments, and uniforms on both sides, many portraits (particularly on the Prussian side), and maps of the sites of war. Two engravings never seen elsewhere and published on 6 August 1870, showed the Turcos and the Zouaves on the march (462: 84). The first illustration of a battle occurred on 13 August 1870, with an engraving called The Neiderbronn skirmish,' a topic covered by many other papers, sometimes with a different picture.51 The paper reported the Saarbriicken battle on 20 August 1870, presenting it as a 'charge of the French.' A week later, it illustrated the Prussian victory at Wissembourg. Two features characterized the Penny Illustrated Paper's engravings: proportionally, it produced many fewer engravings illustrating the battles themselves than any of the other papers, except perhaps for the Graphic; and it very rarely named places. For example, on 10 December 1870, the readers would have no clue of the location of an unsigned engraving entitled 'Eve of a sortie from Paris: Recapture of a suburban village by the French' (480: 373), if it had not been accompanied by a commentary. Also, when illustrating Napoleon Ill's surrender on 10 September 1870, the two engravings, 'The war: Emperor Napoleon's last appearance on the battlefield' (467: 164) and 'Louis Napoleon, exemperor of the French' (467: 168) never mentioned that these events had happened in Sedan. The only time that the paper named the battle of Sedan was in one illustration called 'The war: Forlorn hope of the French at Sedan' (468: 181), shown on 17 September 1870. Another example of anonymous places was related to MacMahon. While other periodicals reported that the marshal was marching either on Woerth as in the Illustrirte Zeitung, or on Sedan as in the Canadian Illustrated News or the Opinion publique, the Penny Illustrated Paper only said, The war: M'Mahon's [sic] army on the march' (466: 148), perhaps because the place was uncertain and the paper did not want to mislead its readers. So it seems that for this publication, the act itself was more important than where it had happened. Was it because they believed that

178 Images at War their readers would not know any of these places anyway? Indeed, when they referred to big cities like Strasbourg or Metz, they used their names. Working class memories were fed differently. Another characteristic of the Penny Illustrated Paper was that it emphasized, more than any other paper, the distressing side of the war, especially for children and the poor. For instance, they had a certain number of engravings showing the misery and horrors inflicted on these groups of individuals: 'Paris besieged: Poor Parisians carrying home provisions' and 'Incident of the siege of Soissons: Fate of a poor Frenchwoman and her children' on 29 October 1870 (474: 273), and even on the Prussian side: The war and its victims: Widow and orphans at Bismarck's chateau' on 19 November 1870 (477: 329). Interestingly enough, the Penny Illustrated Paper and the Opinion publique were the only publications to highlight the exploits of Marshal Canrobert, who seemed to have been a sort of hero. The English periodical had two engravings on him, The war: Gallant charger of the French See Marshal Canrobert's bravery' on 3 September 1870 (466: 152) and 'Marshal Canrobert,' a portrait published on 29 October 1870 (474: 285 and signed by J.A. Beauce, which was also published in the Opinion publique on 25 August 1870 (34: 269). In short, each London paper adopted an original approach to the war, at least in the beginning of hostilities. CANADIAN PERIODICALS

The Canadian illustrated periodicals did not experience the same kind of rupture as the European papers. Though for a few weeks, the Canadian Illustrated News published up to five engravings on the 1870 war, the paper usually devoted about half of its sixteen pages to its coverage of that war. The other engravings were concerned with the Red River Rebellion, as we saw earlier, or with other less important events. The same editing policy was applied to the Opinion publique. Most of its issues had only two, and often only one out of six illustrated pages reserved for the war. Still, it allotted more front pages to the conflict than its anglophone version. Neither publication maintained a practice of signing the engravings, except on rare occasions - so rare, in fact, that one gets the impression that they had forgotten to erase the signature. Indeed, the fact that the two lower corners of the engravings, the space usually designated for the signatures, were more often than not cut off, is in itself suspicious. Since their technology for picture production was based on 'the reproduction of photographs, and since they

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were obviously reading papers from overseas and from south of the border, they could easily have photographed any pictures that they wanted to publish and reproduce from other publications.52 The copyright business for illustrations was certainly not highly developed at the time, and for war engravings it might have been difficult for either the artists or the papers who had originally published the engravings to take any action against another publication. The first illustrations of the war shown in the Canadian Illustrated News appeared on 30 July 1870: two unsigned engravings showing respectively the French and Prussian naval stations. Like all the other European papers, but perhaps for a longer period, the Canadian publications showed military weapons, uniforms, and portraits in their pages. It was only on 20 August 1870 that they chose to show engravings picturing military activities. The famous dismantling of the bridge between Strasbourg and Kehl was reproduced on 23 July 1870. Somewhat later, military encampments in various French cities and maps of the seats of war appeared in their pages. This tells the whole story of the Canadian periodicals. While their texts were published with a time lag of about one week because they were taking information from the dailies of various countries, sometimes by telegraph, their engravings were two, and more often than not, four weeks late, since most seemed to come from one or another European periodical.53 For instance, it was on 1 and 3 September 1870 that the Opinion publique and the Canadian Illustrated News respectively showed an engraving called The war: Skirmish at Niederbronn' (35: 276; 10: 157) and signed by Daudenarde, who was working for three French periodicals - the Monde illustre, the Illustration, and the Presse illustree - with the same title as that shown in the Penny Illustrated Paper on 13 August (403: 105).54 That same week, the anglophone paper published a picture of Saarbrucken (10: 148) while its francophone counterpart showed it the following week (36: 281). They pictured the town itself, before the battle, with a historical description, the way the Graphic did on 13 August 1870. The rupture following the important French defeats, reflected in the agenda of almost all the European papers, did not appear in the Canadian periodicals. The papers did not provide any illustrations of the French defeats in Woerth, Reichshoffen, Gravelotte, or Forbach, for instance, though they offered a full page engraving of The battle of Wissemburg [sic]/ signed by E. Gluck (37: 296; 12 [1870]: 188) respectively on 15 and 17 September 1870, a picture already shown in the Illustration on 20 August, as well as a double-page engraving of the

180 Images at War battle of Metz on 8 and 10 September, after a discussion of the many Prussian victories and the capitulation of Napoleon III. Two pages later, we find two images, again seen in other periodicals weeks before: The War: A reconnaissance,' signed by S. Merton and Smeeton, and The War: Effect of the mitrailleuse/ unsigned and also published in the Illustration of 13 August 1870 (36: 285; 11 [1870]: 173). The first front-page illustration devoted to the war was 'Les mitrailleuses' (35:273) on 1 September 1870 in the Opinion publique, and in the Canadian Illustrated News, 'General Trochu' (12: 193) on 17 September 1870. It was not in the newspaper itself, but on the cover page of a supplement that the editors had produced that week.55 Among a series of illustrations published in that supplement, another was devoted to the Franco-Prussian War: 'Arrest of a supposed Prussian spy on the Boulevard des Italians' (12 [1870]: 194). Both were unsigned. However, the next week, the front page of the periodical was occupied by an engraving of the war, 'French iron clad passing Dover,' also unsigned (13 [1870]: 197), and seen in more than one French newspaper.56 It is rather surprising that the first real front-page engraving would be of a military ship in the Canadian Illustrated News, and a gun in the Opinion publique, despite the fact that they had other engravings which had reproduced very important French defeats, including Metz. The Opinion publique, being half the size of its anglophone partner, had necessarily a smaller number of engravings on the Franco-Prussian War. On 18 August 1870, the paper informed its readers that it would have some portraits of French and Prussian generals in its pages the next week. Keeping its word, the periodical did show, a week later, figures of five French generals (34: 369, unsigned) but no Prussians, a map of the site of war (34: 268), and later the Garde Mobile's departure (36: 284) and the battle of Wissembourg (37: 296). Yet, despite its small size, it offered its readers more diversified engravings of the FrancoPrussian War than its anglophone counterpart. These illustrations were the only ones that gave Canadian readers the opportunity to see the war. Still, one cannot but be somewhat disoriented and disconcerted by the time lag that separated the publication of an illustration representing an event that the paper had discussed weeks before. To my knowledge, unlike other papers, especially English ones, they did not mention or apologize for the discrepancy that occurred when they had not received the drawing at the same time as the telegraphed text.57

Preparing for War Coverage 181 GERMAN PERIODICALS

The Illustrirte Zeitung, like the French periodicals, had most of its engravings identified in some way, almost always in the caption; they were often signed, and sometimes had both. The paper had various ways of identifying an engraving. The most common were 'drawing of/ 'original drawing of/ 'drawn on site/ or 'sketched.' It is difficult to understand the subtleties of these variations.58 The most regular draughtsmen were R.U. Etwall, Otto Fitenscher, L.V. Elliiot, and A. Beck. Surprisingly, the paper never devoted all of its engravings to the war; only 102 pictures were published during the period going from the mid-July 1870 until mid-April 1871. Like all the other papers, the month of July and most of August was devoted to stereotypical engravings of Prussian military weapons, portraits of their generals and of royalty, uniforms of both armies, the departure of their soldiers, and the like. The first engraving related to a battle was called 'View of Saarbriicken' (1417:160), an unsigned picture published on 27 August 1870. What is astonishing is that they published the illustrations of this event two weeks later than the English and French papers, and at the same time as the Canadian publications. True, it was the first battle and a French victory, but since they had only stereotypical engravings to show up to this point, this suggests that they did not get the drawing, which was not signed, before then. The same week, the paper also published an unsigned picture of Forbach, a Prussian victory. Both pictures only showed the city as it was before the battle, and were reproduced in other papers such as the Opinion publique and the Graphic. Many of the engravings representing France were unsigned while only a few of those representing Prussia were unidentified. Some of the engravings signed by Otto Fitenscher and Kaiser were reproduced in the Canadian Illustrated News, and other papers, but without signatures.59 Actually, the engravings of the Prussian periodical were not very original or exciting. It reproduced what had been published earlier in the French and English papers. They were engravings of the battle of Sedan and the bombardment of Strasbourg, which the Prussians almost destroyed, and very few of Metz: on the front page of 29 October 1870, 'Transport of French spies to Metz. Sketch by professor D. Steffeck' (1426: 293) and, on 17 December 1870, 'Images of Metz and its surroundings. Drawing by L.V. Elliot' (1433: 433). They were two of Bazeilles, whose population was massacred by the Germans: on 8 October 1870, 'The ruins of the destroyed village of Bazeilles near Sedan. Drawn in situ by L.V. Elliot' (1423: 257); and on 19 November

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1870, The battle of Sedan. Bazeilles after the assault by the Bavarians. Drawing by A. Beck' (1429: 356). The battle of Le Bourget, which was important but cruel, was given three representations on 10 December 1870. The paper published the most obvious subjects shown in many other papers, for instance, the proclamation of the French republic on 1 October 1870 (1422: 232) (but almost a month after it occurred); Napoleon III in Wilhelmshoehe on the front page on 19 November 1870 (1429: 345); a bird's eye view of Paris on 3 December 1870 (1431: 388-9); and the march of the Prussian army on Paris on 1 April 1871 (1448: 220-1), once again a month late. So all in all, the ttlustrirte Zeitung was not a very exciting paper, and its readers were not well served by a publication that generally waited a month before reproducing important war activities. Food for Thought As we saw, the beginning of the war did not immediately attract the attention of the illustrated periodicals. Nonetheless, once the editors realized the seriousness of the conflict and the unexpected turn that it was taking, each publication made some effort to cover at least the most important events, especially those that the readers demanded to be informed about. However, early in the war, the illustrations were rather stereotypical, and so there were some similarities in the papers' strategies for covering the conflict. Still, some divergences in military activities covered and the tone used gave each paper its distinctiveness. Yet these differences were frequently more of an ideological than a cultural nature. Often the stance of a paper was closer to that of a publication from another country than to one of its own country. For example, the position of the Canadian Illustrated News was much closer to that of the Illustrated Times than to the Opinion publique, although the two Canadian papers had the same owner; the targeted readership had an important influence. Moreover, feeding on other newspapers, as these three periodicals did, produced some strange situations where the articles of a given publication were mutually contradictory. Although this may be seen as an attempt at objectivity in presenting various positions, I argue that it was rather the consequence of papers being produced under the pressure of time. Nonetheless, while the general themes of the illustrations were mostly the same for all papers, the specific issues the papers discussed were often dissimilar as these were more closely linked to an editorial

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position. For example, one of the reasons why the eventuation rupture occurred at different time periods is that the editors had divergent opinions on the importance and outcome of the war. So papers did not show, at the beginning of the conflict at least, the same war to their respective readers. Moreover, the early pictures were rather banal, as newspapers faced a situation in which the beginning of the war was sudden and where the pictures took much longer to reach their destination than the text. This context led to a dynamic process of interpretation of reality, which changed as more unexpected events took place, as will be seen in the next chapter.

CHAPTER SIX

Managing the Unexpected, Boosting National Feelings

As we saw in the preceding chapter, all papers experienced, to various degrees, an eventuation rupture during the first part of the war, prior to Napoleon Ill's surrender. This rupture was made evident in the content of all the papers, though it was more apparent in some than others. This differentiation in degrees of rupture was experienced among papers at other levels as well. Indeed, newspapers not only in different countries but also in the same country had divergent general editorial policies that influenced their political approach to the conflict. Moreover, during its course, the Franco-Prussian War took unexpected turns, which caused at least some of the illustrated publications to alter their strategy of coverage. This chapter explains the positions and attitudes of the illustrated periodicals throughout the rest of the war, as well as the way they coped with unexpected events, going through political and periodical ruptures. The fact that each paper chose to manage the unexpected in its own way no doubt had some effect on its readers' memories. Political Ruptures Political ruptures, we must remember, are internal to a group of illustrated periodicals existing in one or more countries.1 After examining the approaches to coverage of the 1870 war by papers within each country, I will then compare them on an international basis to reveal the factors responsible for the digressions among their political positions. What was the determining element causing political divergence in their illustrated approaches? Was it related to ideology, culture, or class?

Managing the Unexpected 185 French Periodicals In 1866, four years before the declaration of war, four French illustrated newspapers had a total circulation of 171,400. The Journal illustre had the largest with 105,000 and the Univers illustre the smallest with 15,400, the Illustration had 18,000 and the Monde illustre, 33,000. On 15 November 1868, an editorial in the Presse illustree asserted that the paper had a steady distribution of 70,000 copies a week.2 Those were huge numbers for that period, especially since, as has been demonstrated in most studies on readership, there were at least two readers for each copy sold, and probably more for copies available in popular libraries,3 cabinets de lecture,4 bars, and cafes for patrons to read. It means that the contents of these illustrated newspapers were very popular indeed and so could not but influence people's ideas and opinions on the war. Confident in the French victory at the beginning of the war, each publication used its specific strategy to minimize the repeated defeats of the French army against the Prussians, and to make the population aware of the rapidly increasing threat coming from the enemy. I will use some of the pictorial and discursive contents of the periodicals to show how they made plenty of references to nationalistic feelings and symbols in order to maintain the French population's morale, as well as to trigger their readers' solidarity and their determination to face what seemed to be inevitable: the siege of Paris. I observed that one of the most marked ruptures among the French illustrated newspapers occurred between the political approach of the two cheapest newspapers the Presse illustree and the Journal illustre, and that of the other publications. These cheaper papers attempted to adopt a balanced number of engravings, each camp taking up about two of their four illustrated pages. Because these two illustrated periodicals reached a much larger readership than the other three put together, it may be worth analysing the reasons that might have influenced their choice of content. Why did these two periodicals reserve such a large part of their engravings, close to 50 per cent, for the Prussians, while the other more expensive Parisian papers dedicated most of their pictures to the French camp? Nothing in the initial editorials that explained the intentions of the editors can explain these strategies. Both papers admitted that their only goal was 'to offer good engravings entirely devoted to current news and produced on the most recent and best wood/ as the Presse illustree expressed in its editorial of 9-16 November 1867. Neither their

186 Images at War original stated goals nor their actual tone suggested any desire for objectivity. Rather, despite the large number of engravings of the Prussians, the papers were clearly pro-French and their tone inspired patriotic feelings among their readers that were equal to those aroused by other periodicals. Would the reason be in the characteristics of the targeted readership, the low-income classes? How did these papers conceptualize their customers in order to choose to offer them so many engravings of the Prussians? Did they believe that low-income readers were so ignorant of the Prussians that they had to furnish some illustrated 'useful knowledge' that everyone could understand, including the barely literate? It could be that these publications had to buy most of their engravings from the wealthier papers and that these would sell only the engravings that they did not want. Or perhaps it was cheaper to buy engravings from the Prussian papers. Whatever the case, there seems to be a class differentiation between bourgeois/petty-bourgeois and working-class periodicals. Another political rupture was related to the extension of war coverage. While the two cheapest papers, the Presse illustree and the Journal illustre, and the most expensive one, the Illustration, devoted their total content to the war from 23 July 1870, the others were less committed. That the Illustration, as the only political illustrated periodical of the time, was entirely dedicated to the war is not too surprising. The paper took its role as the 'only provider of political information/ whether through illustrations or articles, very seriously, explaining in detail what was happening and commenting on military events. The wholehearted dedication of the low-price papers is more intriguing. Even though both papers had vowed to dedicate their engravings to current news, and the war was certainly that, other current events occurred during that period, as the Monde illustre's content testified. While the Monde illustre devoted most of its engravings to the war, it sometimes published one or two small engravings to illustrate an important event not related to the conflict.5 In addition, it kept regular columns on Musicjue, Theatre, and even Elegance, its feuilleton, and sometimes added an article or two on trivial but popular issues.6 But then the Monde illustre never pretended to be political. On the contrary, it claimed to be an art and literary illustrated periodical which provided information on issues that the editor saw as being 'eminently popular/ As for the Univers illustre, quite a few of its engravings were devoted to other issues such as views of parks and cities in other countries. This, surprisingly, was most noticeable from the time that the

Managing the Unexpected 187 paper decreased its number of pages to eight. Since this occurred during the siege of Paris, one would have thought that the publication would have reserved all the engravings for the dramatic events of the capital where it was published. It seems to me that it would have been relatively easy to procure scenes of the Parisian siege. On the contrary, it was as if, with the decrease in size, the paper had slowly lost interest in the depressing reality around it.7 The Illustration, the Monde illusive, and the Univers illustre had important political divergences in their illustrated approach to the war. Some themes were more popular in some papers. The Monde Illustre had a substantial number of engravings devoted to the imperial family and their inner circle. Strongly pro-Napoleonic during the first part of the war, it used, in August 1870, eight engravings covering the various activities of Napoleon III and his family, always positive and even flattering.8 Meanwhile, the Illustration used one9 and the Univers illustre three,10 the minimum necessary to remain gracious and to avoid any provocation. Indeed, it was undoubtedly in that spirit that the Monde illustre 'omitted' to publish anything about the demonstration of a group of French people against the declaration of war, which its main competitor had, even though the latter was far from being antiwar. It is obvious, from several articles written during the initial period of the war, that the Illustration thought that the humiliation coming from Prussia was a provocation to France and had to be responded to by a declaration of war. However, the paper's editor clearly did not want to give the credit for a respectable response to the emperor. The so-called objectivity of the press appears to have been impossible both before and during the war. English Periodicals

The initial editorial policies adopted by each periodical, and still in practice in 1870, undoubtedly influenced the position of English papers on the Franco-Prussian War. Apart from the Penny Illustrated Paper, each publication sided with one or the other camp despite the principle of objectivity claimed by its editor. For instance, the rigid proPrussian position of the Illustrated London News, adopted early in the conflict, was 'at war' with the more conciliatory tone of the Graphic and of the Illustrated Times. The former strongly approved of Prussia as a state 'exactly organized/ 'carefully trained,' 'usefully equipped,' and 'autocratically controlled.' Not only were images of Prussians much more numerous, but the themes assigned to each camp were stereo-

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typed, with a negative connotation for the French soldiers and a positive one for the Prussians. This negative position was less evident in the other three papers. The Penny Illustrated Paper showed a more neutral attitude. It used an almost equal number of illustrations for each camp and the articles on the war attempted to adopt a noncommittal tone, although only partly succeeding especially after the beginning of the siege. The Graphic printed its first illustration of the war on 13 August 1870, on the front page, with an engraving of a group of French soldiers captured by the Prussians. Inside, printed on two facing pages, were two engravings: on the left page, the Prussian army seemingly discussing field strategies; on the right page, French soldiers near a lake, swimming and sun-bathing (figures 21,22). The engravings, positioned in such a way, strongly suggested that some were getting ready while others frolicked. Nevertheless, the Graphic's approach was far from the uncompromising tone of the Illustrated London News, and soon after the first unexpected French defeat, the paper joined the Illustrated Times's conciliatory attitude. The Penny Illustrated Paper devoted most of its content to the war; its engravings covered either light subjects such as the soldiers washing their clothes, or presented serious events in a light fashion, which had the effect of trivializing it. For example, in the issue of 26 November 1870, a picture entitled 'Daring act of a Prussian officer before Paris: "Your journal or your life!'" unsigned (478: 337), adopted a style close to a cartoon; this was done frequently in that publication. It depicted a Prussian soldier compelling a French boy to give him the paper that he was carrying under his arm. The legend suggested that both Prussians and French people were eager to get news from the front. The rather light and neutral tone adopted by the Penny Illustrated Paper in most illustrations intended for the working classes contrasted with that of the bourgeois periodicals that better matched the seriousness of the event. Yet the written discourses did not match the often lighter tone of the engravings. Several articles and columns revealed a deep concern for the French, especially the children and the poor. The stress on this particular topic, not covered by the bourgeois papers, suggests that the Penny Illustrated Paper wanted its readers to identify with the war's victims.11 To be sure, the general topic of war was divided into various facets depending on the themes developed in, and exploited by, each periodical. These themes were to determine the political position that each

21 Some are getting ready, Graphic, no. 37, p. 149.

22 Others frolic, Graphic, no. 37, p. 148.

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publication suggested to its readers. Pro-Prussian publications based their arguments on cultural stereotypes such as the seriousness and the discipline of .the Prussians, and the frivolity and carelessness of the French. The Illustrated London News highly praised the 'discipline/ and 'military logic' of the Prussian camp as well as its 'appropriateness of motives' for participating in the conflict. Starting to print engravings of the war as early as 23 July 1870, the paper chose to show the Prussian army in serious activities such as getting ready for war, while picturing the troops belonging to the imperial army in a more frivolous manner, often showing the soldiers in leisurely activities such as playing games or doing the laundry. Among all the illustrated papers studied, the Illustrated Times took the most original position in using positive themes to characterize the imperial army. The publication often used topics that referred to the superior qualities of the French soldiers. In addition, its position was more nuanced than that of the Illustrated London News, and its discourse never adopted the sarcastic or moralistic tone of that publication. For instance, the Illustrated Times asserted that the French soldiers were courageous but their officers incompetent, a theme later taken up by the French periodicals and the Graphic. On 20 August 1870, the editor showed his sympathy towards the French army, expressing 'very great surprise' at the successive defeats of its troops, as they possessed 'solid war equipment and courageous soldiers/ Only the vastly superior number of Prussian soldiers, he believed, could explain their victory. Later in the same issue, an article entitled 'War Sketches: Saverne during McMahon's [sic] Retreat' stressed the inhumanity of the Prussian commanding officers, as opposed to the finesse and, again, the courage of the French soldiers: Some of the skirmishes which have made the small events of the war have been sharp and deadly affairs, and it would seem that the Prussian commanders have more than once consented to sacrifice a company or two of Uhlans in order to draw the French troops on a false scent and keep the foe harassed and uneasy without result. Along the level roads about Metz and in the avenue leading to the different villages the cavalry companies appointed to the duty of reconnoitring have had a hard time of it, and the dragoons especially, who are best adapted to this duty, have been severely exercised. The French dragoon, however, is well up to his work; alert, active, and yet formidable in a charge, useless as his dash and energy have proved against the masses of German infantry armed with the

192 Images at War needle-gun. The llth Regiment, a detachment of which is represented in our Engraving, has done hard service during the war, and is among the crack corps of the Imperial army.

In short, the political approach to the war took different turns according to the editorial intentions at the base of each publication. The editors undoubtedly knew the characteristics of their readership, and chose to feed them with what they felt should be remembered. Yet cheap papers had a larger distribution than the more expensive ones, and it is my contention that wealthy people read more than one publication, especially during periods of war. Canadian Periodicals

The political approach of the Opinion publique was rather different from that of the Canadian Illustrated News, even if many of its engravings were the same as those of its English counterpart. During the thirtyeight-week period covered by my research, the francophone paper contained eight pages from the beginning of July to the end of December, and then twelve from the beginning of January to the end of March, and carried sixty-one engravings of the Franco-Prussian War. The Canadian Illustrated news, containing sixteen pages all along, had eighty-four engravings of the war. We have already seen that the ratio of images of war/length of paper was much higher for the Opinion publique, 'a periodical targeting the French-Canadian community which saw France,' one of the two countries at war, as the 'fatherland/ Among those images, forty-seven were common to both papers, and were usually published in very short intervals; some were published in the francophone paper first, others in the anglophone. This left 23 per cent of the space for original engravings in the francophone publication and 43 per cent in the anglophone. However, there were other important differentiations that suggest a much greater interest in the war for the francophone paper. In the first place, the Opinion publique devoted close to 27 per cent of its front pages to coverage of the war while the Canadian Illustrated News reserved only 5 per cent. In addition, the former filled another 18 per cent of its front pages with articles on the war, in contrast to barely 8 per cent for the latter. Moreover, most of the fourteen original engravings in the Opinion publique were published during the period of the siege of Paris, the period during which its counterpart relied heavily on Prussian periodicals with their

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advantageous pictures of the Prussians. Indeed, if we exclude the five portraits of French generals published in September 1870, the francophone paper had only one original engraving during the twenty-one weeks preceding December 1870, and eight during the seventeen weeks from 1 December 1870 to 30 March 1871. They covered the revolution in Paris and the subsequent proclamation of the republic (41: 313), the defence of Mont Valerien (50: 393) (both on front pages), the market and town hall in Orleans (51: 404), the toll door of Versailles (1: 8), Empress Eugenie (3:31), and some other trivial issues. Among the engravings published in the Canadian Illustrated News, very few brought new information. There were more on military weapons, on the Prussian army, on the departure of soldiers, on Sedan, and on military camps than in the francophone version. Nevertheless, a few of its engravings were not covered by the Opinion publique. They showed issues such as the dismantling of the bridge between Strasbourg and Kehl, signed by Smeeton, the main engraver for the Illustration (8:117); the scene of the French Senate accepting the declaration of war (8:125); the press ambulances (13: 208); the societies for aid to the wounded (15: 241); the important and cruel battle of St Remy (19: 305); Strasbourg after the Prussian bombardment (23: 353); and the electric light that was developed by the French to reveal the Prussian strategies around Paris (2: 21). Interestingly, the original engravings were only adding to what the readers already knew from the texts since they were mostly published after January 1871. Political ruptures therefore expressed the divergence that existed among and between illustrated newspapers. They help us to understand the approach of each paper in their war coverage. While related to the initial declarations of intention of the publications, they did not always totally reflect these intentions. On the other hand, when a paper such as the Illustrated Times, for instance, chose to make a clear break with its initial approach of objectivity, it felt compelled to explain its new position. As it is, political ruptures are momentous because they allow us to draw a 'map' of the different approaches of the papers studied, and to have at least some of their positions explained to the readers. In the papers studied, they revealed divergent approaches: the intractable pro-Prussian stance of the Illustrated London News, the more mitigated position of the three other English and the English-Canadian publications, the politically distancing tone of the Illustration trying, but not succeeding, to be 'objective,' and finally the clearly stated pro-French position of the other French and French-Canadian papers.

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Political ruptures are thus important to remember as they illustrate the way each paper would react to periodical ruptures, as we will see below. Periodical Ruptures Periodical ruptures take place when an unexpected event enables, or forces, a publication to shift significantly from its original position. In the case of the coverage of the 1870 war, they enabled the papers to adjust the tone of their illustrated and written discourses, and entitled them to reinforce their nationalist tone in the French and Prussian cases, or the commiserating attitude of the papers from other countries. This type of rupture often allows a deeper analysis, which procures a better informed evaluation of the situation. This is not always the case, however, since it can also provoke a paranoid attitude, which translates into extreme statements as we will see later on. French Periodicals

Among the French illustrated periodicals, the three that had a continued circulation during the whole conflict experienced more than one periodical rupture as there was more than one unexpected event in this drole de guerre. Each of these events had some influence on the political stance adopted by each newspaper. These ruptures brought about new themes to be explored by the papers, themes supporting their political stance. As for political rupture, some of the themes related to periodical ruptures were common to all papers. However, others were quite unique. Some events were unavoidable and shocked the whole population, including the papers' editors. Unthinkable at the beginning of the war, their suddenness and unpredictability had an immediate influence on the content of the papers. Such events included the successive defeats and, more particularly, the confidence that the French defeats gave to the Prussians, confidence which, for instance, led them to attack French cities such as Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace; Napoleon Ill's surrender and, as a consequence, the siege, the bombardment, and the capitulation of Paris; and finally the armistice, with the entry of the Prussian army into Paris. These events were illustrated by all the periodicals still publishing at the time of their occurrence, usually during the same week, though with slight variations. Even the engravings covering the

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same event were generally depicted differently. These three topics forced the periodicals to adopt a new line, a mixture of national pride and confidence in the French civil and military forces, and of rejection, contempt, and suspicion of anything related to the Prussians. Though all the papers covered the French army's victory at Saarbriicken and the defeats at Wissembourg and Reichsoffen, which occurred within a few days, they did it in different weeks and from divergent perspectives, some giving more importance to the Saarbriicken victory, others to the Wissembourg and Reichsoffen defeats. For instance, the Univers illustre never mentioned Wissembourg but carried two illustrations of Saarbriicken, one showing the French army taking over Saarbriicken, signed by Trichon (813: 513), the other a panoramic view of the city (815: 557) on 27 August; it also depicted the battlefield of Reichsoffen on the cover of 20 August 1870 (814: 529). On the other hand, the paper concentrated on Strasbourg, which the Prussians prepared to attack, showing five engravings of that city and one of Thionville, near Strasbourg.1 That periodical obviously did not have the financial means to send correspondents to every strategic site and thus tried to foresee the Prussians' next move. However, Strasbourg was not the most intensive seat of war at the time, being much less active than Sedan or even Metz.13 The Presse illustree was more up to date in its coverage than the Univers illustre, despite the fact that the paper was much cheaper.14 During a three-week period, the paper thoroughly covered some of the most important events of the war, that is, those that determined its outcome. Indeed, in the five issues published during the series of French defeats,15 the paper offered two illustrations of Saarbriicken,16 three engravings on Wissembourg17 and finally only one of Reichsoffen, published rather late, on 25 August 1870 (150: 8). Forbach, another disappointing defeat for France was shown twice, first on the front page for 25 August 1870 (150: 1), and then in the next issue three days later (151: 4-5). The Journal illustre made no mention at all of those important battles, except for an original engraving showing a bombarded house in Forbach (340: 264). This is an interesting rupture between the two low-income papers, the first break, up to then, between their political strategies on the coverage of war. Both the Illustration and the Monde illustre definitely saw the three French defeats as a rupture in the unfolding of the war and stressed it in their discourse. The former wrote on 13 August 1870: 'France is invaded! After three victories, the Prussians are at our frontiers, ready

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to go into a conclusive battle and, in front of that peril, Paris, like the other French cities, has only one thought: The fatherland is in danger! Paris is left with only one duty: the safety of France! Paris is left with only one cry: To arms! No singing in the streets! No talking of patriotism! No discourse! No comments! More arms! More arms!' This patriotic discourse, formulated at the same time as the paper was ordering people to stop talking and to act was, however, less emotional than that of the Monde illustre. In fact, from then on, this publication abundantly used the theme of 'consolation/ undoubtedly to comfort its readers and raise their national pride, which had been badly hurt by the latest defeats. This strategy began with Charles Yriarte's 'Courrier de Paris' of 20 August 1870: 'I propose to write the names of Wissembourg, Reichsoffen, and Forbach on a memorial. We have been vanquished, but such defeats are victories. It is of course upsetting, but what a beautiful fall! There are Thermopyles [sic] in all that, each soldier is a hero.' Despite its obvious concern about these defeats, the Illustration was far from covering them as thoroughly as one would have expected from a 'political' periodical. Indeed, it offered one engraving of the Saarbriicken French victory (1433: 128); two of the defeat of Wissembourg (1433: 129; 1434: 145); and a two-page picture related to Forbach, showing the retreat of MacMahon from Saverne (1433: 132-3). The paper had nothing at all on Forbach, despite the fact that it was one of the war's most important defeats after Sedan and Metz, but did show two engravings of the battle of Gravelotte, which turned out to be a French victory. In fact, apart from the engravings related to some useful knowledge about the war - military technology and strategy, organization of the assistance to the wounded, and the like - most of the Illustration engravings were on Paris or its surroundings. It is difficult to decide if this limitation in site coverage was due to egocentrism, lack of financial means, or simply a short-sighted view. The Monde illustre, on the other hand, covered these events thoroughly with four engravings of Saarbriicken won, and then lost, by the French, two of Forbach, and one of Reichsoffen.18 In addition, the publication produced three engravings of the battle of Gravelotte, and five of Metz, a bitter loss for the French.19 This periodical had announced that it would cover the most important events of the war like no other paper. It seems that it kept its word. These examples reveal not only periodical ruptures in each French paper's agenda, but also political ones at the level of strategies and policies used for war coverage.

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The surrender of Napoleon III at the battle of Sedan on 3 September 1870 was an interesting case. While four of the five papers covered that event using the themes of the castle where the French emperor was confined and of the king of Prussia's visit to Napoleon III there, only the Monde illustre showed the very act of capitulation, a shameful act, as was the departure of the ex-emperor into exile.20 This last engraving was accompanied by a very strong and harsh article denigrating and belittling the emperor. This paper, which had been supported by Napoleon III to the point that it was almost seen as the 'official' paper, was the harshest over this cowardly act, which it saw as the ultimate humiliation, perhaps because the paper had given him so much support. Indeed, barely one month earlier, Maxime Vauvert, in his 'Bulletin de la guerre' of 6 August 1870, had profusely praised the emperor upon his arrival at the Metz railway station: 'Soldiers, city dwellers, country folks formed a hedge from the train station to the imperial residence. What cries! What acclamation! The enthusiasm burst out in all directions. Nothing compelled. Nothing compelled, but what an ovation! Anyway, enthusiasm cannot be created on command ... Looking at Napoleon III, one could see war coming and welcome the knightly vigil.' This emperor, who had been extolled to the skies a few weeks earlier, was dethroned by journalists and illustrators alike. In the same column on 17 September, Vauvert wanted to mobilize his readers, so he clearly denigrated Napoleon III, if not as a traitor, at least as a coward, stressing the hasty and premature aspect of his surrender. 'According to some accounts, the parliamentary flag would have been displayed while whole regiments were still righting ... no one expected this surrender ... not even the king of Prussia ... Only one man decided that capitulation; that man was Napoleon III.' And the columnist went on: And it was the French emperor who found that the words 'surrender' and 'honourable' did not clash together! Of such an affront, that no people ever had to endure, a Bonaparte was proud! It was he, this fatal man, who, without seeking advice from the army or from any member of the city of Sedan, had the parliamentary flag displayed above the door of the city by one of his faithful servants, the general Lauriston, a flag made of a towel and perhaps even a broomstick, as they could not find a readymade flag. They were in a hurry, so they made do with what was handy. All the same, the towel, the broomstick, in such circumstances and in such hands, formed a singular juxtaposition.21

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This scornful statement about Napoleon III and the grief over the defeat were complemented by engravings that attempted to show a positive side to the French defeat. For example, in the illustration entitled 'Bataille de Sedan - Le 3e zouave [sic] refusant de capituler, se fraye un passage a travers les masses enemies' (701:188), Darjou illustrated the courage and determination of simple soldiers, thus applying balm to the cruel wound of the surrender. On the other hand, the engravings of Napoleon III showed how the periodical, or at least its sketchers, draughtsmen, and engravers, wanted the French people to remember him. Two of them were very humiliating for the ex-emperor; one, entitled 'Porte de Sedan ou le capitaine Lauriston plac,a le drapeau parlementaire pour la reddition de la place' (701: 180), signed by SD, depicted a door of excessive dimensions, that of the city of Sedan, on which one can barely see a small personage unfurling a white flag (figure 5). This image suggests an alternative interpretation. Either it aimed at minimizing the very shameful act of their emperor's surrender so that the readers would not remember it (why show it at all, since the other papers did not bother?) or, more plausibly, the draughtsman or the engraver, and the Monde illustre publisher of the image, wanted to ridicule those who had decided on this act.22 Indeed, the unidentifiable and ridiculously small person standing on the door of Sedan in a drawing that placed emphasis on the door itself, shaking what seems to be a handkerchief, does not lend credit to Napoleon III. The insignificance of the person in this illustration expresses the new insignificance of Napoleon III, now fallen not only from the political stage, but also from the French people's hearts. Moreover, the small white handkerchief, instead of the big white flag we saw in the Illustrated London News, seems to personify the act itself. In a second engraving entitled 'La guerre - De Bellevue a Bouillon (Belgique) - Napoleon III traverse le champ de bataille de Sedan' (701: 184), the sketcher Moullin and draughtsman Janet represented the wholly despicable aspect of Napoleon Ill's behaviour. The illustration shows Napoleon III comfortably sitting in his barouche, accompanied by his servants and making his way across the battlefield at Sedan, where the bodies of hundreds of dead soldiers, his soldiers, and their horses lie after the bloody confrontation (figure 14). Vauvert, in his 'Bulletin1 de la guerre,' reinforced the contempt already strongly expressed in the picture: After his interview with Wilhelm, the ex-emperor, shameful prisoner of the Prussians, left for Belgium, which he had to go through to reach Ger-

Managing the Unexpected 199 many. In his carriage, with his green valets, his messengers, his postillions, and his bells, as if he were going to the races, he crossed the battlefield. There was no danger for him anymore. Thus, he was smoking his fag. On his right and his left lay dead bodies, still warm, and whose last cry was one of damnation against him. There, on his left, in a pile, were some valiant cavalrymen fallen in the battle. Here were the infantrymen, with their bodies ripped by the thieving birds during the night. Bits of flesh, bits of uniforms, legs broken, arms twisted, heads split, splashes of bleeding brain, and lots of armour, kepis, golden and woollen epaulettes, covered with mud. The crime that he committed spreads there in all its horror, its bloody nudity. He passes, impassive, still smoking his fag. This criminal and hideous battlefield will awaken no remorse from that man who, in front of the crushing of France, only thinks of the millions that he put aside. Let us not worry. He made France sweat blood and gold; he will know how to make his exile sweet.23

The amount of space, but also the tone used in the illustrations and the texts for the coverage of the ex-emperor's hasty surrender, and the digression from the norm of keeping a positive political line whatever happened, clearly show that Napoleon III had committed an extremely serious mistake. Indeed, all that was left to the French after this defeat was consolation in the bravery and courage of their soldiers. Napoleon Ill's behaviour deprived them of even that last refuge. It was therefore necessary to inscribe it in the French people's memory in such a way that the source of such a mistake would never be forgotten. This approach finds no parallel in the other periodicals. Thus Sedan was an important step towards the changes that were brought to the content of the Monde illustre, much more so than in the other papers. The change had begun slowly, after the three defeats of Wissembourg, Forbach, and Reichsoffen, with an approach increasingly based on consolation. Had the paper not said on 20 August, 'We were vanquished, but such defeats are victories'? Had not the editor sent his readers to the English and German periodicals to get more details on the heroic behaviour of the French soldiers during the battles against the enemy that occurred on French territory? There was nothing that needed to be hidden then. However, the defeat of Sedan, and most particularly, the capitulation of Napoleon III, became the event that triggered the shift to the strategy of consolation, accepting the loss and stimulating patriotic feelings. Napoleon III, soon forgotten, and Sedan, almost immediately hidden in the content of all the papers, were rapidly and symbolically replaced by Paris, where there was still

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some hope. This hope was expressed by Edmond Morin in an engraving entitled 'La resistance de Paris' (709: 313), signed by E. Morin and L. Ghapon, in which a woman, clad in a diaphanous dress, raises a large flag on which '1870' is inscribed (figure 23). This woman, representing France, who is at least twice the size of the soldiers under her command for the defence of Paris, took the place of the incompetent generals who were losing the rest of France. The hope raised after Sedan was based partly on the proclamation of France as a republic. This was the only event that all papers covered.24 The Journal illustre did not represent the act of the proclamation of the republic as such, but offered two engravings to illustrate the event.25 Both the Illustration and the Univers illustre depicted the coming of the French people in the corps legislatif (1437: 197; 818: 593) and the first meeting of the new government (1438: 225; 818: 600); the latter appeared on the front page of the Illustration. After many years of authoritarian government where the people had little power, it seemed important to show the readers the change of approach of the new republic. It is also intriguing that the Journal illustre, which reached the mass of lowincome people, would not represent this new turn in governing. A last event, which raised a similar reaction from the papers, was the siege of Paris. Since the siege lasted about four months, the coverage was extended and abundant in the two papers still publishing fully. Numerous engravings covered various themes.26 The most prevalent themes were 'Siege de Paris' and 'Defense de Paris,' on which the Monde illustre published eighty engravings, and the Illustration fortyeight.27 Each of these themes explored a certain number of topics. I expected the topics under each theme to be noticeably different, at least different enough to change the title of the engraving. However, this was not really the case. The engravings portraying the defence of Paris depicted military artillery and strategies, the installation of military camps, technologies, regiments, ambulances, and the like, as well as showing the Parisian territory, particularly the large boulevards and the beautiful parks of the city such as the Tuileries, the Jardins du Luxembourg, and the Bois de Boulogne. The cutting or burning of the century-old trees to make space for the army, to prevent the Prussians from hiding in these convenient places, or simply to provide Parisians with firewood was another popular theme (figure 24).28 Some parks were so large that they could accommodate soldiers and peasants at the same time without them seeing each other.29 Notwithstanding the tremendous length of the siege, which no one could have foreseen,

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23 Paris's resistance, Monde illustre, no. 709, p. 313.

24 Bois de Boulogne, Paris, Illustrated London News, no. 1634, p. 96.

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building a supply of food sufficient for the capital was not a simple matter. So engravings, perhaps to appease the anxiety of the readers, provided many representations of meat storage, flour production, and various means of food storage. Many other 'small' topics were explored on the theme 'siege of Paris/ and as many on 'the defence of Paris/ two themes often complementary and even interchangeable in the newspapers' discourse. The theme of the defence of Paris first appeared in the Illustration on 20 August 1870, brought about by Smeeton and A.D. Marly (1434:152), and entitled 'La defense de Paris - Mise en etat de 1'enceinte fortifiee, vue prise a la Porte-Maillot/ It depicted workers building or reinforcing the fortifications of Paris with members of the bourgeoisie watching them. It was reproduced in the Journal illustre on 11 September 1870 (344: 296; figure 25), the Presse illustree on 24 September 1870 (155: 4), and the Illustrated London News on 3 September 1870 (1611: 240) with slightly different titles. It was also shown in other papers in different versions.30 The siege of Paris began with the arrival of the king of Prussia at Versailles, the illustrious chateau built by and for Louis XIV and representing the glory of France. It was indeed the humiliation par excellence inflicted on the French by the Prussians. Yet none of the French papers, except the Journal illustre,31 portrayed this exceptional event in its engravings, though A. Deroy and F. Lix had a drawing in the Monde illustre entitled 'Investissement de Paris - Versailles, quartier general du roi de Prusse - Une revue sur la place d'armes' (711: 344), beautifully engraved by A. Daudenarde which alluded to this event. In fact, while from 10 September to 31 December 1970 the themes of the siege and defence of Paris occupied barely 27 per cent of the pictorial content of the Illustration, they took almost 40 per cent of the illustrated space of the Monde illustre. Strangely though, during that period only three of the engravings (e.g., 706: 268), among the eighty the latter devoted to the issue, had a negative connotation; four others, with the Prussians as subjects, can be classified as 'consolation' (e.g., 714: 397). Perhaps the paper's editor wanted to avoid any negative representations being engraved in French memories. Even after these dramatic events, the Illustration tried to maintain a matter-of-fact tone in its engravings as much as in its texts; it did not always succeed, if we are to believe Theophile Gautier's article, published on 19 November 1870.32 The engravings in both papers were devoted almost entirely to what was happening in Paris even though important events were

204 Images at War

25 Building fortifications in Paris, Journal illustre, no. 344, p. 296.

Managing the Unexpected 205

going on in other parts of the country. It must be remembered, however, that the siege made the transmission of information from the outside world to the capital very difficult. The Prussians were so successful in either destroying or blocking all means of communication with Paris that the capital became completely isolated.33 The use of pigeons to bypass the enemy's blockade was illustrated in many papers (figure 26), but particularly in the Monde illustre (figure 27).34 The aerostats also constituted a big attraction for the Parisians (figure 9), who had very few distractions during the siege. Long articles and numerous engravings were published on their use in the Journal illustre,35 the Monde illustre,36 and particularly the Illustration.37 The Univers illustre never mentioned any of those new postal methods, but portrayed 'La poste militaire Prussienne dans les departements envahis/ which was unsigned (825: 664), and which seems to confirm my previous statement to the effect that the paper published mostly Prussian engravings that were undoubtedly provided by the German papers.38 The siege of Paris, following many disastrous defeats, brought with it a new topic: spies. As part of the consolation process, some periodicals began to make reference to the Prussian spy system. The French defeats were cruel, and it became necessary to find scapegoats for them. The Monde illustre reserved more than one article for a discussion of the Prussian spy system, hinting that it was dishonest, and even immoral; it seems that spying tactics were not yet developed systematically as part of a war.39 Charles Yriarte returned to the issue in his 'Courrier de Paris' of 20 August 1870: 'What is striking, here, is the expansion taken by the Prussian Institution [sic] of espionage. This is a whole administration, with its offices, its divisions, its main clerks, its employees, and its superiors. Prussians make war as they produce a locomotive, numbering the pieces.' Yriarte then added, with mockery and contempt, underlining the fishy side of this job: 'What do you think of these people who, for the last ten years, have kept military spies in our country, who have established their businesses, families, children, and homes in all our fortified cities, and whose work is limited to writing espionage reports/40 Though the other papers were much less insistent about this issue, the Univers illustre published, on 27 August 1870, an engraving, 'Paris Arrestation d'un espion sur la place de la bourse,' signed by Froment and Marie (815: 553), and accompanied by a short article explaining the situation. The Illustration also alluded to 'suspicious' people who were

26 Paris's new letter carrier, Graphic, no. 51, p. 484.

27 A pigeon house, Le Monde illustre, no. 707, p. 273.

208 Images at War

constantly being arrested and taken outside the Paris fortifications; prostitutes and vagabonds were the most suspected individuals, because the authorities were afraid that they would readily accept money or food from the Prussians in exchange for information. Deserters were also used, by two publications, as 'stimulators' of nationalistic feelings. While, in the issue of 8 October 1870 of the Illustration, Smeeton portrayed deserters surrounded by armed soldiers (1440: 265), the Monde illustre demonstrated much outrage by publishing two illustrations, on 1 and 8 October 1870, in which Rickebusch portrayed deserters as they marched through Paris with signs around their necks saying 'Miserable coward has abandoned his post in front of the enemy and deserves for all citizens to spit in his face' (703: 220; 704: 236; see figure 15). There were also two short articles accompanying them. The Monde illustre did not like cowards any better than it did spies. There was no lack of periodical ruptures in 1871. Four important events marked the beginning of that year in relation to the evolution of the war. The first one was the bombardment of Paris by the Prussian army. When the Prussians realized that the Parisians would not surrender, even if the isolation caused by the siege deprived them of almost everything needed for survival, they started to bombard the capital towards the end of December 1870. The bombardment intensified as the month of January went on, to the point where, in the end, there was no respite even during the night; it was concentrated in the north around Saint-Denis and in the south on the Left Bank in the quartier latin. Engravings were full of that disastrous event, and its effects: parts of the city destroyed, historical monuments eradicated, houses devastated, basements used as places of refuge for the inhabitants, and lastly the total ruins of some parts of the city. Finally came the armistice with the entry of the Prussian army into Paris, the public loan that France had to negotiate in order to pay reparation for the damage the war inflicted on the Prussians, and the withdrawal of the enemy from France and the political activities that followed.41 The Univers illustre, still publishing but considerably diminished in size, reproduced three engravings on the bombardment,42 three on the armistice,43 one on the evacuation of the Prussians,44 and two on the National Assembly in Bordeaux.45 Moreover, there were some portraits and images of the Prussian soldiers' activities. The Illustration had an intriguing strategy in relation to some of these events; instead of publishing engravings covering the incidents when

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they were happening, it showed most of them after they were over. For instance, between 1 and 28 January 1871, during the period of intense bombardment, the Monde illustre carried sixteen engravings related to that event while the Illustration showed only four.46 Nevertheless, the following month, between 4 and 25 February 1871, the latter published eleven engravings and the former only four.47 Why the Illustration would wait until the bombardment was over before publishing these engravings, is not clear. The editor adopted a similar strategy when the armistice was officially declared on 28 January 1871, with the Convention de Paris signed in Versailles. Though the Illustration referred to the armistice on 4 and then 11 February,48 none of its engravings announced it as a special event like the Monde illustre did on the front page of its issue of 11 February, with an engraving entitled: 'I/armistice - Discussion des articles de la convention d'armistice signee le 28 Janvier a Versailles/ signed by G. Janet and Morel (722: 81). Yet, a month later, the Illustration published a very powerful allegory of the signing of this convention, which clearly expressed the position of the periodical (1463: 140; figure 28). Another interesting difference between these papers is that the Monde illustre returned to this theme only three times after having announced the event on the front page, while the Illustration alluded to the event several times,49 especially after 1 March 1871; this was the day the enemy marched into Paris, and the paper was thereby reminding its readers that, though the Prussians were occupying Paris, an armistice had been signed and the enemy could not impose on them anymore. The Monde illustre chose a completely different strategy, focusing on some of the events that happened during the occupation, so that the Parisians would not forget that these Prussian soldiers now in Paris had made the city suffer during the four-month siege.50 Despite their differences, both approaches were clearly meant to enhance national unity. Each periodical had its own strategy for coping with the painful event of the entry of the Prussian army into Paris. The Illustration chose to ignore the event. In his column 'Courrier de Paris' of 4 March 1871, Henri Cozic said: 'There is only one dignified way to talk about it; it is to remain silent. Not only will the Illustration not talk about it, but it will not publish any engravings that could be a reminder of a page that everyone would like to tear out of our history/ Of course, to tell the readers that they would not talk about it was, in fact, talking about it. But, true to their word, they published no engravings on the event, though they published some related to it.51 For the Monde illustre,

28 France signing the peace treaty, Illustration, no. 1463, p. 140.

Managing the Unexpected 211 Edmond Morin produced an engraving entitled: 'ler mars 1871 - Paris en deuil - Ecusson allegorique par M. Edmond Morin' (725:129), published on 4 March on the front page. After the armistice, the Illustration devoted several of its engravings to various scenes of people's daily lives in the outskirts of Paris, as well as the departure of some Prussian soldiers who were taking with them the most valuable goods possessed by the French, in a series called 'De Paris a Meaux pendant I'armistice/ signed by Smeeton and A Darjou (1465: 173). Meanwhile, le Monde illustre had a series entitled 'Paris pendant 1'occupation/ which showed views of the boulevards during the occupation of Paris. It was published on 11 March 1871, and signed by several artists: Morel, F. Lix, Morin, Coste, Vierge, and F. Meaulle (726:149,156). Two weeks after the entry of the Prussians into Paris, the Commune began. Given the importance of that new event, engravings covering the Franco-Prussian War started to give way to those covering the Commune so that by the week of 1 April 1871, they had already taken precedence over those of the war. Nevertheless, the conflict was still going on in other parts of France, and engravings showing the bombardment of Mezieres (1466:182-3; 750:129) and Strasbourg (1473: 273; 1478: 353, 365, 368; 750: 136) were shown in the Illustration and in the Monde illustre. However, some events related to the Franco-Prussian War were still to come and were deemed important enough for the periodicals to return to the issue. For instance, the loan negotiated by France to pay off her debt to the Prussians was the subject of engravings at the beginning of July 1871 in the Monde illustre (742: 13,16; 745: 53). The repatriation of French soldiers from Germany where they had been held prisoner was also an event worthy of modifying the regular agenda which was still very much devoted to the Commune (746: 68-9). But the big event was the withdrawal, following the payment of the debt, of the Prussians from the occupied cities of France. Several engravings were devoted to that particular event in the Monde illustre starting on 2 September 1871 (751: 148), and continuing through the following weeks (754: 193, 196, 197; 755: 224). The year 1871 ended with some engravings showing various commemorations of French defeat at the hands of the Prussians.52 The Monde illustre ended 1871 with two revealing engravings; 'Alsace,' signed by F. Lix (767: 405), showed a young Alsatian girl dressed in the region's traditional dress with sadness, but also some hope, in her look; 'L'an 1871,'signed by Morin and

212 Images at War

Coste (767: 413), an allegory created by Edmond Morin, revealed all the disasters which had befallen France during that year. A ray of hope for 1872 lay quietly in a corner of the picture. English Periodicals

In an unsigned article entitled 'English Sympathy with France/ which was published on 14 January 1871 on the front page of the Illustrated Times, the author explained the process leading to a periodical rupture; it is a significant shift in the initial position on coverage of the war induced by the occurrence of a particular event: At the commencement of the war, opinion in Great Britain was almost wholly on the side of Germany. Why? Because Englishmen believed the Germans - the attacked party - to be in the right, and their opponents the assailant - to be in the wrong; and we freely spoke out our opinions ... But things have changed: right has passed from one side to the other; and English opinion and sympathy have followed it. The Germans, from being engaged in a war to resist an attempt at territorial spoliation, are now combatting to secure territorial aggrandisement; while the French, from embarking on a crusade against their neighbours' soil, are fighting to defend their own. That makes a mighty difference in the relative position of parties, especially in the eyes of a people who, like us, deem wars waged for territorial acquisitions in no case justifiable.

Several elements of this discourse are pertinent. First, this situation was brought to light in the Illustrated Times, a paper that had demonstrated some sympathy for the French army from the beginning of the war. Moreover, the tone adopted was rather defensive and certainly justificatory. In addition, the article referred to a shift in the role of each army at war, with the assailant becoming the assailed, and vice versa, a fact that neither its engravings nor its articles had yet acknowledged. Finally and strangely, the paper seemed to adopt a more pro-Prussian position at the beginning of February, when the other periodicals, except the Illustrated London News, were beginning to shift their stance towards a more favourable opinion of the French army. So some questions come to mind: Had the paper been accused of too much sympathy for the French army? Did it pretend to a previous pro-Prussian position, which it had never really sustained, to please its readership? Could this be seen as a remonstrance for taking a position divergent

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from the hegemonic stance? This strategy, adopted either for political or commercial purposes, was seemingly aimed at reconciling the paper's 'marginal' position with what it had perceived as the dominant stance. Does that mean that there was, after all, a homogeneous conflictual imaginary? In fact, the first serious event which obliged the London press to shift its approach was the defeat at Sedan with Napoleon Ill's capitulation, an event which was put on the front page by the Illustrated London News in a very conspicuous manner. As we have seen, this paper did not miss any occasion to publish humiliating images of the French. In this case, an engraving, published on the front page of 17 September 1870, entitled The war: The surrender of Sedan,' and signed by NV (1613: 285), reproduced a close-up of a soldier, looking suspiciously like Napoleon III, standing on the door of Sedan, and waving the white flag of capitulation. Another soldier blowing a bugle stands beside the door (see figure 4; the same engraving was published in Harper's Weekly on 15 October 1870, but not on its front page). The Illustrated London News was the only periodical studied to show this event on the front page, and in such an unmistakable way. But the paper did not stop there to truly fix this particular event in the mind of its readers. In the same issue was an unsigned engraving entitled 'The revolution in Paris: Jules Favre proclaiming the deposition of the Emperor in the corps legislative' (1613: 301), and another one on the celebration of the revolution in Paris. Not that the paper approved of this change of gov ernment. On the contrary, it, like Queen Victoria, quite liked Napoleon III. In fact, the Ilustrated London News made its bread and butter from that event, adding several other engravings in the following weeks, which showed the ex-emperor interviewed by the king of Prussia (1613: 289) and by Bismarck (1613: 292), wounded French soldiers in the church of Sedan (1615: 333), Prussian officers receiving the parole of French officers after Sedan (1615: 336), French prisoners on the road from Sedan (1615: 337), the guns captured by the Prussians at Sedan (1615: 345), the captured French horses after the battle of Sedan (1615: 356), Wilhelmshoehe, Napoleon Ill's residence in captivity (1615: 360), and finally Marshal Bazaine's surrender (1622: 492-3). The Graphic was much more discreet than its main competitor on this particular issue, with an engraving entitled 'The capitulation of Sedan - French prisoners of war leaving the town' (42: 285), which was unsigned and published on the last page of the issue of 17 September 1870, taking only half of the page. It was an engraving showing

214 Images at War

unarmed French soldiers leaving Sedan, with a few Prussian soldiers watching them. Moreover, the placement of the engraving within the paper, and the date when it was published, indicates that the Graphic did not want to humiliate the French any more than necessary. Contrary to its competitor, it chose to present the event as a cause for celebration, with two engravings: 'Burning the effigy of Napoleon III/ which was unsigned (43: 292) and showed a group of French people dancing around the fire; and 'A champagne supper at Epernay,' also unsigned (45: 353) and depicting a French family celebrating around a table. In addition, the editor sympathized with the 'dreadful sufferings which the inhabitants of fortified towns had to endure in war time/53 The Illustrated Times did not publish any engravings on the capitulation itself, only one showing the castle where Napoleon III was to be detained. Since, to that point, most of its engravings came from the Monde illustre, which had carried quite a few engravings of the events related to the emperor's surrender, one might expect to see more of them in the London paper. Yet, they did not really provoke a periodical rupture in the previous agenda of these two papers, which continued to carry representations of a variety of activities happening in Paris and France. In contrast, the Illustrated London News had stopped reporting war news from different areas in France to concentrate on the surrender and show it in a very definite light to its readers. Still, as for the French newspapers, the capitulation of Sedan was not the only event that caused periodical ruptures in the English papers' agendas. The siege of Paris, which nominally began on 15 September 1870, was perhaps even more instrumental in provoking such a shift.54 None of the London publications thought that the siege would last more than a few days, or two or three weeks at the most. After they were cut off from Paris by the Prussians in the middle of October, the papers concentrated on other topics. The London Illustrated News emphasized the situation in Strasbourg, its siege and its fall, as another occasion to stress the weakness of the French army.55 Some engravings were devoted to the defence of Paris, or more particularly its outskirts.56 The Graphic's engravings covered a wider variety of themes than its main competitor. Some of them were so remotely connected to the event that one needed to read the description to catch their meaning. In fact, while the Illustrated London News readers were well acquainted with the main events of the war, the Graphic's, though informed about the main military activities,57 were mostly entertained with trivial news such as 'View of Paris from Prince Napoleon's garden at Meudon,'

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unsigned (48: 425); 'Sounding the reveille at the porte de Choissy/ signed by H. Harral (48: 428); 'Prussian gardening/ signed by AWC and H. Harral (49: 449), or 'Inside Paris: Two sous for a peep at the Prussians' (from a sketch by balloon), unsigned (49: 436). Even the engravings covering the siege as such often depicted light topics, as if the paper did not want to offend its readers with illustrations showing crude scenes. The Illustrated Times adopted that strategy even more fully than the Graphic. The latter's readers were at least informed about the siege of Paris, as the paper showed some of the activities happening on its doorstep, and about Versailles, although it did not show the most gruesome representations. However, the Illustrated Times's readers might not have even known that such an event was taking place. The Prussians' blockade cut off the paper's sources of illustrated information, namely, the Monde illustre, so that the editor had to use outdated topics to fill the pages. For instance, several illustrations shown in December were of the battle of Gravelotte, which had occurred at the end of August; others concerning the events of Sedan, which had happened in early September 1870 were also published in December.58 Its most up-to-date engravings were of the Prussian camp, and even then there were only a few.59 In fact, both the Graphic and the Illustrated Times began to use quite a few engravings unconnected to the war after the siege began, and especially after communications with their Parisian sources were completely cut off. The Penny Illustrated Paper was also affected by the siege of Paris. Though the paper had tried to remain neutral up until then, except for taking the side of the poor and unfortunate victims of the war on both sides, the siege, and most particularly the bombardment, of the French capital by the Prussians, forced the editor to take sides. From that time on, the paper published front-page engravings with such titles as 'German looting at Mont Avron,' unsigned (486: 33), showing the barbarism of the Germans, and The fighting before le Mans: Courageous stand of the French,' also unsigned (486: 40). These engravings were very positive towards the French, discreetly suggesting whose side the paper was on.60 The bombardment of Paris by the Prussians, and the armistice, also provoked some change in the illustration agenda of the English periodicals. Most papers were interested in the following themes: military activities of the French and Prussian armies, the effects of the bombardment, and the Parisians' provisioning.61 Some lighter themes such

216 Images at War

as the festivities of the Prussian soldiers at Versailles were also represented.62 An important event which happened at the beginning of 1871 and which was covered by all the London papers, except for the Penny Illustrated Paper, was the proclamation of the king of Prussia as the emperor of the new reunited Germany at the palace of Versailles. Illustrations of the event were carried in the week of 4 February 1871 in both the Illustrated London News (1635: 101) and, surprisingly, in the Illustrated Times (829: 73). It was reported in the Graphic (63:121) only a week later. Despite some common themes, each paper had original engravings. From the Illustrated London News, we can see many: the president of the North-German Federal Assembly reading a declaration for the establishment of a German bund to the emperor (1631:1); searching for arms at Versailles (1632:32); Parisian school boys collecting gifts for the relief of the wounded (1632: 49); making charcoal in the bois de Boulogne (1633: 56); waiting for coke at the gasworks, the Italy Gate, Paris (1633: 58); and lighter topics such as the Lanterne de Rochecorbon, an ancient beacon-tower of feudal times in the valley of the Loire (1633: 60); and Christmas day sports at Versailles (1632: 29). The Illustrated London News had definitely chosen to relax its grip on hard facts. The Graphic also had quite a few original engravings covering many topics: the last bivouac on the crest of a hill between Champigny and Villiers (58: 1011); the gunboats on the Loire captured at Orleans by the Prussians (58: 13); the mayor of Tours on his way to ask for a cessation of the bombardment, and the death of M. Reurtheret, the editor of the Union liberate, at Tours (59: 41). It also covered lighter topics such as French soldiers cutting up dead horses (58: 4); and a Prussian soldier's Christmas tree (61: 88). The Illustrated Times had such engravings as 'German soldiers doing [sic] potatoes in Paris' (825: 12); the 'Market place at Diedenhofen after the surrender' (827: 40-1); and the bombarded artist's quarters in Le Mans (828: 56). Finally, the Penny Illustrated Paper produced a few: Moltke in danger from a shell from Paris (487: 49) and the daily life of French refugees living in London (487: 57). After the armistice, the themes used changed once again, covering such topics as the revictualling of Paris, the German in Paris, and the departure of the German from the capital. While these three themes constitute most of the Illustrated London News's content, they were less numerous in the Graphic, and were limited to a few illustrations in the Illustrated Times and the Penny Illustrated Paper. Only the older paper used the term 'capitulation of Paris' (1639: 208-9); the others utilized

Managing the Unexpected 217 the words 'truce' and 'armistice.' Though there were still a few engravings of the effects of bombardment by the Prussians,63 the first engravings following the truce were of the revictualling of Paris, whose inhabitants had starved during the four months of siege, including oneand-a-half months of bombardment. Some papers, like the Illustrated London News, devoted quite a few engravings to that activity, taking the opportunity to praise the English people for providing food to the Parisians.64 The Graphic, the Illustrated Times, and the Penny Illustrated Paper were more modest and discreet on the issue showing no engravings of the 'gifts' from England, only a few on revictualling with topics quite different from the ones adopted by their main competitor.65 But by far the most popular topic in the English periodicals, after the armistice, was the presence of the Germans in Paris. The Illustrated London News had several engravings on this theme, which was hardly surprising, considering that one of their previous articles had contended that the Prussians had a right to enter Paris in order to crown their victory over the French. So the evidence of the reward of being able to occupy Paris, after spending so many months on its doorstep in Versailles, was abundantly reproduced in the illustrated newspaper. The first engraving on that topic, 'The first German in Paris/ signed by AH (1640: 221), was shown on the front page of the Illustrated London News on 11 March 1871, while the same engraving, but from a different angle, was reproduced in the Graphic; it, however, was unsigned, and only occupied half of an interior page of the paper (68: 241 ).66 Other topics on the same theme depicted the Germans at the Palais de 1'industrie (1640: 224), entering the Champs Elysees (1640: 228-9, and 1641: 261), at the Tuileries (1641: 253, 257), on the line demarking the Parisian territory where the Prussians were allowed to march (1641: 256), on rue de Rivoli (1641: 260), in the Place de la Concorde (1641: 264-5), as objects of curiosity and as undesirable visitors (1641: 260), and finally, their departure from Paris (1641: 269). The Graphic represented the Germans at the Arc de Triomphe (67: 216), at the Tuileries (68: 240), as objects of curiosity (71: 328), as courting a young French woman (67: 220), and as leaving Paris (68: 241, 244). One at least showed disapproval: 'Paris: on a balcony, March 1 1871, the celestial and the barbarians/ which was unsigned (68: 237), depicted a priest watching the Prussian troops marching down the Champs Elysees; The German in Paris - Waiting for a passage/ signed by EJG, for E.J. Gregory (68: 244; figure 29); and 'Irrepressible Uhlans in Paris/ also signed by EJG (69: 281) portrayed the Prussian soldiers,

29 German soldiers in Paris after the armistice, Graphic, no. 68, p. 244.

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obviously quite drunk, crawling on the pavement of the Champs Elysees. Finally, the Graphic produced two engravings on the celebration in Germany of the Prussian victory (69: 268 and 72: 337). The Illustrated Times had quite a few original engravings, unseen in any other papers and most of them unsigned. Some were on such serious topics as German soldiers fighting around Paris (826: 24); France signing the preliminaries of peace (837:197); and even a French victory by General Ducrot (826: 25, 28). Other issues were much lighter: German soldiers preparing for Christmas (825:13); and the market place at Thionville after the armistice (828: 51). The paper also produced engravings on outdated events, particularly events at Metz (828: 54, 57, 60, 61). A remarkable characteristic of the illustrated content of the Illustrated Times in 1871 was that it did not cover the bombardment, the capitulation, the revictualling, or the Germans in Paris at all. This surprising silence on these events can only be explained by the fact that the paper had no other newspapers to supply it with these themes, and no financial means to send a special artist to cover them in situ. The Penny Illustrated Paper's coverage in 1871 was closer to that of the Graphic than the Illustrated Times. Many serious topics were represented in mostly unsigned engravings: the bombardment of Paris (484: 5; 485:17, 25; 487: 49; 488: 65, 72, 73); the capitulation (488: 69); German and French batteries before Paris (486: 33, 37, and 487: 56); and the Germans in Paris (490: 97). Some illustrations were of the war in the countryside, especially in north France (485: 28 and 487: 53). Revictualling was illustrated, but without highlighting the English contribution (498: 81, 84, and 490:104), as were some lighter topics such as Germans making fascines (844:1). Even the last days of the siege were reproduced in a light tone; indeed, they were almost caricatured (489: 89). An interesting political assessment, not seen in other papers, was imparted through two engravings published on the same page; the top one, The food supply of Paris: The last victim of the famishing capital/ and the bottom one, 'The war: Germans with captured French cattle,' both unsigned (485: 29), did not need any explanation. Thus, the Penny Illustrated Paper, though much cheaper than the Illustrated Times, covered a wider range of topics for its readers. However, since at that period its engravings were often in the style of a caricature, one may assume that they may have been engraved from articles, and were not representations of actual events. The periodical ruptures were initially more obvious in the Graphic. Indeed, although the Illustrated Times's position was rather pro-French

220 Images at War

from the beginning, it had stereotypically portrayed the Prussians as competent and the French as undisciplined and frivolous, though courageous. The successive defeats of the imperial army forced a change in its themes of representation. Depression and humiliation were thereafter part of the imaginary vocabulary adopted by the paper. Thereupon, the Illustrated Times's articles covering the war focused on the misery of the French people rather than on the courage of its soldiers. While the Penny Illustrated Paper, despite its efforts to be neutral, remained rather pro-French for the whole conflict, the Illustrated London News persisted in being uncompromising: no supportive expression for the French army was evident. Although its editors expressed some sympathy for the French people, especially the Parisians, they never missed an occasion to remind them that their fate had been brought about by a regime that they had first elected and then supported. They also emphasized that the Prussians were justified in defending themselves when faced with the French attack, and admired the Prussians' 'extreme selfcontrol' as they were besieging a city which they were entitled to destroy; the editorial of 21 January 1871 stressed this: 'As we have said before, when the true story of this siege shall be told, most abundantly will be justified the sympathy now felt for the Parisians by such of us as nevertheless believe that no choice is left to the Emperor of Germany as to finishing the work that has been forced upon him.'Yet, despite its uncompromizing tone, one can observe a slight change in the paper's position when it declared that it disapproved of the Prussians' continuing to attack for the sole purpose of gaining new territory. This was the paper's first negative statement concerning this army. Nonetheless, the approach of the Illustrated London News and of the other papers was in almost total rupture: political and periodical. Such rupture, however, took a different meaning in the case of the German and Canadian illustrated periodicals. German and Canadian Periodicals

The Illustrirte Zeitung published its first engraving of Sedan on 17 Sep tember 1870, a view of the fortifications of the city. A week later, the paper showed an unsigned engraving of the castle of Wilhelmshoehe, which it identified as 'Napoleon Ill's residence/ This is only much later that the German periodical published several engravings of the battle of Sedan.67 None of them depicted Napoleon Ill's surrender, however. On the other hand, it pictured 'the proclamation of the French republic'

Managing the Unexpected 221

on 1 October 1870, almost a month after its occurrence. As for the siege of Paris, only one engraving showed a panoramic view of the French capital on 3 December 1870, more than two months after the beginning of the investment. The same picture had been shown much earlier in many other papers, including the Canadian ones. In any case, the Illustrirte Zeitung never reproduced the siege of Paris or the bombardment of the city. While communication was difficult during the siege, the paper could have shown some pictures after the armistice, as many publications did, especially as it had an affiliation with the Univers illustre. Also strange was the fact that the periodical reproduced the proclamation of King Wilhelm as the emperor of Germany, which had occurred at Versailles at the end of December, only on 25 February 1871, while it showed the entrance of the German army into Paris barely one week after its occurrence. This suggests that the paper had the technical ability to show some events synchronically. It is, therefore, even more difficult to explain the delays related to other events. In fact, the paper's engravings showed military events with as much, and sometimes with more, delay than the Canadian and the American papers, while the written coverage was usually on cue. In the Canadian periodicals, the illustration of the defeat of Sedan, which brought about the surrender of Napoleon III, was published only on 1 October, on a full page; an unsigned engraving towards the middle of the issue. A few pages later in the same issue, another illustration, signed by Meaulle and Andrieux, also occupied a full page (14 [1870]: 220, 225). Three others were published in the week of 15 October. On the front page, 'Wilhelmshohe, the residence of the emperor/ unsigned (16 [1870]: 245), showed the castle where the king of Prussia had housed Napoleon III. On the following page, a small engraving, 'The cavalry charge at Sedan,' also unsigned (16 [1870]: 246), appeared. A few pages later, The war - The charge of the cuirassiers at Sedan/ unsigned (16 [1870]: 248), showed the charge of French cuirassiers against the Prussians. These last two pictures, depicting the bloody battlefields on which the two armies had had a terrible fight, with dead and wounded military men and horses, contrasted greatly with the first one, showing a large stately castle, nestled among beautiful forests and lakes, which housed the fallen emperor. This was as far as the Canadian Illustrated News would go to criticize the ex-emperor. On 5 November 1870, in the same series of French defeats, we find, in the same paper, engravings of two cruel defeats for the French, Bazeilles and St-Remy. The former had been published in other papers on 17 September, and the latter, as

222 Images at War

the caption underneath the engraving'noted, had originally appeared on 6 October. The Canadian Illustrated News was getting its information in part from the French periodicals; it became impossible to continue that collaboration after the siege. So a rupture in this paper's content was created by the fact that it started to borrow from the Illustrirte Zeitung. Though only one engraving was clearly signed, the style of others was recognizable.68 As such, almost all the engravings published showed the Prussians in an advantageous position. Here are a few examples. On 29 October 1870, an unsigned engraving entitled The treatment of French prisoners on their arrival at the railway station Berlin' (CIN 18: 289; OP 43: 341) consists of a full-page illustration set in the Berlin railway station depicting a large gathering of German civilians and soldiers, looking generous and friendly, greeting, feeding, and talking to a group of French soldiers. One interesting detail about this illustration is the play of race and ethnicity - the Germans in this illustration clearly look white-skinned while the French look darker, almost blackskinned. The differences cannot be attributed to the sketching alone because all of the faces would then appear in the same way. I was left wondering if the cultural connection between being French and being black or Indian was coming into play here, from a German point of view. Another example is an unsigned engraving published on 17 December and called 'The war - The arrival of the Prussian guard before Paris' (CIN 25: 400), which is a full-page illustration of the Prussian military lines just outside the Paris fortifications. Because of the restrictions arising out of using material from other papers, the Canadian Illustrated News seems to have experienced a rupture which appeared to be the opposite of that experienced by almost all the other papers; at the beginning of the siege of Paris, they seem to have become supportive of the Prussians, showing them in very advantageous positions and situations, somewhat similar to the coverage of the Univers illustre. The result was that the paper showed more engravings from the Prussian side than it had before the siege. The Opinion publique did not use as many engravings from the German paper as its anglophone counterpart did. Having only a few engravings in each issue and being very pro-French, it chose to show old events rather than to use pro-Prussian illustrations. In fact, neither Canadian paper showed many engravings concerning the siege of Paris. The Opinion publique had two indirect references to the event: 'Depart des etudiants pour la defense de Paris,' unsigned

Managing the Unexpected 223

(42: 332), and 'Marche aux viandes a Paris/ also unsigned (49: 389; figure 30). During that period, apart from carrying engravings portraying the Prussians, they produced some pictures from other cities: Strasbourg (CIN 22: 353); Lyon, the second most important city in France, which appeared to be preparing for an assault (CIN 1:12; OP 1: 8), and Paris from a 'bird's eye view' (ON 4: 56-7; OP 4: 42-3; figure 31).69 On 21 January 1871, the Canadian Illustrated News seemed to be so short of interesting drawings that its editor used the front page for trivial news: 'A sketch in Metz - The restaurant counter' (3: 33)7° Since the illustrations were always a week later than in the European newspapers, the paper continued to run images of war activities long after the war had stopped; the Prussians entering Mont Valerian on 11 March 1871 (CIN 10: 156), and the capitulation of Paris on 30 March 1871 (OP 13: 150-1) were both shown some months after the events. Front and Back Pages It is common knowledge that front pages in newspapers have a particular role, that is, to attract the attention of the buyers and the readers. Headlines, and even more, pictures, add to that function; the engraving shown on the front page sets the tone for the whole issue. Other engravings within the paper will be seen through the first impression that the reader got when looking at the cover page of a publication. Nevertheless, while front pages attract attention and help readers to form an opinion that will influence their interpretation of the entire content, back pages represent the last thing that one sees, and perhaps, remembers. Therefore, in illustrated periodicals the role played by the first and last images in the paper is very important, especially in times of war, when the editors' intention is to impress on their readers' minds the events of the war that are worth remembering, events which then help to construct the national memory, in the sense discussed in chapter I.71 French Periodicals

The purpose of the front page is to strike the imagination of the readers so that they immediately know what is going on, and to tell them what they should think about these events; further it should also remain in their imagination. Therefore, more or less the same topics should be shown to, and thus be known and remembered by, the people whose

30 Waiting for meat, Opinion publique, no, 49, p. 389.

31 Panoramic view of Paris, Graphic, no. 45, p. 348.

226 Images at War

countries are at war. However, I realized that this was not the case with nineteenth-century French periodicals on the Franco-Prussian War, particularly with the two main papers, the Illustration and the Monde illustre. While both papers began to fully cover the war at the same time, namely during the week of 23 July 1870, the images they offered suggested different themes. Apart from the destruction of the bridge over the Rhine river by the Prussians, and the famous 4 September 1870, both events illustrated in almost all the papers studied, the former as a symbol of the beginning of the hostilities and the latter as an illustration of the fall of the French empire, most of the engravings published on the front pages of these two papers represented different events of the war. During the three first months of the conflict, the Illustration appealed to the patriotic spirit with an engraving of the national anthem being sung at the opera by a well-known singer (1431: 89), and one stressing 'La guerre Les corps francs - Ovation faite a un corps de francs tireurs des Vosges arrivant a la gare de Nancy, Croquis d'apres nature par M. Gaildrau, correspondant special de VIllustration/ signed by ACD (1432: 109). The Monde illustre more soberly mentioned the 'Depart, du palais de I'Erysee, du premier bataillon des corps francs sous les ordres du colonel Laffont/ signed by A. Daudenarde (698: 129). One can see the difference of intensity in the tone of the caption. This difference is surprising since, in general, the Illustration was much more moderate in tone than the Monde illustre, attempting, usually successfully, to maintain a matter-of-fact approach. Only the engravings on its front page used a sensationalist tone. This may have been merely market strategy but, most likely, it was an attempt at quickly kindling nationalist feelings in the paper's readers, a subtle strategy which would hopefully cause such feelings to be maintained from the first to the last page, despite the fact that the interior discourse appeared neutral. One of the favourite themes of the Illustration was 'destruction.' First, came the demolition of the Pont du Rhin on the front page (1430:65), followed by the return of wounded soldiers (1433: 125; 1438: 221); the burning of the home of Napoleon III, St-Cloud Castle, by the French after his surrender; and then an impressionist engraving entitled 'Apres Sedan - Le Meuse charriant des cadavres/ signed by E. Gluck and Smeeton (1440: 261; figure 13). Even the terminology here - charriant (lugging along) - suggests an inhuman as well as a sensationalistic aspect of this event. It would be difficult for any French reader, or any reader indeed, to forget such an image. From the beginning of October,

Managing the Unexpected 227

the engravings started to show various aspects of the siege of Paris by the Prussians/2 aspects that reminded the Parisians that they were trapped inside the city, things, for example, like queuing up at the butcher shop. Even the departure of Gambetta, Minister of the Interior and of the War, by balloon (1442: 285) invoked the Prussian blockade of Paris, since it accentuated the fact that the only means of communication from Paris to the outside world was by balloon or by pigeons. Finally, the front pages for the last four weeks of December were devoted to portraits of four majors-general of the French army.73 Did the Illustration seemingly want to avoid any gruesome engravings for that 'festive' period of the year while still compelling its readers to keep the war in mind? In any case, the first three months of 1871 brought the readers back to reality with images of the siege of Paris divided between two main themes: useful knowledge (1456: 25), and the feeding of the Parisians with another sensationalistic engraving entitled 'Siege de Paris - Abattage d'un des elephants du Jardin d'acclimatation/ signed by Gerlier and Smeeton (1454: 1). The elephant, it was explained, had been bought by a butcher of the 16th arondissement eager to feed his bourgeois customers! Nothing in these illustrations was coherent in the sense that there does not seem to have been a policy in place governing the choice of the front-page content of this paper, beyond some intention of filling the public's memory with the horrors of war. This was quite different from its closest competitor. The Monde illusive adopted a policy whose aim was to stress the competence of the French army and, at the same time, to reassure the French people. Indeed, the paper began its war coverage with engravings suggesting the well-planned organization of the French army with the departure of soldiers (693: 49; 698: 129), and strategies developed by the emperor with some of his major-generals (697: 113); later it carried engravings of Favre and Thiers discussing a break in the negotiations over the armistice (709: 305); and more particularly, some of the victories by the French army (695: 81; 699: 145). The Monde illustre also chose to remind its readers of Napoleon Ill's capitulation in an engraving entitled 'Le chateau de Bellevue, pres de Sedan, dans lequel a eu lieu 1'entrevue entre Guillaume ler et Napoleon III,' signed by two engravers Meaulle and Daudenarde (701:177). The paper had no front page dedicated to the declaration of the republic nor to the defeat at Sedan itself, as opposed to the Illustration, which had four front pages covering these two closely related events. Thus, one paper appears to have wanted to concentrate its front-page coverage on certain specific events, while the other chose to cover as many events as possible.

228 Images at War These two very divergent strategies could not but have a different impact on the readers' minds. The Monde illustre was two weeks ahead of all the other papers in its coverage of the siege of Paris, and most particularly of the defence of the capital. Continuing its policy of focusing on the theme of the defence of the French people, it published engravings on the technology which was to keep Paris in touch with the outside world (703: 209), the heads of its government in the Defense Nationale (705: 241; 709, 305), voluntary enrolments (708: 289), and pieces of armament (711: 337). Eighteen seventy-one was also devoted to the defence of Paris, and France more generally (717: 1; 718: 17; 719: 33), the organization of the Parisians against the Prussian bombardment (720:49), the armistice (722: 81), and finally the organization of the new government (721: 65; 723: 97; 724: 113). An engraving, 'ler Mars - Paris en deuil - Ecusson allegorique par M. Edmond Morin/ unsigned (725:129), was a reminder of the contamination of Parisians by the Prussians, which was accentuated, a week later, by the publication of another engraving showing the Parisian population burning the residue of the Prussian occupation (726:145). Later on, the paper showed engravings portraying the withdrawal from Paris and other cities by the Prussian army. Since, as we saw earlier, the Illustration's front-page coverage was rather disappointing, offering only engravings with a sensationalistic tone, the Parisians who wanted to know what was really happening had to buy the Monde illustre or the Univers illustre. This latter periodical adopted a strategy of war coverage similar to that of the Monde Illustre, although with different themes. The tone of the engravings and of their captions was more subdued than that of the Illustration and less patriotic. It showed some demonstrations by the French in favour of the war (810: 465); the departure of the emperor to join the Rhine army (811: 481), and, successively, the victory at Saarbriicken (813: 513) and the defeat of Reichsoffen (814: 529). Contrary to the Monde illustre, however, the Univers illustre reproduced the proclamation of the Fourth Republic on its front page (818:393), showing, like the Illustration, the French people entering the corps legislatif. The periodical also chose to inform its readers of the diverse aspects of the siege of Paris and of its defence and, in January 1871, carried quite a few engravings on the bombardment by the Prussians, distinguishing itself from the two main illustrated papers.74 The front-page coverage ended, as with the other two, with some engravings on the newly elected government of the Defense Nationale.75

Managing the Unexpected 229

Since the Journal illusive stopped publishing at the end of October 1870, there were only fifteen front-page engravings: five portraits of major-generals of the French army and four for more trivial news. So only six remained to inform the readers about events of the war; among them was the inevitable engraving of the destruction of the bridge over the Rhine (337: 233) and of the departure of French soldiers for the front (338: 241). Still, the paper devoted one front-page to the proclamation of the republic (344: 289) and another to the requisition of French farmers' horses by the Prussian soldiers (343: 281), succeeding, despite using so few engravings, in making the Prussians look nasty. As for the Presse illustree, though it stopped publishing on 8 October, nonetheless it had quite a few front pages to fill since, in August 1870, the paper published twice a week for a total of eight issues. So, though the paper stopped publishing before the Journal illustre, it had about the same number of front-page engravings in 1870, namely sixteen. However, the paper used that space differently, with only one portrait (141: 1), and a more patriotic tone than its close competitor. For instance, there were two engravings illustrating the singing of the Marseillaise (142: 1; 144: 1), and captions which used a terminology close to that of the Illustration, with such terms as 'the French people acclaim its soldiers' (143: 1), or 'General Bazaine acclaimed by his soldiers' (149: 1). Still, the paper showed original and interesting aspects of the war, such as an engraving of the Alsacian peasants defending their homes and land (153: 1), and Prussian soldiers begging the Toul inhabitants to give them help after a battle they had lost, also shown in the Univers illustre (figure 32). Finally this paper was the only one to show a regiment of Zouaves refusing to surrender in Sedan and charging the enemy (156: 1). When the paper began to publish again in midMarch, the only engraving related to the war was one depicting the canine and feline butcheries during the siege (157:1). Back pages also have their importance, as I mentioned earlier, especially in illustrated periodicals with their limited number of pages. Though the Illustration had some issues with as many as twenty-four pages, the standard number of pages for the bourgeois papers was sixteen and for the working-class publications, eight. This means that the content of the last page of the paper, which was also illustrated, was strategic for the editors. There were two strategies: publishing a picture that the readers will remember, or else taking the opportunity to show images not worth publishing elsewhere in the paper, putting them on the very last page to be seen when the readers have lost some

32 The city of Toul refuses to open its doors to the Prussians, Univers illustre, no. 815, p. 549.

Managing the Unexpected 231

of their concentration. In all papers, back-page engravings generally involved lighter themes than those on the front page, though some very serious issues were presented to the public. For instance, both main periodicals carried an engraving of the destruction of houses surrounding Paris, as a way of defending the city. This, it seems to me, should have been a very distressing military action, which should have shocked the Parisian population. Yet, this picture was surreptitiously put on the last page with a rather sober caption (1442: 292; 702: 208). In the Illustration, this space was used for two main purposes: to offer some useful knowledge about weapons and to tackle some lighter, though not uninteresting, themes such as types of physiognomies (1432:124; 1441: 284), the rescue of some drowning soldiers (1444: 316), or feeding the population (1441: 284; 1448: 364; 1452: 412). Some engravings, though involving trivial news, had a serious underlying meaning such as those on the effect of the bombardment of Paris by the Prussians.76 These had their counterpart in the Monde illustre (718: 32; 719: 48). This last paper used more or less the same themes, though the engravings presented them differently. For instance, in relation to the feeding of the population, this periodical showed more conventional pictures, some depicting cattle pastured in parks (710: 336). Also, instead of types of physiognomy, it produced groups of engravings on daily life in Paris, or on the daily chores of the French regiments installed in Paris. This paper also had a few engravings of wounded soldiers and the way they were cared for (709: 320; 715: 416; 727: 176). Astonishingly enough, though, during the serious bombardment in Paris, no paper gave any information on the wounded civilians, except for the Illustration which gave, much later in 1871, a table of the deaths in Paris during the months of the siege (1463:142). As for the three other papers, the back pages of the Univers illustre and the Presse illustree mostly showed engravings of the Prussians. The former had more than half (eight of fifteen) of its engravings about the enemy; the others, apart from one portrait (836: 24), the 3 November vote (826: 672), and some camps of soldiers (615: 560), were on trivial news (821: 632; 827: 680; 829: 696). The Presse illustree had ten engravings out of twenty-two on the Prussians.77 The others were of camps of soldiers, and past defeats. The most original was on a new technology.78 The Journal illustre had eight engravings out of twenty-nine on the Prussians. Interestingly, the back pages of that periodical gave much more information on the war than the front pages. Almost each of its back-page engravings was on one particular aspect of the war,

232 Images at War

going from artillery to ambush by the French, to different aspects of the life of the soldiers and the defence of Paris. English Periodicals

The editor of the Illustrated London News undoubtedly knew the importance of front pages. Given the general approach of that paper towards both camps during the war, it is to be expected that many of its frontpage engravings had a negative tone towards the French. The most harmful ones, however, were the three engravings representing the surrender following two important battles, Sedan and Strasbourg. I have already mentioned the cunning way that Napoleon Ill's surrender was represented in that paper, by showing a soldier with physical features so close to that of the ex-emperor that one had to look at it twice to make sure that it was not him, standing on a small building waving a huge white flag. The message was clear: the deserved humiliation of the French people, and particularly of their emperor, for having started the conflict for such a trivial motive, a 'mere matter of etiquette' (1604: 89). The two engravings on the fall of Strasbourg, shown in two consecutive weeks in October, portrayed a group of French soldiers. In the first, one of them waves a white flag towards a group of Prussian soldiers (1617: 365), and in the next, a soldier breaks his sword to avoid giving it to their Prussian captors (1618: 389), though this can be interpreted as a defiant act. Though such important events were understandably represented on the front page of a paper, which claimed to be the most informative in relation to this war, there was undoubtedly more than one way of showing them. Looking at the Illustrated London News, one cannot but believe that they purposely chose a way to humiliate the French. In addition to these three engravings, no less than fourteen others had very negative connotations for the French, quite a few of them in early 1871 when the paper was showing, and even showing off, the Germans in their victorious activities.79 The paper had only twelve of its thirtytwo back pages dedicated to the war between 13 August 1870 and 31 January 1871, divided almost evenly between the French and the Prussian camps. Yet this publication never showed mercy for the French, although their back pages were less showy than the front pages, soberly portraying various activities of the war such as Prussian batteries (1611: 260), views of castles (1612: 284), and the king of Prussia watching the ba le of Sedan (1614: 332).

Managing the Unexpected 233

The Graphic was quite a different matter. Though some of the topics were inevitably negative about the French, they were presented either soberly or in a matter-of-fact manner.80 For a start, the paper had fewer front pages devoted to the war than its competitor. Between 30 July 1870 and 25 March 1871, the Illustrated London News had thirty-four front pages on the war while the Graphic had twenty-six, using many of its front pages for issues unrelated to the war. Moreover, the paper also carried some positive representations of the French, an act of mercy, for instance (39: 193; 40: 217). It even published some illustrations that ridiculed the Prussians (42: 265). The Illustrated Times had only eleven front pages related to the war and most of them were of a rather neutral tone. At the end of July, it showed a view of Strasbourg (802: 65). Then, apart from portraits, the following themes were covered in three consecutive weeks: soldiers tearing the imperial eagle from their shakos (military hats) after Napoleon Ill's surrender (809: 177); the capture by the Prussians of an envoy from Bazaine (810:193); and French prisoners leaving Sedan (811: 209). If we consider that the front page was the one that gave the tone to the content of a paper, the Penny Illustrated Paper's front-page engravings had a clear message. On the thirty-two front pages published between mid-July 1870 and mid-February 1871, twenty-eight were devoted to the Franco-Prussian War. Though there was an almost equal number of illustrations devoted to each side, their messages were meaningful. Indeed, among the fifteen engravings dedicated to the French side, only one (484: 1) was not obviously supportive of the French, while of the thirteen showing the Prussians, only four could be interpreted as, if not supportive, at least positive towards the Prussians in their role as victors; four showed them as barbarians; and the others were more or less neutral, depicting trivial news.81 So, again, though the Penny Illustrated Paper did not overtly express which side it was taking, the illustrations certainly sent a message to its readers. German and Canadian Periodicals

During the thirty-seven weeks between mid-July and mid-April, the Illustrirte Zeitung had only seventeen front-page engravings on the Franco-Prussian War, which was rather astonishing since Germany, like France, was at war. Of these seventeen engravings, eight were portraits, all of Prussian royalty or military personnel; only three of the total number of war illustrations were reserved for the French, one,

234 Images at War

Transportation of French spies from Metz/ signed by D. Steffeck (1426: 293), another representing a portrait of Thiers (1431: 381), and the last one was part of two engravings on Sedan: 'Napoleon III and his attendants on the hills of Wilhelmshohe/ signed by Otto Knille (1429: 345), and 'An alley in Sedan after the capitulation/ signed by L.V. Elliot (1428: 329). Whether because the Germans were so overwhelmingly victorious in the war, or because the editor was not interested in the issue, the Leipzig paper was only half involved in the covering of the war which, after all, gained the country two important border regions. The Canadian Illustrated News was even less interested than the German paper in setting the tone of its content on the war. Indeed, during the same period, only four front pages were devoted to the war: one portrait of General Trochu (12 [1870]: 193), one on military weapons (13 [1870]: 197), one on trivial news (3 [1871]: 33), and finally one on the castle of Wilhelmshoehe where Napoleon III was in residence (16 [1870]: 245). However, the Opinion publique had a completely different approach, which corresponded to its general policy on the war. Though the paper did not reserve any front pages for the war after January 1871, there were nine front pages on the events from mid-September to mid-December 1870. The paper showed only one weapon and four portraits on front pages, and reserved more than half of its engravings for important events: one was the proclamation of the French republic (40: 313), one the capture of Mont Valerien by the Prussians (50: 393), and finally two on Sedan: one of a battle (42: 321) and one of Napoleon III after his surrender (45: 353). So, contrary to its English counterpart, the Opinion publique was aware that its readers were interested in what was happening during this war. It is rather puzzling that the Canadian Illustrated News would have thought that because its readers were mainly English Canadians, they would not be as interested in the event, especially in comparison with England where the readers were demanding more and more coverage of the event. After all, the war was an important one as it was likely to modify the map of Europe by realigning some national borders. Elements of Comparison It appears that the general policies and intentions sustaining the launching of a periodical have long-lasting repercussions. They influenced the political stances adopted by the various papers, thus exacerbating the political ruptures seen among the periodicals studied.

Managing the Unexpected 235

Indeed, although publications such as the Illustrated London News and the Penny Illustrated Paper maintained the same position throughout the conflict, other newspapers, such as the Illustrated Times and the Monde illustre, were influenced by the unexpected outcomes of the war to the point that the latter reversed its political and ideological stance. Still, ruptures were not limited to the positions adopted by the various papers, but could also occur within the periodicals' contents, and between images and texts. For instance, while the Illustration kept a very matter-of-fact tone in its written texts, it published some very emotive and dramatic engravings, particularly on its front page, with the intention of either attracting readers, or impressing them with the horror of that conflict. At the national level, the publications from each country certainly did not show a common front to their readership, to the point that the readers of the Monde illustre may have had a completely different understanding of the war from that suggested by the Illustration; or subscribers of the Illustrated London News may have seen engravings inciting them to believe that the Prussians were in the right and should be supported, while those of the Graphic would have been more inclined to support the French. At the international level, the ruptures were not necessarily based on cultural factors. Indeed, from the political point of view, the stance of the Graphic and the Penny Illustrated Paper was much closer to that of the French papers than to that of the Illustrated London News. From the point of view of the periodical ruptures, however, events such as the siege of Paris forced the papers in all the countries to present particular contents: from the lack of communication between the capital and the outside world, those in Paris had to concentrate on the siege itself, and those outside Paris on events in the provinces. We can see that managing unexpected events was handled in different ways by each illustrated periodical, and was often used, even by some papers not involved in the conflict, to boost national feelings and impress people's collective memories. Periodical ruptures gave the opportunity for deeper and better analyses, particularly of the most serious events, such as the emperor's surrender, the siege of Paris, and the bombardment of the capital. The often-used strategy of coming back to an event in order to analyse it in more detail gave some editors an additional occasion either to reinforce the paper's position, or to change their position without being ridiculed. For the French papers, it was used to shift the tone of the content from a consolatory to a glorifying nationalist tone.

Conclusion: Constructing Memories

In all the countries under study, illustrated periodicals were the only means available to people to see, on a regular basis, what was happening on the front line of the Franco-Prussian War. These periodicals were sold by the hundreds of thousands, reaching a large number of people from various classes. Beginning at the end of July 1870 and ending with the departure of the Germans from Paris in March 1871, the war was the subject of wide and extensive coverage by most of these periodicals. Only sporadic illustrations for commemorations and anniversaries of the most important battles were published after the armistice. In the European papers, the coverage was intense and constant and was influenced by important events occurring during the war. I have used three types of rupture to analyse the coverage of the war. While the eventuation rupture helped to compare the change in the periodicals' agendas in the countries analysed, the political rupture allowed me to examine the various interpellations of an event based on editorial policies. Finally, the periodical rupture permitted me to see that most papers, even the French ones, chose to adjust their approach according to unexpected outcomes of the conflict. This type of rupture also gave some papers the occasion to come back to an event with a deeper and more detailed analysis. Yet military activities did not always dictate the papers' choice of content; the reproduction of engravings was related to other factors as well. Indeed, most of the time, special artists worked in difficult conditions as a result of the lack of efficient transmission for their drawings, or the fact that they were mistaken for spies. In addition, the siege of Paris, with the interruption of all communication between the capital and the outside world, forced the European periodicals to find news

Conclusion: Constructing Memories 237

related to other events. Although some contact between the inner and outer areas of Paris was possible, the papers that were published outside the city concentrated on information coming from the provinces, while most Parisian papers had to focus on what was happening in Paris. The North American illustrated periodicals, and to some extent the German one,1 were in a different situation. The time lag before they received the engravings prevented them from offering an intense and constant coverage of the war. Moreover, the resulting sporadic depictions of the war created a situation where there were no obvious eventuation and periodical ruptures in the papers' agendas. Nonetheless, the time lag did not prevent political ruptures among these papers. Indeed, there was a marked difference of approach between the very pro-French Opinion publique and the rather pro-Prussian Harper's Weekly, while the Canadian Illustrated News made some effort to remain neutral. In short, each paper, whatever its provenance, had its own specific approach to the conflict. Still, all developed a discourse which they believed would attract their readers, thus only representing a part of the truth, that approved by the editorial board. Hence, the readers had to read more than one illustrated periodical to come close to understanding the reality of the war. This was especially true of the illiterate ones whose 'reading' was limited to the engravings. Indeed, few illustrations offered a full understanding of any one event; most had to be associated with other pictures or with different types of written texts to acquire their full meaning. Thus, the discourses of nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals, either visual or written, represented historical and social entities, but entities mediated by what Roger Chartier calls the 'materiality of texts,'2 namely the political, economic, and cultural conditions of the context in which the papers were published; the meaning of these discourses was therefore external to the text itself. It is my contention, however, that the particularities of nineteenth-century journalistic discourses are also applicable to twentieth- and twenty-first-century production of news. Ways of Seeing the War Nineteenth-century illustrated newspapers were commodities which had to be sold to as many people as possible. It was essential, then, to find words and images to attract readers who would be satisfied enough to buy the paper regularly. Nevertheless, profit was not the editors' only incentive, since all the papers studied explicitly expressed

238 Images at War their intention to propose their vision of the world: some wanted to enhance the understanding of political news (the Illustration), others desired to entertain (the Graphic and the Monde illusive), to make the news Visible' (the Illustrated London News and the Monde illustre), or more explicit (the Univers illustre and the Illustration), others wished to educate the public (the Illustrirte Zeitung, the Illustrated London News, and the Illustration). One common goal, however, was to make history. Still, making history was not to be done randomly. The content of each periodical, visual or written, expressed clearly the way that the editors wanted to influence their readers, offering ideas and values, images and symbols, which were to be interiorized by them and which contributed to form their vision of the Other. It was meant to create some forms of solidarity among literate and illiterate people alike. War coverage is particularly suited for that purpose, as the political process of creating images reduces the heterogeneity of illustrated subjects into homogeneity by fitting them under specific themes, thereby eliminating any subtleties and even silencing some subjects. This was especially true, in the case of the illustrated periodicals, since the assemblyline production techniques necessary to produce the illustrations rapidly stripped the engravings of much of the subtleties which may have allowed the pictures to be perhaps closer to the 'truth/ And, of course, editors, reporters, and artists were mediators who interpreted the information they received according to their own thinking. They were influenced by a nationalist ideal which, particularly for the French and Germans, made them sensitive to the outcomes of the war. In that context, each paper, consciously or not, offered a limited view of the war. Including some drawings and excluding others was part of the economic strategy sustaining the construction of a discourse meant to sell as many copies as possible. But it was also a political act because the editors' purpose was not only that the readers would know, but that they would remember, and what they would remember would be part of the collective, national memory - history. Appeals to emotions were frequently used to absorb the readers into the stories; strategies were developed to inducing in them a specific process of recognition and interpretation of what this war was, who the enemy was, and who the ally was. These strategies were often elaborated from a process entailing intermingled memories: remembering Us as courageous, Others as barbarous, and Them as justified. In that context, the same engraving, often published in different periodicals, did not have the same meaning for the readers of English

Conclusion: Constructing Memories 239

periodicals as for the readers of French or German illustrated papers. The complexity of that process was enhanced by the fact that the meanings of the text and the image were sometimes in contradiction. Thus, weekly, groups of readers would have an illustrated interpretation of the military events of that week, a discourse that corresponded to the expectations of the majority and which had a certain authority, since people went to the extent of spending money to have the opportunity to read or look at it. This discourse, visual and written, was invariably based on a dynamic between what Sinnema calls the interior/exterior space, Us and the Others, the national and the international.3 In the coverage of the Franco-Prussian War, the interior space was predominant in French and German papers, while the exterior space occupied most of the English periodicals' content. This, however, did not mean that the latter did not take the opportunity to boost the national pride of their readers; the Illustrated London News, for example, did not lose any occasion to remind its readership of the superiority of their country. Still, it was within the exterior space that other papers, such as the Graphic and the Penny Illustrated Paper, informed their readers as well as any French people who came across an issue, of their sympathy for France. As for the French papers, the exterior space of their content was very limited, especially after the siege of Paris, when they did not have the technical means to acquire information from outside the city. Yet, even before the siege, they had no space for anything but the conflict, and though they covered events occurring in many other parts of the country, it was mostly from a French perspective, although some occasionally referred to papers published in other countries. Although this may have been due to technical problems, namely, the difficulty for the French reporters to get any information from the German army, some publications like the Univers illustree managed to publish engravings on the whereabouts of the Prussians by buying engraved wood from the Illustrirte Zeitung. Indeed, it seems that if a publication was wealthy enough to own its own engraving workshop there were both advantages and disadvantages; they had the freedom to publish the illustrations that they chose to, but they often seemed to be restricted to their own products. How could a prestigious paper like the Illustration, for instance, be justified in publishing pictures coming from a paper belonging to the enemy camp? This means that wealthy papers like the Illustration and the Monde illustre, and the cheaper papers which belonged to them (e.g., the Presse illustree}, found themselves in an

240 Images at War impossible situation of isolation. The English papers, on the other hand, had access to the information coming from the French provinces, and they also had the option of receiving sketches from inside Paris by balloon post, though in a very limited way. Yet, this situation was not entirely responsible for the type of coverage that the French papers chose to adopt. Indeed, soon after the string of important defeats of the French army, the Parisian illustrated periodicals adopted, to various degrees, the strategy of consolation which consisted, as Schivelbusch explains, of transforming a defeat into a moral victory. 'Losers in battles, winners in spirit/ the author says.4 This was clearly the reaction of the French publications, most markedly the Monde illustre. France had been isolated in its conflict against Prussia, its friends having abandoned it to its fate; French reporters, artists, and columnists had likewise isolated themselves at first in their sorrow, and then in celebration of their moral superiority, their soldiers' savoir faire, and also their 'most civilized' nation. Of course, the technicalities of the siege had trapped them in Paris, but had they been able to communicate with the outside, they would most probably have created the moral conditions for their isolation from the 'friends' who had let them down. Simple technicalities were also mostly responsible for the sporadic coverage of the war by the Canadian and American illustrated newspapers. Since the images took much longer to cross the sea than the texts did, it was difficult for these papers to have a discourse based on a 'normal' relationship between text and image. In the Opinion publique, this relationship was more harmonious since the paper used engravings from Parisian publications to support its strong pro-French position. It was, however, different for the Canadian Illustrated News, Harper's Weekly and, to some extent, the Illustrazione popolare. All three published engravings coming from French and German periodicals alike, which sometimes produced an incoherent visual discourse on the war, not unlike their textual discourse. Images versus Texts All the papers studied used various strategies to spread the information of their choice. Some were influenced by the urgency of the conflict involving their own country, others by the particular conditions that the war had created in the area of communications, and yet others by economic constraints. All were influenced by the political and ideo-

Conclusion: Constructing Memories 241

logical positions sustaining the production of their contents. Still, certain choices were grounded in day-to-day decision making about the layout of the paper, such as the balance between images and texts. For instance, the clustering of entire pages of illustrations covering the same topic clearly had the objective of giving extreme importance to that topic. Page after page of depictions of dead or wounded bodies could not but trigger strong emotions in the readers' minds, especially when they were accompanied by a commentary which supported, and sometimes exacerbated, the meaning and power of the visual discourse. It was sometimes only in such contexts that the full meaning of an engraving could be grasped. This is the case with the engraving entitled 'Ville de Bazeille,' published in many papers, which showed the burnt and crumbled city. Even if implicitly one guessed that the city was destroyed by the Prussian bombardments, the caption did not mention it. In such situations, the image shows what is, while the text tells what was and attempts to explain what will be. In these cases, text and image reinforce each other. However, this is not always the case. I have identified two types of images: those accompanied by a commentary and those standing on their own, without any other text than their own captions, which are sometimes so general that they do not mean much by themselves. These two types of images generate different relationships between image and text, each entailing a specific political meaning. For instance, when engravings are accompanied by a commentary, the image may coincide almost perfectly with the text; this, in itself, seems suspicious as it could mean that the image was drawn from that text. Indeed, since images did not travel as fast as text sent by telegraphy, the drawings were sometimes made from a detailed description of the event. Still, in some cases, the image contradicts the text, which is also suspicious; logically, if the reporter and the special artist had seen the same event, images and texts should at least correspond in some way. That they did not is even more disturbing when one knows that, very often, the sketch was made by the reporter, since very few papers had the financial means to send both a reporter and an artist to the same site. So some questions come to mind: Was the reporter trying to use the image to deliver a message which could not have been said in so many words? Or did the draughtsman and/or the engraver who interpreted the sketch want to send a particular message? To be sure, the most complex relationships arise from situations in which images have no text. The least interesting case is when an illustration has a clear meaning and can be interpreted in only one way.

242 Images at War

However, most cases are more complex. For instance, an image may take its meaning from its context in the sense that one can understand its full significance only so far as one reads the articles and chronicles published in the same issue, and even sometimes in preceding issues, or if someone already knows about the event. Without commentary, an image may also have an ambiguous meaning, even when put in context. In this case, its interpretation may differ not only according to its source, but also to its readers' sociocultural background. For instance, a particular engraving may be given a completely different 'reading' when published in a Prussian illustrated paper than when it is shown in a French one. Illustrations without text can also suggest an uncertain meaning, which is different from an ambiguous meaning. Indeed, as we saw, in the previous category, a meaning is given, though with a different understanding according to sources. Here one does not know exactly what is happening. The first thing that comes to mind when looking at such an engraving is: what is that? In such cases, one remains in doubt as to the true meaning of the event, even after reading the entire paper. Finally, the significance of an engraving may come up only when it is seen together with another one. This does not mean that each image does not have a meaning of its own, but rather that, put together, they acquire a new significance, a hidden message. This is because when they are compared the engravings either contradict each other or else emphasizes a message that would be embarrassing to express clearly. We had an example in chapter 6 with engravings 21 and 22 in the Graphic. In short, though some images speak for themselves, most need words to acquire a full, unambivalent political understanding. This does not mean, however, that they have no significance at all, only that very often the full meaning of an image cannot be found without a certain level of knowledge acquired from the text accompanying it, or within its written or visual context. This refutes the saying that 'an image is worth a thousand words.' In the case of the nineteenthcentury illustrated press, this was important because the same image was often reproduced in different papers, frequently without acknowledging its initial source. Though one can assume that the editorial team agreed with one specific understanding of the image, this does not mean that what they saw is what was. An image of the FrancoPrussian War taken from a Prussian periodical like the Illustrirte Zeitung and shown in a Canadian periodical may have a completely different signification, and still another meaning if it were published in

Conclusion: Constructing Memories 243

a French paper like the Univers illustre. An engraving taken out of its original context may adopt a different, and even contrary, meaning. Moreover, if the readers know the origin of the image, it may again change its interpretation. This is part of the materiality of a discourse, either illustrated or written. For example, the collaboration between the Univers illustre and the Illustrirte Zeitung, which supplied the Parisian periodical with published engravings showing a victorious Prussian army, or depicting the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine as happy to be back with Germany, must have provided a shock to French readers, especially if they knew neither the provenance nor the reason behind the presence of such depictions in a French newspaper. One wonders what could have been the impact of such illustrations on national pride and imaginary. The interpretation would have been different had the readers been informed of the reasons behind the reproduction of such engravings. Indeed, the less wealthy papers, obliged to buy engravings for their content, involuntarily served the cause of the enemy. Mediated Content One tends to forget that the text/image or image/image relationship is produced by individuals who work under specific conditions. Since the process of producing illustrations required multiple mediations between the reception of a drawing/sketch and the publishing of its engraving in the paper, labour relations certainly had an impact on the way the illustrated periodicals constructed the news and its visual representation. Although eventuation and periodical ruptures were mainly caused by an unexpected event, they were undoubtedly 'managed' first by the artists and reporters, and then by the editors, guided by the ideology and the internal policies of the paper. Sinnema states that there were two sets of readings in the Illustrated London News; 'a resolution which functions as a type of ideological maxim' and 'an underlying urge to fabricate a national identity.'5 These two types of reading respectively, or complementarily, transcended the content of the periodical, according to circumstances. I have discovered these sets of reading in all the publications studied; both are constructed within the relationship between the external and internal space of the content. The second set, the construction of a national identity, was of course closely related to the country in which the paper was published; the engravings showing Napoleon Ill's surrender, published in the Monde illustre and the Illus-

244 Images at War

trated London News, clearly showed this. It is in this last set of reading that the dichotomy Us/the Other would be the most marked. However, I distance myself somewhat from this dichotomous approach that many historians of war, but also of media content, adopt in their analysis. Since often these studies start from the point of view that such a dichotomy exists, their analysis only exacerbates the confrontation between Us and Them, paying no attention to elements that could attenuate this confrontation. My observations of illustrated periodicals coming from six countries have shown that the concept of alterity is more complex than this simplistic dual approach of 'Us the Good / Them the Bad/ This is true not only for papers from countries not involved in the conflict, but also for those published in the countries at war. In all of these publications, I have observed important variations in the way they conceived the Other, which allows for a more refined way of conceptualizing it. An examination of the French illustrated periodicals revealed that, although the images, wording, and tone that they used were strongly supportive of a position based on the dichotomy Us the civilized and Them the barbarous, there were some signs that it was not limited to only that uncompromizing interpretation. Indeed, at least two papers, the Illustration and the Monde illustre, suggested that their readers consult German newspapers to learn about the honourable exploits of their army, because these papers praised the French soldiers' courage and military ability shown in the battles with the German army. This example suggests that the French notion of the Other was more nuanced than perceived at first, and attributed some characteristics of 'truth/ if not goodness, to the enemy. At the same time, it revealed that the Germans were also capable of nuance in their evaluation of their enemy, the French. Their Others were given qualities well thought of by German people. The case of the Univers illustre also supports this nuanced concept of alterity. Indeed, this paper would not have bought engravings from the Illustrirte Zeitung if the editors' notion of the Germans had been that of an absolute enemy. Still, this nuanced evaluation of the Other had its limits. Except for the Univers illustre, which continued to publish German engravings throughout the war, French periodicals stopped referring to the Germans in a positive manner after Napoleon Ill's surrender provoked a periodical rupture in their agenda. Any positive view of the enemy disappeared in the face of the Germans' determination to continue the war for territorial expansion. My analysis of the observed papers shows another type of nuance.

Conclusion: Constructing Memories 245 Except for the Illustrated London News, which demonstrated strong support for the Prussians throughout the conflict,6 all the other papers had a nuanced notion of the enemy, whatever their intentions and behaviour. So much so that, sometimes, political ruptures were more marked among papers published in one country than between periodicals coming from different countries. To be sure, these papers had constructed their own 'enemy/ but one that could meet with approval in some specific situations. Often, this nuanced concept of alterity, seen in most publications, was expressed by putting the image in a state of crisis with the text, to paraphrase Sinnema. Thus, an analysis of this type of press is a complex phenomenon which must constantly be put into context. The illustrations would find their full meaning not only with the commentaries which accompany them, but also with other illustrations or texts published in the same issue. Launching a Process of Memorization Nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals and their content, especially their engravings, were instrumental in launching a process of memorization which, in some ways, is still going on today. This process began with the practice of conserving the periodicals in the form of books. Since the semiannual issues of a paper were often bound in a booklike format by the readers (systematically excluding the advertisements), they were more likely to be collected and consulted, and reused in many ways to activate people's memory. This movement, however, was very much linked to the status of the publication, and was mostly limited to the generations of illustrated press published in the 1840s and 1850s, those which were rather expensive and read mainly by the bourgeois and middle-classes. These classes began a process of conservation strongly encouraged by the periodicals' editors. Indeed, the generation of much cheaper publications like the Penny Illustrated Paper in England, and the Presse illustree and the Journal illustre in France, though more widely distributed, is much more difficult to find in public libraries and is often in a bad state of conservation. More expensive papers like the Illustration, the Monde illustre, and the Univers illustre in France, or the Illustrated London News, the Graphic, and even the Illustrated Times in England, and the Illustrirte Zeitung in Germany, are relatively easy to find in public libraries.7 The Parisian papers can even be found in some French flea-markets. This conservation process was class related, and since these papers were not as

246 Images at War

widely distributed as the cheaper ones, they were limited in reach. Yet the conservation of these papers transformed the corpus of illustrated periodicals into a memory which can be classified in different ways, and subsequently consulted. In this period of the transformation of European boundaries, and with the construction of a new German nationalism based on the unification of that country, this corpus of images was frequently used to mobilize the collective memory and strengthen national identity, at least until the First World War, which more or less erased the memory of the Franco-Prussian War. Indeed, even today one can find some of these illustrations in various types of printed media such as history, school/or literary books, and different types of magazines, but the source is almost never identified. This process of memorization was not haphazard. It was already part of the editorial policies of the early illustrated periodicals, and was in accordance with the editors' intentions of educating the public and making history. The offer of binding-covers twice a year was part of the ideological and economic strategy developed by the editorial board to solidify and amplify for their readers the process of memorising the content of their paper. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that some editors, like Henry Vizetelly, one of the founders of the Illustrated London News, were also editors of illustrated books.8 This situation was also observed in France and Germany. In fact, the history of the book and that of the press are interwoven. Indeed, draughtsmen and engravers working for the illustrated press were in some ways also responsible for bridging the gap between the two genres, since they often produced engravings for illustrated books. Thus, the workers of the nineteenthcentury illustrated press gave themselves two important objectives: constructing their readers' memories through specific content, and beginning a process of memorization which would last for centuries. This complex situation, where ruptures of different types, provoked by internal as well as external conditions and occurring at various levels, shows that a comparative study of a number of periodicals coming from different countries is not only necessary, but essential to understanding the dynamics shaping the production of their images and texts. The international profile that such an analysis allows reveals that the construction of national memories is based on an intermingling of memories of oneself and of the other, in which self-praising is the main issue. There is no reason to believe that the production of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century press is based on different incentives. A comparative analysis of that press remains to be done.

Notes

Introduction: The Eyes of the Reader 1 Given the very complex situation of Germany before the Franco-Prussian War, I will use the term 'Germany' when I am discussing more than one of the regions that constituted the German empire, proclaimed in Versailles in December 1870.1 use the terms 'Prussian' and 'German' interchangeably, as the Prussian army involved in the war included some battalions from all these regions, but I use the term 'Prussia' when the subject referred to is undoubtedly from that region, such as King Wilhelm of Prussia. 2 I am using the masculine because the sections on politics and military events in nineteenth-century papers were read mostly by men. 3 Joshua Brown, 'Reconstructing Representation: Social Types, Readers, and the Pictorial Press, 1865-1877,' Radical History Review 66 (1996): 5-38. 4 See K.G. Barnhurst and John Nerone, The Form of News (New York: Guilford, 2001). 5 I partly disagree with Brown's statement as I saw very crude representations of disturbing aspects of life, and in particular of wartime activities, in the Graphic. For a discussion on these and related issues in the American press, see Brown, 'Reconstructing Representation.' 6 The Franco-Prussian War is also referred to as the 1870 war, especially i France. 7 In addition to those already cited, see the following for the United Kingdom: Patricia Anderson, The Printed Image and the Transformation of Popular Culture: 1790-1860 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991); Keith Williams, The English Newspaper: An Illustrated History to 1900 (London: Springwood, 1977); and Virginia McKendry, '"Wife, Mother, and Queen ...": Images of Queen Victoria in the Illustrated Press, 1841-1861' (MA thesis, Simon Fraser University,

248

Notes to pages 7-12

1993). For the United States, see Janet Gabler-Hoover, 'The North-South Reconstruction Theme and the "Shadow of the Negro" in Century Illustrated Magazine/ in Periodical Literature in 19th-century America, ed. K.M. Price and S.B. Smith (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995), 239-56; Francis John Martin, Jr, The Image of Black People in American Illustration from 1825 to 1925' (PhD dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1986). See also Joop Toebes, 'A Country Too Far Away: Images of the United States in the Dutch Illustrated Press in the 1920s,' European Contributions to American Studies (Netherlands) 30 (1996): 24-42. 8 Peter W. Sinnema, Dynamics of the Pictured Page: Representing the Nation in the Illustrated London News (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998). 9 Some of these authors include Andre Beaulieu and Jean Hamelin, La presse quebecoise des origines a nos jours, vols 2-5 (Sainte Foy, QC: Presses de 1'universite Laval, 1975-82); Marc Martin, Medias et journalistes de la Republique (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1997); and Madeleine Reberioux, La Republique radicale? 1898-1914: Nouvelle histoire de la France contemporaine, vol. 2 (Paris: Seuil/ Points, 1979). 10 I am using the terms 'England' and 'English newspapers' because the periodicals were published in London. I sometimes also use the expression 'London papers/ as I do 'Parisian papers' for the French publications. 11 Illustrazione popolare from Italy and Harper's Weekly from United States will be used as complementary data, when necessary. 12 See, for example, Jean-Pierre Bacot, 'Le role des magazines illustres dans la construction du nationalisme au XIXe siecle et au debut du XXe siecle/ Reseaux 107 (2001): 265-94. 13 See Peter C. Sinnema, 'Reading Nation and Class in the First Decade of the Illustrated London News,' Victorian Periodical Review 28.2 (1995): 137-52; and Virginia McKendry, "The Illustrated London News and the Invention of Tradition,' Victorian Periodicals Review 27.1 (1994): 1-24. 14 See L. Peterson, 'Pullman Strike Pictures: Molding Public Perceptions of the 1890s by New Visual Communication,' Labour's Heritage 8.4 (1997): 14-33, 48-57; K. Stanworth, 'Rhetoric, Ritual, and the Fashioning of Public Memory in Washington's America/ Histoire sociale/Social History 29.58 (1996): 311-31; Toebes, 'A Country Too Far Away'; and to some extent Brown, 'Reconstructing Representation.' 15 Paul Ricoeur, La memoire, I'histoire, I'oubli (Paris: La decouverte, 2000). 1. The Illustrated Press in Its Sociopolitical Context 1 See Jean-Pierre Bacot, line histoire oubliee: Quatre generations de presse illustree

Notes to pages 12-14

2 3 4

5

6

7

8

9

249

au XIXe siecle (Limoges: Presses universitaires de Limoges, 2005). This section of chapter 1 is inspired largely by Bacot's book. Mason Jackson, (1885) The Pictorial Press: Its Origin and Progress (London: Hurst and Blacknett, 1885), 279. Ibid. Livonia is now Lithuania. See Marie-Laure Aurenche, Edouard Charton et Vinvention du Magasin Pittoresque (1833-1870) (Paris: Honore Champion, 2002); and Gebhardt Hartwig, 'Die Pfenning-Magazine und ihre Bilder. Zur Geschichte und Funktion eines illustrierten Massenmediums in der ersten Halfte des 19. Jahrhunderts/ in Populare Bildmedien, ed. Rolf Wilhelm Brenich and Andreas Hartman, Vortrage des 2. Symposiums fur Ethnologische Bildforschung (Reinhausen bei Gottinger, 1986). For more on this particular aspect, see Scott Bennet, 'The Editorial Character and Readership of the Penny Magazine: An Analysis/ Victorian Periodicals Review 17.4 (1984): 127-41. The coming of the second generation did not cause the disappearance of the first one. For instance the Penny Magazine lasted until 1845, three years after the launching of the Illustrated London News, and the Magasin pittoresque lasted until 1923. For more details on the coexistence of different generations, see Bacot, line histoire. For more information on the Illustrated London News, see Sinnema, Dynamics; on the Illustration, see Jean-Noel Marchandiau, L'Illustration, 1843-1944 (Toulouse: Bibliotheque historique privat, 1987); on the Illustrirte Zeitung, see Wolfgang Weber, Johan Jakob Weber: Der beginner der illustrierten Presse in Deutschland (Leipzig: Lehmsedt, 2003). For detailed information on the founding of illustrated papers in different cities, see Bacot, line histoire (forthcoming). For a detailed overview of illustrated papers in the Netherlands, see Joan Hemels and Renee Vegt, Het Getllustreerde Tijdschrift in Nederland Bibliografien, Dell 1,1840-1945 (Amsterdam: Otto Gramwinckel Uitgever, 1993); in Italy see Michele Giordano, La stampa illustrata in Italia, dalle origine alia grandeguerra (1834-1915) (Milan: Guarda, 1983). The difference in content between the Canadian Illustrated News and the Opinion publique, both published in Montreal, Canada, is striking; the former was much more voluminous and diversified in nature than the latter; one cannot but believe that the Quebecois church had something to say concerning what illustrations could be shown to the francophone public. This becomes even more evident when one considers the monopoly held at the time by the Catholic Church over the distribution of religious imagery.

250

Notes to page 14

10 In an article entitled 'The Illustrated Papers of the World/ published in the Graphic on 6 December 1890, W.A. Locker asserts that the pictures in the Dominion Illustrated, the successor of the Canadian Illustrated News, 'had little merit, being for the most part only "process" reproduction of photographs.' This remark is even more interesting in that the editors of the Canadian paper praised themselves for having been among the first with the ability to reproduce photographs as such in newspapers without losing the details. 11 Among the papers studied, the Illustration, the Graphic, the Illustrated London News, and the Monde illustre gave a list of the several countries where their publications were exported. 12 In 1870 the Illustrated Times sold for 3 pence. It is worth noting that the Daily Graphic appeared in 1889 in England, the first daily illustrated journal. This was only possible because of the development of new machinery able to print illustrations at high speed, and the ability to find a new crop of reporters able to write 'a sort of pictorial shorthand,' namely, sketches that had to be reproduced as engravings with the shortest possible delay because, as a daily, the paper had to give its readers pictures of the latest current events (Locker, 'Illustrated Papers'). In addition, as Locker stated, the paper was 'so carefully edited that nothing unfit... is ever found in its pages.' 13 It is always difficult when doing historical work on the press to evaluate the readership. Though pricey papers were obviously targeting wealthy people, and cheaper ones people with more modest financial means, the number of sales for the cheaper papers suggests that some of them, at least, could have been bought by readers with a high income. 14 The term 'agenda' is here used for the list of subjects and themes covered by each periodical. Some themes come regularly (e.g., Fine Arts, Sketches in Parliament), while others vary according to the most recent events. 15 See Giinther Cworjdrak, ed., Die Gartenlaube, Blatter und Blutten (Berlin: Eulen Spiegel, 1988), 5. One has to be careful, however, with some assertions, such as the one on the 1860 events concerning the process of the construction of the German empire. It states that the annexation of Saxony and the wars with Denmark and Austria were not represented in the Gartenlaube. However, I found, in an edition from 1866 (708-9), a double-page engraving of 'Wiirzburg during the bombardment/ I have also noticed, looking at the pictures published during the whole year, that the illustrations related to the concept of the 'national/ in the sense of 'right of blood/ dominated, as is witnessed by the fact that Austrian, Leichtensteinian, or

Notes to pages 14-17 251

16 17

18 19

20 21

22

23

24

25

German immigration to the United States or Great Britain was regularly admonished. The paper was also very anti-French during the 1870 war, which in itself is not that surprising (though no French papers were that anti-Prussian). In Pierre Albert and Fernand Terrou, Histoire de la presse (Paris: Que sais-je? 1970). One can see the influence of the motherland, at least in the title, which used the very same formula as that of its English counterpart, contrary to the Canadian paper, whose title's first word stressed its Canadian origin. For a study of the South American papers, see Antonio Checa Godoy, Historia de la prensa en iberoamerica (Seville: Azifar, 1993). In 1885 the Illustrated Times was combined with the Penny Illustrated Paper, which kept its original title. The two combined papers had a very large distribution. The Presse illustree and the Monde illustre had the same owner-editor. The Illustrated London News was sold for '5 pence, stamped 6p'; the Graphic 'six pence or seven pence stamped'; the Illustrated Times 3 pence, stamped 4p; the Illustration 75 centimes; the Monde illustre and the Univers illustre respectively 35 and 30 centimes. Some of them can also be relatively easy to buy in flea markets, especially in France. The illustrated supplement of the Petit journal, launched in 1890, profusely celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the 1870 war, with seven engravings in 1891, and one each year in the following years. For more information of the plebiscite, see Laurent Leprevost, 'Le Plebiscite du 8 mai 1870 a travers I'historiographie,' Etudes Napoleoniennes 39.4 (2000): 871-80. For more on the German press and the formation of public opinion, see Heinrich Wuttke, Die deutschen Zeitschrifften und die Enstehung der o'ffentlischen Meinung. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Zeitungswesens (Leipzig: von Joh-Wilh-Kriiger, 1875). Wawro, Howard, and Hale also acknowledge that form of power. See Geoffrey Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), chapter 3; Michael Howard, The Franco-Prussian War (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1961), 349-50; and Longdale Hale, The 'People War' in France, 1870-1871 (London: Hugh Rees, 1904), 6-7. William Howard Russell was the paper's star military correspondent. At the end of the war, the paper distribution was sixty thousand, in contrast with the four other important papers - the Daily News (with Archibald Forbes, another star reporter), the Morning Post, the Morning Herald, and the Morning Chronicle - which, combined, distributed twenty thousand copies.

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29 30

31 32 33 34 35

36

37

Notes to pages 17-23

This made the editor of the Saturday Review say that 'this country is governed by the Times ... Thirty million cives romani despotically governed by one newspaper.' See Georges Weill, Le journal: Origines, evolution et le role de la presse periodique (Paris: La renaissance du livre, 1934), 240. For more information of this and related issues, see ibid., part 3, chapter 2. Jean K. Chalaby, The Invention of Journalism (New York: St Martin's Press; London: Macmillan, 1998). Ibid., 66-7. For more information of this issue, see my 'Conflictual Imaginaries: Victorian Illustrated Periodicals and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71),' Victorian Periodical Review 36.1 (spring 2003): 41-53; and for a comparative approach, Tmaginaires conflictuels: La guerre de 1870 dans les periodiques illustres anglais et frangais,' in Espaces temps pluriels, ed. Karine TaveauxGrandpierre, Serie Communication, Histoire et Etudes Europeennes (Paris:Universite Paris III et Universite Paris VII, 2002), 55-65. Alice Krieg, 'Analyser le discours de presse: Mises au point sur le discours de presse comme objet de recherche,' Communication 20.1 (2000): 75-97. For a full biography of Herbert Ingram, see Isabel Bailey, Herbert Ingram Esq. MP. of Boston: Founder of the Illustrated London News, 1842, History of Boston Project (Boston, UK: Richard Kay, 1996). Paul Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter (New York: Studio Vista/Reinhold, 1967), 15. Obviously the engraving was published some time after this important event, but this did not dampen the interest of the readers. It was mostly due to the work of a French draughtsman, Gavarni, and his illustrations. Jackson, The Pictorial Press, 302. The editor asserted that his paper was very popular on the continent, particularly in France, Germany, Spain, and Portugal, as well as overseas (l:vi). The name of a paper is revealing. The first term of a title is usually meant to accentuate the founder's intentions. The Penny Illustrated Paper undoubtedly intended to show its availability to modest-income classes, while the Illustrated London News and the Illustrated Times stressed the pictorial features of their publications, and the Graphic the artistic nature of its illustrations. Nevertheless, the PIP was printed by Ingram Rotary Machine, which used the invention of the Walter Press for its engravings and had good quality illustrations (Jackson, The Pictorial Press, 325). See C.D. Collet, History of the Taxes on Knowledge (London: Watts, 1836; The Thinker's Library, 1933), chapter 8.

Notes to pages 23-9 253 38 Editorial, 12 October 1861. It looks very much like the idealistic objectives favoured by more expensive papers. 39 Louis Guery, Visages de la presse: La presentaton des journaux des origines a nos jours (Paris: CFPJ, 1997). 40 Bourdilliat sold the Monde illustre to Michel Levy in 1862. The paper was probably sold again, in 1867, to Dalloz, who then became its director (though there is no documentation of that sale). Dalloz replaced Pointel, who had been director from 1857 until 1867. See Jean Watelet, La presse illustree en France, 1818-1914 (Villeneuve d'Asq: Septentrion/Presses universitaires, 1998), 1: 290-1. In 1870, Dalloz was still director and Bourdilliat administrator; this suggests that the latter may have held some shares in the business. 41 The first time that a photograph was directly reproduced in France was for the 1885 funeral of Victor Hugo, in the Illustration. However, during the Crimean War (1854-6) photographs were used to produce engravings in the existing illustrated periodicals. For more information on this issue, see, for instance, Helene Puiseux, Les figures de la guerre (Paris: Gallimard, 1997); and Thierry Gervais, 'D'apres photographic: Premiers usages de la photographie dans le journal L'lllustration (1843-1859),' Etudes photographiques 13 (July 2003): 56-87. 42 We will see later how balloons were used during the Franco-Prussian War to send dispatches to regions inaccessible during the siege of Paris. 43 See 'French Illustrated Papers,' in the Graphic, 6 December 1890. 44 See Aime Dupuy, 1870-1871, La Guerre, la Commune et la presse (Paris: Armand Colin, Collection Kiosque 1959), 77. 45 For more information on this and related issues, see Anne-Marie Durand and Francis Labes, 'Le supplement illustre du Petit journal 1890-1914' (MA thesis, Institut Francois de Presse, 1974), 12; and Bacot, line histoire oubliee. 46 A short paragraph in the second issue claims that they had printed three hundred thousand copies and did not have enough to satisfy the demand. These numbers for the circulation of the paper were published in the Presse illustree on 22 December 1867. A year later, they revealed that they had seventy thousand regular subscribers and buyers (15 November 1868). 47 The Liber Land und Meer, launched by Friedrich Hochlander and Helmut von Zollern, deserves to be mentioned because, as I said earlier, it suspended its regular agenda during the war to cover the conflict. So did the Gartenlaube, launched by Ernst Keil. However, the only paper that I could consult was the Illustrirte Zeitung. The other two were impossible to find. It seems that the Second World War destroyed most of archival collections of

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52 53

54 55

56

57

Notes to pages 29-32

newspapers and periodicals, which had not been as well protected from bombardment as those of 'high' art. For more information on the Gartenlaube, see Cworjdrak, Die Gartenlaube. See The German Illustrated Paper/ in the Graphic, 6 December 1890. My emphasis. As with most articles in English and German illustrated newspapers, this one was unsigned. Weber, Johan Jakob Weber. See particularly the chapter entitled 'Die Griindung der Illustrirten Zeitung/ 48-61. Fraser Sutherland, The Monthly Epic: A History of Canadian Magazines, 17891989 (Markham, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1989). Sutherland's book offers a detailed examination of the development of Canadian magazines. This is somewhat in the line of the Frankfurt School, which saw the degradation of culture by mass media years later. The deal was that if the institution or individuals who received the paper did not show their lack of interest, they were automatically considered as subscribers. Sutherland, The Monthly Epic, 50. There is an agreement among historians, even German historians, that France was thoroughly deceived by Prussia, and more particularly by Bismarck's strategies for the construction of the German empire. See Dupuy, La guerre; Howard, The Franco-Prussian War; and Wuttke, Die deutschen Zeitschrifften;Alistair Home, The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870-1871 (New York: St Martin's Press, 1965); Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning and Recovering (New York: Henry Holt, 2003); Francois Roth, La guerre de 70 (Paris: Pluriel, 1990); and Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1866-1918: Machtstaatvorder Demokratie, vol 2 (Berlin: CH. Beck, 1986). Given the many steps in the process of the 1870 declaration of war, the date of the official declaration is sometimes different according to divergent sources. For instance, the Illustration's article entitled 'La declaration de guerre - Seance du 15 juillet, au Senat,' published on 23 July 1870, and Home, The Fall of Paris, both give 15 July as the official date. However, although other historians, such as Nipperdey, in Deutsche Geschichte, see the duke of Gramont's discourse in the Senate on 15 July as unavoidably leading to the French declaration of war, they set the official date on 19 July, as do Roth, La guerre; Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat; and Jean-Frangois Lecaillon, Ete 1870: La guerre racontee par les soldats (Paris: Bernard Giovanangeli, 2002). The war was declared against Prussia, but it also involved the Confederation of North-Germany as well as Bavaria. The Bavarian patriots, though

Notes to pages 32-4 255

58 59

60

61 62

63 64 65

66 67

strongly opposed to the annexation of their region to Germany, voted for the war with France and for war credits to participate in it (Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte, 63) Moreover, in December 1870, King Wilhelm of Prussia announced the unification of Germany followed by its transformation into an empire of which he was proclaimed emperor. So, contrary to what the press implied in its discourse and its illustrations, and to what French people thought, there were more than two countries at war. For a more detailed account of this particular issue, see Roth, La guerre; Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte; and Howard, The Franco-Prussian War. The town of Koniggratz is known in France as Sadowa. Alexandre-Jean, prince of Couza, was elected prince of Moldavia and Valachia when the two Romanian provinces were reunited. He reigned as Alexandre-Jean I, prince of Romania from 1859 to 1866, when he was overthrown. Karl von Hohenzollern was then installed on the throne and became Carol I of Romania. When the state of Romania changed from principality to kingdom in 1881, Prince Carol I became King Carol of Romania. See Roth, La guerre, 146-8. England also found the coming of a Hohenzollern to the Spanish throne unacceptable. On this and related issues, see Dora Neill Raymond, British Policy and Opinion during the Franco-Prussian War (New York: Columbia University Press, 1921). Raymond's is one of the rare studies on the 1870 war that is based largely on a corpus of newspapers, including illustrated periodicals. 'Le prince Leopold de Hohenzollern/ Illustration, 16 July 1870. In fact, it was the second time that the demand had been transmitted and accepted by the king. Indeed, Leopold's candidature surfaced twice within an interval of a few months, as the result of Bismarck's political manoeuvres. For more information on this particular issue and a full and detailed report on the intricacies involved in the 1870 war declaration, see Roth, La guerre, part 1; and Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte, 58-75. Dupuy, La guerre, 9; Victor Hugo, L'annee terrible (Paris: Michel Levy, 1874). Home, The Fall of Paris, 37-8; Dupuy, La guerre, 9-10; Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte, 58; and Howard, The Franco-Prussian War, 40-1. Roth, La guerre, 25 and 146. Nipperdey (Deutsche Geschichte, 58) argues that it is rather the fact that Gramont revealed the new situation of 'double front/ namely the renewal by Bismarck of the candidature of a Hohenzellorn for the Spanish throne, which placed France in a situation where it had no choice but to go to war with Prussia. This was reported in several illustrated French and English papers. Jean-Jacques Becker and Stephane Audouin-Rouzeau, La France, la nation, la

256 Notes to pages 34-6 guerre: 1850-1920 (Paris: Sedes, 1995). See also Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat; Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte; Home, The Fall of Paris; and Dupuy, La guerre. 68 Bismarck had convinced the south German states that Napoleon III had territorial ambitions against them. See 'The Unification of Italy and of Germany/ in Atlas of World History, ed. P.K. O'Brien (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 177. 69 In fact, each of these countries was implicitly taking sides (Belgium and England had sympathy for the Prussians, Austria and Italy for the French). However, Raymond asserts that the burning of Bazeilles by the Prussians, the requisitions they enforced by terror, and their destruction of the cathedral and the library of Strasbourg were events that made England change camp in the middle of the war (British Policy, 197). 70 Benoit Pellistrandi, Les relations Internationales de 1800 a 1871 (Paris: Armand Colin, 2000), 180. Much of my information on the state of the European countries at the time is inspired by this book. 71 This was the case in the event of a war of independence. 72 The wars of Prussia against Austria and France illustrate this strategy. 73 Raymond states that the English diplomats and politicians were suspicious of Bismarck's manoeuvres and distrusted him (British Policy, 29). 74 Meanwhile, the successive wars in which Prussia was involved gave that country the opportunity to develop new military techniques, as much in relation to weapons as to logistics. For instance, the Prussians had developed an efficient system of railways to transport troops, while France's was obsolete and incapable of meeting the military's demands. This allowed the Prussian army superiority in numbers in any engagement, since its soldiers could be transported much more rapidly. Howard argues that France's defeat was due not only to the incompetence of the military leaders, but also to the fact that the French military system had not kept abreast of the economic and industrial revolution of the past fifty years as the Prussian army had (The Franco-Prussian War, 1-2). 75 For an interesting discussion on this particular issue, from the point of view of a German scholar, see Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte, 75-84. The author argues that the Prussian wars against Austria and France were essential elements in Bismarck's strategies for the formation of the German Reich. Schivelbusch (The Culture of Defeat) seems to agree with this interpretation. 76 Belgium had acquired its independence after a revolution in 1830. In 1831, the Conference of London officially attributed Belgium its actual political boundaries. 77 Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat, 21. 78 Ibid.

Notes to pages 36-40 257 79 In 1870 Tsar Alexander II, heading a country weakened by the Crimean War, attempted to modernize Russia's economic structure and to solidify links with other countries. He took advantage of the French defeat to take revenge for the Crimean War and to keep a fleet in the Black Sea. However, during the Franco-Prussian War, he remained neutral, like Sweden and Switzerland. 80 However, during the Crimean War Bismarck had wanted Prussia to side with the Russians (Raymond, British Policy, 29). 81 Pellistrandi, Les relations, 107. See also Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat; Home, The Fall of Paris; and Dupuy, La guerre; and in some ways Roth, La guerre; and Howard, The Franco-Prussian War. 82 Pellistrandi, Les relations, 180. Here the author makes a jump from the decline of the European theatre to globalization that I am not prepared to make. The internationalization of political and economic relations was already fully developed between empires and their colonies, but one cannot talk of 'globalization.' 83 After the fall of Napoleon III on 4 September 1870, the French Zouaves forces were called back to France; this allowed Italy to take Rome over by military action. The Zouaves came back to France in time to participate in the battles of Orleans and Patay and the siege of Paris. 84 For more on the construction of nationalism in Europe, see Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); and Anne-Marie Thiesse, La creation des identites nationales: Europe XVIIIe-XXe siecles (Paris: Seuil, 1984; Paris: Chemin vert, 1999). For other parts of the world, see Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 2nd ed. (London: Verso, 1996). 85 I am here adopting the term 'nationalism' as defined by Bacot from his observations of the change of attitudes expressed in the nineteenth-century illustrated press. See Bacot, Une histoire (forthcoming) and 'Le role des magazines illustres dans la construction du nationalisme au XIXe siecle et au debut du XXe siecle,' Reseaux 107 (2001): 265-94. 86 Thiesse, La creation, 14. 87 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978). 88 Bacot, 'Le role.' 89 Anderson, Imagined Communities. 90 Becker and Andouin-Rouzeau, La France. 91 Ibid., 20. 92 For a detailed report on the disorganized state of the French army, see Roth, La guerre, chapter 3; and Howard, The Franco-Prussian War, chapters 1 and 2. 93 For more on this and related issues, see Becker and Audoin-Rouzeau, La France; Wuttke, Die deutschen Zeitschrifften; and Howard, The FrancoPrussian War.

258

Notes to pages 40-3

94 Yet Wawro asserts that the leaders were unable to adjust their military strategies to the new weaponry (The Franco-Prussian War, 105). 95 Home, The Fall of Paris, 41. Becker and Audoin-Rouzeau, in La France, mention 750,000 soldiers and officers. 96 Home, The Fall of Paris, 40-1; see also Roth, La guerre, chapter 4; and Howard, The Franco-Prussian War, chapter 2. 97 Wawro reports Bismarck saying, after the Prussian victory at Wissembourg, that his troops inventoried the French headquarters and were astounded to find only poor quality maps made on useless scales. Looking into a knapsack left behind by a French officer, the only map they found was one published by the Monde illusive and entitled Vue panoramique du theatre de la guerre (The Franco-Prussian War, 104). 98 Home, The Fall of Paris, 40-1. 99 Ibid.; Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat; and Pellistrandi, Les relations. 100 The numbers of lives lost are calculated in proportion to the short length of the 1870 war (about six months), the fact that only two countries were involved, and the relatively small size of the population at the time, in comparison, for instance, with the Great War. For example, in the battle of Sedan alone, there were 26,000 casualties (Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War, 224). 101 In 1961 Howard asserted that there were close to 10,000 books written on the 1870 war (The Franco-Prussian War, see introduction). 102 This column appeared every week, but was not always signed by the same journalist. 103 The names of certain streets and monuments identified with Napoleon III had already been renamed barely one month after the emperor's surrender (see 'Le courrier de Paris,' Monde illustre, 8 October 1870). 104 Many historians believe that the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of Paris cannot be dissociated from each other. See Home, The Fall of Paris; Dupuy, La guerre; and Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat. Though I agree that the Commune cannot be understood without its link with the 1870 war, after a thorough examination of its context, I consider that the war stands on its own, though some events related to the Commune of Paris will be referred to when they may have had an indirect relationship with the war. 2. The Production of Illustrations in Context 1 For more on this and related issues, see Joan B. Lander, Visualizing the Nation (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001), 31. She argues that image pro-

Notes to pages 43-5

2

3

4

5 6 7 8

9 10

259

duction during the French Revolution was used sparsely for fear that it would produce irrational ideas among people, especially since visual culture was associated with 'the feminine and the vagaries of female nature/ Gordon Fyfe and John Law, eds, Picturing Power: Visual Depiction and Social Relations (London: Routledge, 1988), 179. The authors have an interesting discussion on the political issue of visual representation. A newspaper such as the Supplement illustre du Petit Journal, published in Paris, kept drawings and engravings to illustrate such events long after photographs were used for other news stories. The editor was obviously reluctant to lose the possibility of showing the act itself. Elisabeth Chaplin, in Sociology and Visual Representation (New York: Routledge, 1994), 177, critiques Ivins who believes that a mechanically produced photograph gives an 'objective, scientific reproduction of the original' contrary to an engraved print which is an interpretation. Chaplin notes that this does not apply to photographs taken with the heavy and very cumbersome methods of the nineteenth century. This does not take into account that some engravings were from photographs or that a photograph, even in the twenty-first century, is always in some way an interpretation given by the photographer and a social construction. For more on photographs in illustrated periodicals, especially the Illustration, see Thierry Gervais, 'D'apres photographic: Premiers usages de la photographic dans le journal L'Illustration (1843-1859),' Etudes photographiques 13 (July 2003): 56-87. Paula Rabinowitz, They Must Be Represented: The Politics of Documentary (London: Verso, 1994), 21. Ibid. Jean K. Chalaby, The Invention of Journalism (New York: St Martin's Press; London: Macmillan, 1998). Useful knowledge, here, is used as defined in chapter 1, namely, as information that aims at educating the public and, at the same time, may help them in their daily activities. This definition holds for the whole book. See John C. Nerone, 'The Mythology of the Penny Press,' Critical Studies in Mass Communication 4.4 (1987): 376-404. See, for instance, Peter W. Sinnema, 'Reading Nation and Class in the First Decade of the Illustrated London News,' Victorian Periodical Review 28.2 (1995): 137-52; and Peter W. Sinnema, Dynamics of the Pictured Page: Representing the Nation in the Illustrated London News (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998); Margaret Beetham, Towards a Theory of the Periodical as a Publishing Genre/ in Investigating Victorian Journalism, eel. Laurel Brake, Aled Jones, and Lionel Madden (London: Macmillan, 1990), 19-31; Mason Jackson, The Pictorial Press: Its Origin and Progress (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1885).

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Notes to pages 45-51

11 Jackson, The Pictorial Press. 12 Jean-Pierre Bacot, Une histoire oubliee: Quatre generations de presse illustree au XIXe siecle (Limoges: Presses universitaires de Limoges, 2005). 13 I will come back to Bewick and his innovative process of engraving later. 14 Jackson, The Pictorial Press, 276. Bacot, Une histoire, contrary to Jackson, argues that the Penny Magazine was the first paper that should be considered an illustrated periodical, but would agree that it was not a newspaper. 15 Sinnema, 'Reading Nation and Class/ 140. 16 B.E. Maidment, 'Victorian Periodicals and Academic Discourse,' in Investigating Victorian Journalism, 143. Fyfe and Law, Picturing Power, also make that argument. 17 Maidment, 'Victorian Periodicals/ 146. For more information on the need for comparative studies, see Lucette Valensi, 'L'exercice de la comparaison au plus proche, a distance: Le cas des societes plurielles/ Les Annales 57.11 (2002): 27-30. 18 Beetham, Towards a Theory/ 22. 19 Almost every publication offered its readers a hard cover to bind the issues, usually in half-year collections. 20 Beetham, Towards a Theory/ 26. 21 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 2nd ed. (London: Verso, 1996), suggests that a newspaper read at the same time by people with the same language creates an imagined community; Beetham, Towards a Theory/ 26. 22 Sinnema, 'Reading Nation and Class/ 137. 23 Sinnema, Dynamics, 2. 24 Sinnema, 'Reading Nation and Class/ 145. 25 Sinnema, Dynamics, 8. 26 Anderson, Imagined Communities. 27 William Wyckoff and Chantelle Nash, 'Geographical Images of the American West: The View from Harper's Monthly, 1850-1900,' Journal of the West 33.3 (1994): 19. 28 Virginia McKendry, The Illustrated London News and the Invention of Tradition/ Victorian Periodicals Review 27.1 (1994): 17. 29 Ibid., 11. 30 Frankie Morris, The Illustrated Press and the Republican Crisis of 18711872,' Victorian Periodicals Review 25.3 (1992): 114. 31 Aled Jones, 'Local Journalism in Victorian Political Culture/ in Investigating Victorian Journalism, 63-70. 32 See Georges Weill, Le journal: Origines, evolution et le role de la presse periodique (Paris: La renaissance du livre, 1934), 243.

Notes to pages 51-3

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33 These two papers were the only illustrated periodicals at the time. False news, a problem which has since been analysed by some historians, was particularly the plague of the Crimean War, but more or less present in all military conflicts. See Aime Dupuy, 1870-1871, la Guerre, la Commune et la presse (Paris: Armand Colin, Collection Kiosque, 1959); and Frangois Roth, Laguerre de 70 (Paris: Pluriel, 1990). 34 Dupuy argues that the telegraphy of war reports was the reason why the famous Russell was supplanted by Forbes of the Daily News as a star journalist, as the latter 'wrote his dispatches in the middle of the battles with imperturbable phlegm, was always at the right place at the right time, and sent his texts by telegraph' (La Guerre, 243). I believe that being at the right place at the right time had its importance as well. 35 See Anne-Claude Ambroise-Rendu, 'Les images de la guerre du Transvaal/ in Communication, ed. Philippe Breton, Actes du colloque 'La guerre imaginee/ Association pour la recherche sur la guerre et la paix (Reims: Centre Arpege, Universite de Reims, 2000). 36 Though there were some examples of false news circulating during the 1870 war, particularly prior to the emperor's capitulation, their occurrence was more limited in illustrated periodicals that published weekly and had time to verify most of the news that reached them. 37 More than once I had to go through a paper several times to find the commentary as some of them were given only the partial title of the engraving. 38 Photographs were reproduced with the aid of the Leggotype in the Canadian Illustrated News and in the Opinion publique, but they were reproductions of engravings published elsewhere. 39 For more on the technology of illustration, see L. Peterson, 'Pullman Strike Pictures: Molding Public Perceptions of the 1890s by New Visual Communication/ Labour's Heritage 8.4 (1997): 14-33,48-57. The Leggotype technology used by the Canadian Illustrated News did not seem to be known elsewhere. 40 It has been said that some illustrations and news reports published by French and English papers during the Franco-Prussian war were responsible for the French defeat in Sedan. See Christian Delporte and Fabrice d'Almeida, Histoire des media en France (Paris: Flammarion, 2003), 14. There was some denial of that. It seems, when one examines what was published in the newspapers, that such a situation is highly improbable and may have been imagined by those who did not want to bear the responsibility of such an important defeat. In fact, according to Michael Howard, The FrancoPrussian War (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1961), Alistair Home, The Fall of

262

Notes to pages 53-7

Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870-1871 (New York: St Martin's Press, 1965), Roth, La guerre, and Geoffrey Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), the Prussians had a very sophisticated service of communication that allowed them to get that type of knowledge long before the French army and of course the correspondents. 41 Joshua Brown, 'Reconstructing Representation: Social Types, Readers, and the Pictorial Press, 1865-1877,' Radical History Review 66 (1996): 5-38. 42 This process consists of folding each printed sheet into eight leaves then making a 16-page 'notebook.' A 32-page periodical contains two such 'notebooks. For a 24-page publication, there are three 8-page 'notebooks,' made from a sheet folded into four leaves. 43 For instance, for an 8-page paper, there was one illustrated page, two written pages, two illustrated pages, two written pages, and one illustrated page, so that the publication had as much space dedicated to illustrations as to written material. 44 Remi Blachon, La gravure sur bois au XIXe siecle: L'age du bois debout (Paris: Editions de 1'Amateur, 2001), 22. 45 For more details on the production of illustrated newspapers in London, see Jackson, The Pictorial Press, chapter 9. 46 Ibid. According to Jackson, Turkish box wood was unavailable in England. 47 Ibid., 307. 48 Ibid., 317. 49 For more on this issue, see Paul Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter (New York: Studio Vista/Reinhold, 1967), 26. 50 Chinese white was a kind of white paste which, once spread on the box wood and dried, could be used for drawing. The detail of the drawing was then easier to see and to engrave. 51 For a detailed account of the drawing and engraving processes, see 'Gravure sur bois stereotypie' in Magasin pittoresque, 31 December 1834; and 'Les mysteres de rillustration,' in Illustration, 2 March 1844, both in Blachon, La gravure sur bois, 98-100. An editorial entitled 'Nummer tausend/ discussing the production process of the Illustrirte Zeitung, was published in that paper on 30 August 1862. 52 The editor-in-chief was called superintendent engraver by Jackson (The Pictorial Press). 53 Ibid., 317. 54 Ibid. 55 During a discussion I had with Dr Jochen Schlevoigt, of the University of Leipzig, who is researching the German illustrated press, he asserted that it

Notes to pages 57-61

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63

263

was impossible to produce an engraving from a sketch within two weeks, so that the illustrations representing current events were coming either from the description of the event in the article which accompanied it or from a drawing representing a similar situation and contained in an engraving bank (interview held in Leipzig on 26 May 2003). Frankie Morris asserts that, when a particular event was due to happen (e.g., death of royalty, coming war, etc.) different drawings were ready with various themes to illustrate it when it happened. See 'The Illustrated Press and the Republican Crisis, 1871-1872,' Victorian Periodicals Review 25.3 (1992): 118. In fact, it seems that the illustrated press had found a way of overcoming the problem of time by developing not only an assembly line type of production, but also a way to produce facsimiles of engravings, in the manner of accumulating file footage nowadays. The plaster of Montmartre, they said, was the best for that purpose because it was thin. It was also used in London for the production of illustrated periodicals. See Blachon, La gravure sur bois, 99. Respectively on 31 December 1834 and 2 March 1844. Lithography was invented in Germany by Senefelder, and introduced in France by Lasteyrie where, according to Weill, it allowed well-known republican artists to relentlessly attack the monarchy of Louis-Philippe. See Weill, Le journal, 195-200 and 292-8. To what extent the American illustrations were 'accurate and faithful' is still to be assessed. The issues of interpretation and mediation will be discussed at more length in another book on the artists of the illustrated press (in progress). See Brown, 'Reconstructing Representation,' 7-8. For instance, it would have been Jackson in the case of the Illustrated London News. Brown, 'Reconstructing Representation,' 7. It seems that, at the time, the United States had not suffered from the embargo on Turkish box wood that England had known. Ibid., 7-8. Copperplate was never mentioned in Jackson's production of engravings, but Hogart mentions copper, so Brown may have found the information there. See Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter, 26. In fact, as we have just seen, it was a mixture of hot iron and antimony, the same as for the letters, which was necessary for the massive reproduction of images as the wood, however resistant its grain, would have to be changed after about fifty thousand copies. However, copper was often used for engravings figuring on the masthead of the papers. For more on the use of 'social types' in illustrated newspapers, see Brown, 'Reconstructing Representation,' and Virginia McKendry, The Illustrated

264

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65

66 67

68 69 70

71 72 73

Notes to pages 61-5

London News and the Invention of Tradition/ Victorian Periodicals Review 27.1 (1994): 1-24. Stereotypes have important roles in society. As an ordering process, they help to make sense, in a simplistic manner, of the mass of complex and inordinate information that an individual receives. Furthermore, they are a short cut for understanding often difficult ideas, as they use easy formulae which condense a great deal of information. Moreover, their simplistic mode of characterization constitutes an easy reference to the world in constructing characters immediately recognizable, painting them with general, recurrent, features. Finally, they express the values of the society in which they are used as they invoked a consensus, a general agreement about a social group, though they in fact represent only a small part of the characteristics of that group. Stereotypes are largely used by newspapers, and more generally by other media, as they are a rapid and useful way of making the news reporting complex events easy to understand. For more on this issue, see, R. Dyer, The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation (New York: Routledge, 1993), particularly chapter 3. In fact, though it is often thought that close-ups were invented with photography, it was the job of the draughtsman to create them, and that of the engraver to make them 'diffusible' in the public. Journal Illustre, 7-15 August 1870. For a more detailed discussion of the different types of anonymity involved in illustrated news, see Anne-Claude Ambroise-Rendu, 'Images anonymes dans la presse de la Belle Epoque: Entre objectivite et communaute,' Media Morphoses 5 (June 2002): 36-42. Anne-Marie Thiesse, La creation des identities'nationales: Europe XVIIIe-XXe siecles (Paris: Chemin vert, 1999). Ambroise-Rendu, 'Images anonymes.' For a discussion of the relationship between reality and its representation, and the differentiation between 'factual/ 'fictive/ 'fiction/ and 'feigned/ see Francois Jost, 'Le feint du monde/ Reseaux 72-3 (1995): 163-75. Les dessinateurs de I'edition Fume de La Comedie humaine: Glossaire technique, http: // www. i-net. fr /marcophilie / timbres-classiques / tsag.html Marie-Louise Aurenche, Edouard Charton et I'invention du Magasin Pittoresque (Paris: Champion, 2002). I agree with Davis, who argues that the various specializations in the labour force of the illustrated newspaper had created a division of labour based on inequalities. For more information, see Angela E. Davis, 'Art and Work: Frederick Brigden and the History of the Canadian Illustrated Press/ Journal of Canadian Studies 27.2 (1992): 22-36, and Art and Work: A Social His-

Notes to pages 66-7 265

74 75 76

77 78 79

80 81

tory of Labour in the Canadian Graphic Arts Industry to the 1940s (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996). Brown also suggests a hierarchy in the production of American illustrated papers ('Reconstructing Representations'). Aurenche, Edouard Charton, 280^4. Gavarni was the pseudonym of Sulpice Hippolyte Guillaume Chevalier, 1804-66. Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter, 17. Hogart may have had this category in mind when, later in his book, he discussed the 'new ways of drawing.' He argued that, beginning in the mid-1860s, the coming of the impressionists in painting had marked the end of the 'stereotyped sentimentality in woodengraving' as their 'preoccupation with the transitional in modern life, their conviction that a picture was a record of a moment, made their approach well suited to the ephemeral requirements of pictorial journalism. Simply stated, pen drawings of the life of the Paris boulevards, made and finished on the spot could now be reproduced by the new photo-mechanical processes and became the last word in magazine drawing' (39). It might have been as part of the same artistic movement starting in the early 1870s, that draughtsmen in England, particularly those working for the Graphic, began to draw illustrations critical of Victorian society. 'Illustration in popular weekly periodicals was the only way to report on how ordinary people lived and what they looked like' (33). So W.L. Thomas, the founder-editor of the Graphic, sent some of his artists to observe people in railway stations, lodging houses, homes for the aged, etc., in order to depict parts of their lives 'in the frankest terms' which, he believed, would greatly interest his readers from the bourgeois and middle classes. This contradicts Brown's statement that the English periodicals did not dare show the 'unpleasant aspects of urban life' of their society to their sensitive readers ('Reconstructing Representation/ 13). I will discuss the 'special artist' at more length in the next chapter. Jackson, The Pictorial Press, 356. See, for example, ibid.; Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter; Blachon, La gravure sur bois; and Pierre Gusman, La gravure sur bois en France au XIXe siecle (Paris: Albert Morance, 1929). Ibid. In the early forties, for instance, a well-known engraver could earn up to 2 francs per square centimetre of an engraving, so that a large wood engraving could fetch from five hundred to six hundred francs, a fortune at the time. In the darkest years, however, some artists were in such misery that they were driven to commit suicide. See Blachon, La gravure sur bois, 96.

266

Notes to pages 67-71

82 Blachon asserts that this technique of 'wood of end' had existed for a long time in Armenia, but adds that evidence shows that it was not imported to England through commercial transactions between English and Armenian merchants, as Raymond Kevorkian argues, but was in fact rediscovered by a Scottish engraver, Elisha Kirkall, and perfected by Thomas Bewick. See Blachon, La gravure sur bois, 13. 83 For a detailed history of the development of engraving in Europe, see the excellent book by Blachon, La gravure sur bois. 84 In 1843 Andrew left and the enterprise became BLHR for Best, Leloir, Laurent Hotelin, and Eugene Regnier, then Best, Hotelin & Cie, and finally Best, Cosson & Smeeton, with Joseph Burn-Smeeton and Jean Cosson (Blachon, La gravure sur bois, 201). Other engravers working for the workshop included Gusman, Sargent, Rouget, Henry Linton, S. Williams, Pearson, Whitehead, Eherington, Bertrand, Quartly, and Meason. We still find several of these names on 1870 engravings. Aurenche asserts that Charton said that the enterprise was founded in August 1833, but she must have mistaken the first attempt with the second one (Edouard Charton, 285). 85 Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter, 27. 86 Quoted in Blachon, La gravure sur bois, 100. 87 Even when the name of an engraver appeared on the illustration, it was that of the chief engraver, thereby hiding the names of all the collaborators. 3. Making History 1 Paul Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter (New York: Studio Vista/Reinhold, 1967), 12. 2 The circulation of the London Illustrated News in 1842 was sixty thousand, a number that the Illustration in Paris and the Illustrirte Zietung in Leipzig were unable to reach in the 1840s. By 1863 its sales had reached three hundred thousand copies a week; and the Illustrated Times, seventy thousand. See 'An Introduction to the Illustrated London News,' in Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia, ed. Sally Mitchell (London: Garland, 1988) (www.spartacus .choolnet.co.uk/jillustrated.html). According to Weill, the health of the press industry in England was incredibly good, not only for the illustrated papers, but generally speaking for the dailies, and particularly for the Times, which had considerably increased its reputation, during the Crimean War (1854-6), with the reports of its star journalist, William Howard Russell. He was popular in all political circles, so much so that in 1870 Bismarck gave him special treatment during the war: he was in Sedan beside Moltke and King Wilhelm at Napoleon Ill's surrender, and he was given a place of

Notes to pages 71-3 267

3

4

5

6 7

8 9

honour in Versailles for the ceremony proclaiming the king as emperor of Germany. Yet, during the Franco-Prussian War, Russell faced hard competition from Forbes of the Daily News. It appears that, while Russell was still using the old ways of mailing his dispatches to his paper, Forbes had easily adapted his work to new technologies, and regularly used them to send his articles to his paper, first by way of Prussian train to Saarbriicken and then by telegraph to London. Since the speed of transmission of war news is of the utmost importance, Forbes had undoubtedly a great advantage. For more details, see Georges Weill, Le journal: Origines, evolution et le role de la presse periodique (Paris: La renaissance du livre, 1934), 238^13. Though the circulation numbers are much greater in the twentieth century, the population has also increased dramatically since the end of the nineteenth century. Moreover, in the twentieth century most periodicals have become very specialized, are produced at an industrial level, and are 'not so sensitive an instrument for registering the course' of society, North argues (5). For more information on related issues, see John S. North, The Rationale - Why Read Victorian Periodicals?' in Victorian Periodicals, ed. J.D. Varen and R.T. Von Arsdel (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1978) 1:1-9,170-3. In 'La guerre,' Monde illustre, 16 July 1870. Little did the paper's administration know that, for more than half of the war, they would be trapped within Paris without being able to send any news to foreign lands. Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter, 22-3. Guys lived from 1802 until 1892. Hogart points out that he was known as the 'graphic translator of news' when he was working for the Illustrated London News, because he illustrated the scenes which were described in the articles. This was before the publication succeeded in organizing an efficient team of 'special' and 'traveller' artists. Gavarni's real name was H.G.S. Chevalier (1804-66). He worked for many illustrated papers, including the Illustration. See Simon Houfe, The Dictionary of British Book of Illustrators and Caricaturists, 1800-1914,2nd ed. (London: Thomas Baker, 1981). According to Aime Dupuy, 1870-1871, La Guerre, la Commune et la presse (Paris: Armand Colin, Collection Kiosque, 1959), 213, the Times had created this type of journalism, war coverage, during the Crimean War. Francois Roth, La guerre de 70 (Paris: Pluriel, 1990), 205. The Univers illustre published an article on 18 March 1871, informing its readers of the immense difficulties it was having trying to remain in print, but never named these difficulties. Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter, 23. Ibid., 24.

268

Notes to pages 74-82

10 As we saw earlier, this was later denied by historians, who revealed that the Prussian communication system was much faster than the French. 11 Mason Jackson, The Pictorial Press: Its Origin and Progress (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1885), 330. 12 The engravings in figures 7 and 8 were reproduced in various illustrated papers. This suggests that either the same artist was working for more than one newspaper, or that only one paper had the original and the other ones were, legally or illegally reproducing it. 13 Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter, 24. 14 Ibid., 27. A very small number of excellent artists, however, took the time necessary to finish their drawings before sending them to the editor. 15 Ibid., 28. 16 This is witnessed by the fact that the paper decreased its number of pages by half early in the war and then stopped publishing altogether. 17 Jackson, The Pictorial Press, 338. This supports the position of many historians, as well as my own observations, that the French were seen as much stronger than the Germans and, as such, were expected to win the war easily. 18 Pelcoq was French, as the texts he sent to accompany his drawings show. When he talks about the French people, he uses the pronoun 'we.' He was also working for the Univers illustre. 19 Jackson also mentions G.H. Andrews as part of that team, as well as Sir John Gilbert, who drew mostly portraits and did not have to go to the front line. He also identifies Sydney Hall as working for the Graphic, which had more than one artist on the battlefield, though its engravings of the war were much less diversified than those of its competitor (see The Pictorial Press, 338). 20 We have to remember that the Graphic was launched by an engraver who had previously worked for the Illustrated London News. Illustrated periodicals, even from different countries, constituted a small world, and it is not too surprising that, though competing according to market laws, they were also helping each other in other ways. 21 The Graphic, 29 October 1870. 22 He worked for the Monde illustre, the Illustration, the Journal illustre, and the Presse illustree. 23 It is interesting, though, that the two papers that never mentioned their artists, the Illustrated Times and the Penny Illustrated Paper, merged in 1885. Moreover, both were owned by Ingram of the Illustrated London News, which was not very talkative about its artists either. In fact, it is quite probable that Ingram used the same team of engravers for all his papers.

Notes to pages 85-9

269

24 This was most probably the map found by the Prussians in a French officer's knapsack after the battle of Wissembourg, which I mentioned earlier. 25 Interview conducted at the university of Leipzig, 26 May 2003. 26 In an interview given at the Ecole Superieure Estienne des Arts et industries graphiques in Paris in June 2004, Jean-Louis Esteve, engraver, professor, and researcher, explained that the technique of the white line (gravure en tattle d'epargne) implies that what is saved is the drawing; this means that to modify an existing engraving one would have to add pieces of wood to it. This, of course, is impossible. 27 It is quite frustrating to have unsigned engravings for most of the illustrations published in the English periodicals, or some signed only with initials. As it is, the only name that I could cross list was that of Gustave Janet, one of the most prolific draughtsman of the Monde illustre. 28 Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter. 29 Again, this research does not allow a deeper examination of the labour force beyond what I found in the papers I studied. I am, however, doing research on the artists of nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals, which hopefully will provide such information. 30 A large part of the illustrations of the Franco-Prussian War published in the Illustrazione popolare also came from other papers but, contrary to the Illustrirte Zeitung, many were signed. So I could see that draughtsmen such as G. Dore, J. Pelcoq, and F. Lix, and engravers like A. Trichon, C. Maurand, E. Yon, and A. Bertrand were working for that paper as well as for various French papers (e.g., the Monde illustre, the Illustration, and the Univers illustre). 31 Remi Blachon, La gravure sur bois au XIXe siecle: L'age du bois debout (Paris: Editions de 1'Amateur, 2001). However, I have never seen his name in that paper, as most of the engravings were unsigned. Furthermore, while Jackson, The Pictoria Press, talks at length in chapter 9 about the Illustrated London News's special artists who covered the 1870 war and about engravings, he never mentions the name of an engraver. 32 Actually, many of them had the lower corners cut off, which suggests that they had 'borrowed' their engravings from somewhere and did not acquire the right to identify them. An interesting point about this newspaper is that it had no engravings of the siege of Paris. Though it had stopped publishing then, it could have shown some images afterward, as the Presse illustree did. 33 The specificity of the periodicals was not to provide the latest news, but to illustrate the news of the week.

270

Notes to pages 90-6

34 It was not really cooperation, but more a system in which some weeklies were feeding on dailies, illustrating the news or commenting on it. Since this feeding happened sometimes after the original articles had been published, this type of revival was a kind of publicity for the resource paper. 35 Other collaborations of this type were also noted in the Illustrated Times, the Graphic, and even in the Monde illustre and the Illustration. 36 It is not that they did not have any newspapers. The Parisian press was varied and militant' during the siege, according to Roth (La guerre, 204). They gave daily military reports and official dispatches, but they also carried rumours and false news. 37 According to Howard, German soldiers were on good terms not only with the French troops guarding the outposts of Paris, but also with French citizens whom they allowed to pass the Prussian lines with 'good humour' (The Franco-Prussian War, 330). 38 See C.P. Doullay, 'Aspects de Paris: Nos gravures,' Illustration, 10 September 1870. 39 According to Jackson, this is what William Simpson was doing without fault (The Pictorial Press, 346). 40 For more information on balloons, see Charles M. Evans, War of the Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning in the Civil War (Mechanicsburk, PA: Stackpole, 2002). This part on ballooning is inspired by chapters 2 and 4 of his book. 41 Ibid., 24-5. 42 Ibid., 68-76. 43 Quoted in Dupuy, La Guerre, 170. 44 Howard set the number of messages carried by pigeons at thirty thousand (The Franco-Prussian War, 325). Perhaps this discrepancy is due to the fact that Howard is only counting those which reached their destinations. 45 A shorter article was also published in the Illustration, and one in Harper's Weekly, to explain these details of the technology. See 'Une privation de moins/ signed by Louis Clodion, 12 November 1870, and The Use of Balloons in War/ unsigned, 21 January 1871. 46 The messages were microphotographed in such a way that only a special machine could enlarge them, a machine that the Prussians did not have. 47 There were other ways to diffuse news from the front. During the very short period of the war, seventy small newspapers (petits journaux) were created, each containing a few sheets of paper on which information from battlefields was published, information not always accurate, as one may guess. See Dupuy, La Guerre, 82 and 178. Geoffrey Wawro states that an English reporter met with some French peasants near Bar-le-Duc after the Prussian victory of Gravelotte and was told that they had heard that the

Notes to pages 96-101 271

48

49

50

51

52

53 54 55

56

57 58 59

French army had captured Berlin (The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871 [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003], 206). In the 'Chronicle of the War/ published on 26 November 1870, the Graphic asserted that the French wanted to use eagles to guide the balloons in their flights, but that the Prussians had already shot most of them. Since this is the first and only time that such an assertion was made, one does not know how much credit to give it. George Sand was the pen name of Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, a wellknown woman writer who was deeply involved in republican politics. After Gambetta's balloon journey, the Illustrated London News began to ironically call him the Minister of Balloon and the winged messenger. See Dora Neill Raymond, British Policy and Opinion during the Franco-Prussian War (New York: Columbia University Press, 1921), 202. As we saw earlier, the Monde illustre explained, on 6 August 1870, how their special artist flew in a balloon over Nancy and therefore was able to draw a sketch involving the military movements of both the French and the Prussians. For more information on the pigeon breeders, see Monde illustre, 18 March 1871. The Monde illustre asserts that there were fifty-nine, but since the Illustration listed them and described the contents and mission of each of the sixty-four balloons, its number should be regarded as more credible. See 'Departure of a Balloon from Paris/ Graphic, 21 January 1871. The author asserts that the French had perfected the technology to such a point that the balloons were almost impossible to catch or shoot down by the Prussians. This was a little overly enthusiastic. Dupuy, La Guerre, 79. See 'La poste pendant le siege/ Monde illustre, I July 1871. For the development of ship instruments, see John Law, 'On the Methods of Long-Distance Control: Vessels, Navigation and the Portuguese Route to India/ in Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? ed. John Law (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986), 234-63. 'Chronicle of the War/ Graphic, 8 October 1870. This article is the only one of all the articles published in the periodicals studied where Prussian balloons were mentioned. Since they were controlling a large part of the territory, they may not have used that technology very often, or perhaps not at all. In 'Courrier de Paris/ Monde illustre, 10 and 24 December 1870. Illustration, 12 November 1870. A long section of the 'Bulletin de la guerre/ written by Maxime Vauvert

272

Notes to pages 101-8

and published in the Monde illustre on 5 November 1870, was also devoted to the electric beam. 60 See Dupuy, La guerre; Howard, The Franco-Prussian War; Wawro, The FrancoPrussian War; and Alistair Home, The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870-1871 (New York: St Martin's Press, 1965). Remember the episode of the Monde illustre map found in the French officer's knapsack after a battle. 61 Dupuy, La guerre, 48-50. 4. Feeding Memories 1 For more on the position of the London Illustrated News on the Prussian camp, see the three columns: 'Foreign and Colonial News/ 'Illustrations of the War,' and 'Latest News/ as well as the chronicle 'The Illustrated London News, Saturday August 6 1870.' All unsigned, they began to appear on 6 August 1870, but then regularly reappeared as long as the war coverage lasted. 2 Historians acknowledge that, although his advisers' pressure played a large role, Napoleon III was also duped into going to war by Bismarck, who had no problem humiliating the enemy. See Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning and Recovering (New York: Henry Holt, 2003); Geoffrey Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Francois Roth, La guerre de 70 (Paris: Pluriel, 1990); and Michael Howard, The Franco-Prussian War (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1961). 3 For more information on the position of the Illustrated London News during the bombardment, see the chronicle "The Illustrated London News' and some other columns published between 14 January and 4 March 1871. Not only did Gambetta want to pursue the war, but in the election following it, he wanted the government to proclaim any person who had participated in the administration of the Napoleonic regime ineligible to run for a position in the government of the Defense Nationale. 4 See the chronicle 'The Illustrated London News. Saturday March 111871,' published on 11 March 1871. 5 See the chronicle 'The Illustrated London News. Saturday February 4 1871,' published on 4 February 1871. 6 Yet the American paper seemed to feel somewhat guilty about adopting such a position, as in an unsigned article entitled 'Liberty and the War/ the author tried to justify this stance by saying that, although France was indisputably America's first friend, since without its help the United States

Notes to pages 108-12 273

7

8

9

10

11 12

13

14 15 16 17

could not have gained its independence, in the Franco-Prussian War it was impossible to take the side of the French since they were the aggressor (Harper's Weekly, 13 August 1870). Surprisingly, even the Illustrirte Zeitung was not entirely anti-French. Indeed, the paper sometimes stressed the courage and determination of the French soldiers. See, respectively, "The Prussians before Metz/ 24 September 1870; 'Marshall Bazaine/ 1 October 1870; and "The Veuve Clicquot's Chateau/ 8 October 1870. These numbers seem rather exaggerated, but they are more or less supported by historians. Indeed, it seems that the exact number of casualties is very difficult to assess for the 1870 war. Historians sometimes report different statistics. Still, there is general agreement on the fact that it was the most murderous war ever in ratio of casualties/length of war/population. Another such optimistic column was published on 24 December 1870. Yet on 7 January 1871, the editor confessed that the tone of the speech by King Wilhelm for the new year worried him because, 'even if the French army has been almost entirely annihilated or captured/ the king wanted to go on with the war. The Graphic, 7 January 1871. See Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat; Roth, La guerre; Alistair Home, The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870-1871 (New York: St Martin's Press, 1965); and Aime Dupuy, 1870-1871, la guerre, la Commune et la presse (Paris: Armand Colin, Collection Kiosque, 1959). There is a difference between newspaper articles and scientific studies. Although scientific studies have also been produced through a mediated process and may contain some contradictions, their credibility is based on a production process different from that of newspapers. Indeed, I believe that the production of newspapers made in a process of 'urgency' and the production of a scientific work that took years of in-depth research to write should not be equated. There were not as many in the Illustrated London News as in the others. Some of the themes covered by these engravings will be discussed in the following chapters. Illustration, 12 November 1870. The mobiles were one of the corps of the French army. 'The Situation in France/ Illustrated Times, 10 September 1870. Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat. Anne-Claude Ambroise-Rendu, 'Les images de la guerre du Transvaal/ Communication, ed. in Philippe Breton, Actes du colloque 'La guerre

274

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19

20 21 22

23 24 25 26

27

Notes to pages 112-19

imaginee/ Association pour la recherche sur la guerre et la paix (Reims: Centre Arpege, Universite de Reims, 2000). Illustration, 3 September 1870. Actually the article was first published in the daily La Liberte under the title 'Le veritable auteur de la guerre de 1870.' The Liberte was launched in 1865 and bought by Girardin in 1866. It then became very successful thanks to its financial pages. See Pierre Pelissier, Emile de Girardin, prince de la presse (Paris: Denoel, 1985), 341-2. The Illustrated London News had already quoted de Montesquieu in an unsigned article entitled 'Foreign and Colonial News/ published 30 July 1870. However, it gave the quotation a completely different meaning, using it to further blame France for declaring war on Prussia. This, again, has been confirmed by historians. See Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat; Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War; Roth, La guerre; and Howard, The Franco-Prussian War. Swivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat. 'Les femmes de Paris pendant le siege/ Monde illustre, 11 February 1871. For some obscure reason, Howard places the beginning of the bombardment of Paris on 5 January 1871 (The Franco-Prussian War, 432). Yet engravings clearly show its effects in the 30 December 1870 issue, which means that it had started the week before. See Roth, La guerre; and Dupuy, La guerre. Several other reports of the same kind can be found in columns by Auguste Marc, or in articles on that specific issue in the weeks that followed. Auguste Marc, Tolitique exterieure: La Prusse/ Illustration, 21 August 1871. American and Italian papers also had engravings showing such crowds, but it is most likely that these were reproduced from the English papers. Indeed, many engravings in these illustrated newspapers were identical to those published in the Illustrated London News and the Graphic. Dupuy gives an analysis of the war by Emile Zola, which was published in his newspaper La Cloche (La guerre, 61-2). On 5 August 1870, the well-known novelist wrote his most stringent attack against those newspapers that were at the service of the empire, not giving any names, however. Profoundly republican and politically engaged, Zola castigated their chauvinism and their patriotisme d'estaminet, stressing that their nationalist declarations were only noise. He accused the empire of getting the soldiers drunk to make them willing to go to war. This article alarmed the political authorities, especially since it was published after the defeats of Wissembourg and Forbach, and they actually brought the author to trial, which was abruptly interrupted by the proclamation of the Republic.

Notes to pages 119-32 275 28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

45 46 47 48

8,15, and 22 October, 19 November, and 17 December 1870. Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat, 19. Monde illustre, 11 February 1871. Monde illustre, 4 March 1871. They might have had a good reason. Indeed, on 25 March 1871, in an article called 'La peste bovine,' in the Monde illustre Maxime Vauvert explained that the cattle that the Germans had brought from their country to feed their troops had transmitted the disease to the French cattle; the French peasants had bought some cattle from the Germans, who did not want to take them back home since sanitary control was more severe in Germany than in France. The German cattle had been diagnosed with typhus and could not, in any case, walk back to Germany. L.V. Elliot, 'The Ruins of Bazeilles,' Illustrirte Zeitung, 8 October 1870. So far, I have not seen it mentioned, let alone discussed, by historians either. 'Chronicle/ Graphic, 3 September 1870. See, for instance, Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat; Wawro, The FrancoPrussian War; Roth, La guerre; and Howard, The Franco-Prussian War. Dupuy, La guerre, 70. Reported in ibid., 84. Unsigned article, 'Marshall Bazaine/ Graphic, 1 October 1870. I have yet to see any reference to this particular issue in historical analysis. 'Chronicle/ Graphic, 11 February 1871. 'The Illustrated London News. London, Saturday, February 4,1871,' 4 February 1871. The author must be referring here to the conference organized in London in October 1870 to explore options for peace between France and Prussia. As we saw earlier, the Presse illustree and the Journal illustre stopped publication for an important part of the event; and the Univers illustre reduced its number of pages dramatically. Consequently, none of them contributed to this type of retroactive analysis in a significant manner. English periodicals usually kept silent about the new menu of the Parisians, but the Graphic had a short article on the issue on 3 December 1870. The article was signed H.C. for Henri Cozic in the Illustration, 7 January 1871. Schivelbusch, The Politics of Defeat. For instance, an anonymous article entitled 'Bombardement de Paris/ published 11 February 1871, asserted that General Trochu asked the Prussians to stop shelling the ambulances and the hospital, but to no avail since the enemy, the day after, increased the intensity of bombing on these targets.

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54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

66 67

Notes to pages 132-9

Raymond serts that English people were 'horrified' by the terror imposed by the Prussian army on French civilians (British Policy, 197). Simmel explains that being both close to and remote from others at the same time helps one to see things that other members more involved cannot see. Georg Simmel, 'The Stranger/ in The Sociology ofGeorg Simmel, ed. Kurt H. Wolff (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950), 402-8. Illustration, 18 February 1871. Cozic borrowed from an article published in the Moniteur officiel of Versailles. According to Schivelbusch, humiliating the vanquished enemy was a new feature of modern warfare. The honourable attitude of the victors, in preceding wars, was to praise the courage of the vanquished (Culture of Defeat, 5). As I said earlier, Harper's Weekly tried to justify the American position in an article entitled 'Liberty and the War/ 13 August 1870. 'The Illustrated London News, 10 December 1870,' Illustrated London News, 10 December 1870. This statement is similar to that published by the Illustrated Times on 14 January 1871. Henri Cozic, 'Courrier de Paris/ Illustration, 4 March 1871. For more details on this and related issues, see: Shivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat, especially the introduction and chapter 2. Monde illusive, 21 January 1871. Jean Watelet, La presse illustree en France, 1818-1914 (Paris: Villeneuve d'Asq, 2000), 296. Jean-Frangois Lecaillon, Ete 1870: La guerre racontee par les soldats (Paris: Bernard Giovanangeli, 2002). Jules Claretie, Histoire de la revolution de 1870-1871,2 vols (Paris: Librairie illustree, 1877). Ibid., 1:2. Ibid. 1:127. Roth, La guerre, 45; Jean-Jacques Becker and Stephane Audouin-Rouzeau, La France, la nation, la guerre: 1850-1920 (Paris: Sedes, 1965), 63-7. Roth, La guerre, 37. Claretie, Histoire, 1:209. Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat; Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War; Becker and Audouin-Rouzeau, La France; Roth, La guerre; and Howard, The FrancoPrussian War. In Dupuy, La guerre, 207. Claretie, Histoire, 1: 207.

Notes to pages 139-43 277 68 The Commune lasted from the end of February.to the end of April 1871; it was, in many ways, a very important event in the political and social life of France in terms of loss of lives, destruction of important buildings, and government repression. The repression was so severe during the Commune that, according to a reader, whose testimony Francisque Sarcey published in his Drapeau tricolore, French people were sorry to see the Prussians leave after the signature of the Treaty of Versailles (see Dupuy, La guerre, 118-20). Since it is only marginally related to the whole Franco-Prussian War and has already been the subject of numerous and various works by historians, I have chosen not to address the issue at all. 69 Although Cozic mentioned 5 billion francs in one of his articles, as we have seen earlier in this chapter, the official number is 8 billion francs. 70 Claretie, Htstoin?, 1:572. 71 Becker and Audouin-Rouzeau, La France, 103. 72 The Orleanists were a monarchist branch descended from Phillippe, duke of Orleans (1640-1701), brother of Louis XIV. The main representative of this family was King Louis-Philippe (1773-1850), whom the Legitimists, descended from the Bourbons, considered as a usurper, the more so since Louis-Philippe-Joseph, duke of Orleans, had voted for the death of Louis XVI at the end of 1792. The Orleanists were considered more liberal than the Legitimists - Louis-Philippe was called Equality-King, but he was overthrown during the revolution of 1848. 73 In Dupuy, La guerre, 154-8. 74 Ibid., 70. 75 Roth, La guerre, 199. 76 Ibid., 195. We saw that Bismarck had even launched a paper in Versailles, the Liberte, to compete with the versions of the war published in the French papers. 77 Les soirees de Medan (Paris, Charpentier, 1880). It included the following stories: 'L'attaque du Moulin/ by Emile Zola; 'Sac au dos/ by Karl-Joris Huysmans; 'Boule de suif,' by Guy de Maupassant; 'L'affaire du grand 7,' by Leon Hennique; 'La saignee/ by Henri Ceard; and 'Apres la bataille/ by Paul Alexis. 78 See Pierre Claudes, Leon Bloy et la guerre de 1870 (autour de Sueur de sang) (Paris: Le Passeur, 2000). 79 Dupuy, La guerre, 214. 80 For more details, see Georges Weill, Le journal: Origines, evolution et le role de la presse periodique (Paris: La renaissance du livre, 1934), 238-43.

278

Notes to pages 146-8

5. Preparing for War Coverage 1 See 'Les manifestations - Vive la paixl' Illustration, 23 July 1870. The paper illustrated that demonstration, but did not discuss it in any articles. Yet, some historians asserted later that, in the French provinces, many people did not support the war, especially the peasants. See Francois Roth, La guerre de 70 (Paris: Pluriel, 1990); and Eugen Weber, La fin des terroirs (Paris: Fayard, 1983). 2 23 July 1870. Original emphasis. This was part of an advertisement for a book, Histoire populaire illustree de la guerre de la Prusse, and published by the Monde illustre. 3 To give a fair coverage of the war, Auguste Marc, the editor-in-chief of the Illustration not only provided engravings to this expensive paper that only wealthy people could afford but, right at the beginning of the war, he created another paper, the Guerre illustree, published twice a week. This new publication had eight pages, contained six engravings, and was sold for 15 centimes, which made it accessible to a wider readership than the Illustration with sixteen pages and twelve illustrations for 75 centimes. The day after its first issue, the Guerre illustree sold fifteen thousand copies, and then it increased to thirty-five thousand, and for some issues up to seventy thousand. The Illustration's circulation remained stable at twelve thousand copies. This new publication, printed on cheap paper, was not entirely an altruistic undertaking. In fact, it became the salvation of the administration struggling with the difficulties involved in producing a high-quality paper such as the Illustration during the war. After the war, it was transformed into a regular paper named the tenement illustre and became a weekly, See Jean-Noel Marchandiau, L'lllustration, 1843-1944, vie et mart d'un journal (Toulouse: Bibliotheque historique privat, 1987), 113. The Monde illustre also complained about the cost of publication during the war, apologizing, after the armistice, for not having delivered their issues in time during the siege, and for the difficulty they had in finding paper to reprint them (25 March 1871). 4 The first column was published sporadically, but the 'Bulletin de la guerre/ was a weekly column created especially to cover the 1870 war. 5 Most of the time, the reporter and the draughtsman was the same person, surely for economic, but also for strategic purposes. More sites could be covered if only one reporter was used for each site. 6 The successive and unexpected Prussian victories had also provoked such a reversal in the German literary and art periodicals such as the Gartenlauber and the Liber Land Und Meer. 7 Original emphasis. This book was advertised as containing 'forty install-

Notes to pages 148-54 279 ments of eight pages each in octavo, three weekly installments for 6 francs without bonus and eight francs with bonus.' It would have 320 pages of nationalist assertions. The bonus was a map of the war theatre which they gave 'gratis' to their subscribers and sold for 50 centimes to those who bought the paper weekly. Such a book was also published by the Illustration. Called 1870-1871: La guerre illustree et le siege de Paris, it was advertised in several of the paper's issues as having 560 pages with more than 460 engravings, maps, plans, and portraits, and sold for 12 francs. Note that these books were advertised only a few weeks after the beginning of the war which, in some ways, contradicts the periodicals' statement that the war would be of short duration and with no consequences. 8 It also cut its price by half, except for a few issues. For instance, on 8,14, and 28 January, 18 and 25 February, 18 and 25 March, and 1 April 1871, it sold for 30 centimes. This is in fact very strange. It may be that they were so short of capital that they had to come back to the original price for a few issues, or more likely, it may be a printing mistake, the printer using a frame with the old price on it. Because the Univers illustre shared the production of engravings with the Illustrirte Zeitung before the war, the reduction in the number of pages was probably due to the siege of Paris, which prevented all kinds of communication. 9 We will remember that King Wilhelm had already agreed not to forward the candidacy of a Hohenzollern for the throne of Spain. 10 It was the same for Harper's Weekly and the IHustrazione popolare. 11 Fraser Sutherland, The Monthly Epic: A History of Canadian Magazines, 17891989 (Markham, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1989), 80. 12 ULT for 'Ultimate,' means, here, the 14th of the previous month, i.e., October 13 Since most of the articles and columns in the Opinion publique were signed, it was possible to identify more than one editor. This is likely the same for the Canadian Illustrated News, in which the articles, according to the English tradition of the time, were unsigned. 14 This opinion was later substantiated by many historians. See Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning and Recovering (New York: Henry Holt, 2003); Geoffrey Wawro, The FrancoPrussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Roth, La guerre de 70; Michael Howard, The Franco-Prussian War (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1961); and Aime Dupuy, 1870-1871, La guerre, la Commune et la presse (Paris: Armand Colin, Collection Kiosque, 1959). 15 The time lag was shorter for articles as they could be transmitted by telegraphy. 16 See for instance, 'Bombardment,' Canadian Illustrated News, 8 October 1870.

280

Notes to pages 154-9

17 The anglophone paper took this occasion to praise the German infirmary system, asserting that it was better than the French system. However, most newspapers in P ris and London praised the Societe de Secours and asserted that it was very efficient, considering the difficult situation of the French in the war. 18 The same situation could be seen in Harper's Weekly. 19 In 'The Chronicle of War,' Canadian Illustrated News, 11 March 1871. This contradicts what the Illustration and the Monde illusive asserted, but supports the version of the English and Prussian newspapers on which the paper was largely relying. 20 Although the owners were the same, the editors and coeditors were different. This difference in the editorial team influenced the content. 21 What was important, in this duo, was not what really existed, but what the French-Canadian editors believed about these two countries. 22 The king was said to have praised the French army for its courage. See 'Un acte d'hero'isme d'un soldat frangais,' 20 October 1870. 23 See Sean Sullivan, 'Le Canadian Illustrated News et la guerre franco-allemande (de juillet 1870 a fevrier 1871),' (2001) http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/cin/ hl-207-f.html. The paper argues that the Canadian illustrated paper adopted a very innovative and democratic position. However, an international comparative study like mine shows that the vast majority of the paper's arguments had already been exposed in other papers, particularly the English dailies and illustrated periodicals. 24 The Gartenlaube and the Uber Land und Meer were illustrated periodicals which limited their content to novels and other cultural matters. Still, at the beginning of the war, they modified their content to offer their readers strongly nationalist news and engravings on the conflict. However, given that their particular nature does not correspond to the type of press studied here, I am not including them in my analysis, the more so because their approach is similar to that of the Illustrirte Zeitung. 25 Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte, 1866-1918: Machtstaatvorder Demokratie (Berlin: CH. Beck, 1986), 2:63. 26 Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War, 105. 27 For a few weeks during the period covered by the war, the paper had a supplement to its regular publication. For instance, in 1870 the following issues had twenty pages with the supplement: 23 July, 5 November, 26 November, and 3 December. For all that, the paper did not offer more engravings on war activities during these weeks. 28 As we saw earlier, the term 'agenda' is used to mean the list of subjects and themes covered by each periodical.

Notes to pages 160-70

281

29 The author is talking here of the terrible battle of Gravelotte. 30 Paul Ricoeur, La memoire, I'histoire, I'oubli (Paris: La decouverte, 2000). 31 Remember that I am taking the American and Italian newspapers into account only as complements to the papers studied, as either confirmation or invalidation. 32 During the ten-day period separating those two events, none of the periodicals mentioned the possibility of a war, except the Illustration, which briefly alluded to a possible conflict on 16 July 1870. 33 In this chapter and the next, I refer to the engravings by the number of the issue in which they were published, and by their page number. The initials of the paper are added when necessary. 34 Eugen Weber, France, fin de siecle (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1986), particularly chapter 7. 35 We have seen that special artists were often arrested as spies when they were caught drawing a scene. The Graphic and the Illustrated London News also reported on the arrest of their own artists, and illustrated the story with similar engravings. So the question arises: Was the same artist working for both papers, or was the illustration only symbolic of what these people could suffer? 36 They did include portraits of Prussian royalty and generals (1431:100,101, 104). 37 See the Illustration 1430: 65; the Monde illusive 693: 61; 694: 65; the Presse lllusivee 143: 4; the Univers illustre 811:489; 812: 500; and the Journal illusive 337: 233. 38 Because those two papers contained only eight pages, they obviously could not cover as many issues as the three other papers, which had double the mber of pages. 39 An advertisement, 23 July 1870. As I said before, Weber argues that many people in the French provinces were antiwar and antirepublican. See France, chapter 7. 40 The portraits of the Prussian commanders were nonetheless identified as the enemy. See 'Nos ennemis' (696:104). 41 This particular engraving was certainly a great help to me in identifying each camp in all the engravings. There is no reason that it should not have done the same thing for the average French individual at the time. Two other engravings with a similar idea, were published much later in the war. One entitled 'Uniformes des differents corps de 1'armee Prussienne' (822: 636-7) and unsigned was also shown in the Univers illustre, the other 'Armee prussienne/ also unsigned, was reproduced in the Journal illustre as well.

282

Notes to pages 170-80

42 Remember that none of the engravings in that publication was signed. 43 The Memorial was published in 1871, immediately after the siege and the Commune, and contained engravings from the Monde illustre. 44 The Illustration, Monde illustre, Univers illustre, Journal illustre, and Presse illustree had respectively thirty, thirty-two, twenty-one, nine, and seventeen engravings. 45 They covered Bazeilles, Bicetre, Le Bourget, Carignan, Forbach, Gravelotte, Hambourg, Keil, Ligny, Lyon, Marseille, Metz, Mousson, Phalsburg, Saarbrucken, Sedan, Strasbourg, Toul, Tours, Weser, Woerth, and Wissembourg. 46 In fact, many of the rather 'touchy' illustrations were unsigned. 47 It covered only thirteen cities instead of the twenty-two covered by its competitor: Bazeilles, Bicetre, Forbach, Gravelotte, Metz, Saarbrucken, Sedan, Strasbourg, Thionville, Toul, Tours, Wissembourg, and Woerth. 48 This series lasted a few weeks and portrayed different French towns each time, the 'main' obviously meaning the main street in each town. 49 It is worth noting that this series did not involve any negative stereotypes of the French, as some of the engravings of the Illustrated Times did. 50 In addition to those on 'poor people/ see for instance, 'The war: Daring attempt of German Uhlans to capture Marshall Bazaine before Metz' (465: 129); and 'Classifying the dead' (465:137); 'French vivandieres' (466:149); and 'The war: Gallant charger of the French' (466:152)); 'Daring act of a Prussian officer before Paris: "Your journal or your life!"' (478: 337); and 'A German soldier's dream before Paris' (481: 385). 51 The most original were published in the Illustrirte Zeitung and in the Illustrazione popolare. 52 Indeed, with their Leggotype technology, they did not need the engraved wood to reproduce an illustration. The intricacies of engravings, their production, reproduction, their producers with their international networks, as well as with their work in the production of illustrated books will be the topic of another book already in progress. 53 Many engravings shown in the Canadian Illustrated News had been shown much earlier in the Illustrirte Zeitung from Leipzig. It might have been easier to 'borrow' from a German paper. 54 A typical example is the scene in the French Senate when the declaration of war was announced, which was shown in many English and French papers almost exactly one month earlier. The same holds for other stereotypical engravings like the departure of the soldiers and the troop encampments in different cities. 55 I have found only two of these supplements. This does not mean, however,

Notes to pages 180-6

56 57

58

59

283

that they were the only ones. The supplements might not have been as well preserved as the main paper. It was also reproduced in the Italian and the American papers. Actually, Harper's Weekly experienced the same type of time lag, though its financial situation would have allowed the paper to send reporters to some of the battlefields. The fact is that the illustrations could not cross the sea faster than the boats that were carrying them, which at that time meant between three to six weeks. I would need a much more extensive study of the practices of these different artists - draughtsmen, engravers, sketchers - which is actually one of my works in progress. These included 'Battle of the Bavarian infantry with the Turcos and Zouaves in the hop field near Weissenburg [sic]/ F. Kaiser (1418:169); 'The battle of Courcelles,' Otto Fikentscher; and 'MacMahon on the battlefield of Worth/ F. Kaiser (1420: 201,205); and 'Wilhelmshohe, the residence of the emperor/ Otto Fikentscher (1421: 224).

6. Managing the Unexpected 1 Since I am using only one German paper - as there was only one such illustrated newspaper at the time - political rupture does not apply to that publication, except where it will bring further information in the comparative analysis. 2 Jean-Pierre Bacot, line histoire oubliee: Quatre generations de presse illustree au XIXe siecle (Limoges: Presses universitaires de Limoges, 2005). Yet on 22 December 1867, the paper had claimed that it had not been able to meet the demand with the three hundred thousand copies of its first issue. 3 Since most municipal libraries have at least some copies of some of the illustrated periodicals of that time, it is fair to assume that they were then available to the public. 4 In the reading room, Gabinetto G.B. Vieussieux, which I visited during my stay in Florence, there was a whole collection of nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals from many different countries. One may assume that the reading rooms in other countries had similar collections. 5 See, among others, 'Jougnes (Doubs), frontiere suisse, au moment de 1'incendie qui 1'a completement detruite' (694: 80); 'Le consulat de France a Tien-Tsin' (695: 96); and 'Rome - Le peuple de Rome a Saint-Pierre, le jour du vote du dogme de I'infaillibilite' (696:112). 6 For instance, articles on trials for murders, important accidents, and even sports tournaments.

284

Notes to pages 187-95

7 This attitude also suggests that the paper did not have a qualified labour process of its own for the production of illustrations. Though it had a few very good engravers working for it, the paper relied on other papers, like the Illustrite Zeitung, for some of its engravings. 8 See, for instance, 'L'empereur rec,oit les felicitations des senateurs au palais de Saint-Cloud' (693: 61), signed by G. Janet and Morel-Babeville; 'L'imperatrice assiste, sur le vaisseau le Coligny, au depart d'une division de 1'escadre franchise' (694: 69), signed by Daudenarde and Berard; 'SaintCloud - Depart de 1'Empereur de la station imperiale, situee a 1'interieur du pare' (695: 89), signed by G. Janet and Morel-Babeville; 'Metz - Arrivee de 1'Empereur au quartier general - Hotel de la Prefecture' (695: 89), unsigned; 'L'imperatrice et le prince imperial a Notre-Dame-des-Victoires' (695: 92), signed by Hagenaux; 'Metz - Visite du Prince Imperial aux camps' (695: 92), signed by Moullin and G. Janet; 'Metz - Le general Chaumarnier et 1'Empereur en avant du village de Faulquemont, reconnaissant les positions de 1'ennemi' (697:113), signed by G. Janet and Morel-Babeville; and 'Quartier imperial de Gravelottes, 5 minutes apres le depart de 1'Empereur' (698:137), signed by Coste and JB. 9 The engraving depicted the arrival of the emperor in Metz and was published on 6 August 1870 (1432:112). The image was placed inside the paper, occupied a whole page, and was signed by Gaildreau and Smeeton. 10 On the cover page on 6 August 1870, 'Saint-Cloud - Depart de 1'empereur et du prince imperial pour 1'armee du Rhin' (812: 407), signed by Froment; and inside the same issue, 'Visite de S.M. L'imperatrice a la rade de Cherbourg' (812: 505), signed by L (for Lix) and Froment. On 27 August 1870, 'Metz - depart de 1'empereur pour Chalons' (815: 557), signed by F. Lix and Trichon. The fact that the paper did not have an engraving illustrating the arrival of Napoleon III at Metz suggests that it did not have a correspondent in that city, which came to be one of the most important sites of the war. 11 Not all working class papers adopt such a strategy. A comparative study that I have done on different types of newspapers in Quebec showed that most working-class papers adopted bourgeois ideology and cultural values. See my, 'Modulating Popular Culture: Cultural Critics on Tremblay's Les Belles-Soeurs/ Labour/le Travail 52 (fall 2003): 109-35. 12 See on 13 August 1870, 'Strasbourg - Le camp de I'artillerie, a la porte d'Austerlitz/ signed by Miranda and C. Maurand; 'Strasbourg - L'heure de la fermeture des portes,' signed by Miranda and C. Maurand; 'Thionville Campement du 43e de ligne sur les glacis,' signed by Miranda and C. Maurand (813: 517); and 'Strasbourg - Campement des turcos [sic] sous les rem-

Notes to pages 195-6 285 parts, devant la porte de Saverne/ signed by Miranda and Froment (813: 525). On 20 August 1870, 'Strasbourg - Les troupes de la garnison massees sur la place Kleber/ signed by Froment and F. Lix (814: 536). 13 Though, of course, Strasbourg became a strategic battlefield when it was bombarded by the Prussians during the week of 7 September 1870, soon after Napoleon IFs surrender. 14 We should remember that the Presse illustree was owned by the same group that owned the Monde illustre, and that it relied on the latter for most of its engravings. 15 Remember that the Presse illustree published irregularly, often sending out three issues during one week, as the editor did on the week of 14 August 1870. See issues 146,147, and 148. 16 'La frontiere - Reconnaissance de Sarrebriick [sic]/ signed by Bertrand and Colin and Trusse - Bataille de Sarrebriick [sic] -Prise de la ville par les Franqais/ signed by A. Daudenarde and Godefroy Durand (146: 4). 17 'La frontiere - Les blesses de Wissembourg amenes aux ambulances pres de Haguenau/ signed by Gus. Janet (147:1); 'Episode de la bataille de Wissembourg/ signed by E. Morin (148: 8); and 'La guerre - Les zouaves et les turcos [sic] a Wissembourg/ signed E. Morin (150: 5). 18 On Saarbriicken, 'Prusse - Bataille de Sarrebriick [sic]. Prise de la ville par les Francois/ (Croquis de M. Moullin, notre correspondant), signed by A. Daudenarde and Godefroy Durand (695:81); 'La frontiere. Les mitrailleuses a la prise de Sarrebriick [sic]/ (D'apres un dessin de M. Brunet, capitaine d'artillerie), signed by Morel-Babeville (696:101); 'Ambulance du 2e corps de la 2e division apres la bataille de Saarbriick [sic]' (croquis de M. De Katow), signed by B; and 'Plan de la bataille - Route de Forbach a Saarbriick [sic]/ signed by B (697:116). On Forbach, 'La frontiere - Bataille de Forbach, le 6 aout 1870,' Vue prise du talus dominant le village de Styring-Wendel, par L. de Nabat, notre correspondant (Voir la Correspondance), signed by A. Daudenarde; and 'Le chateau du maire de Forbach servant de grand quartier apres le combat' (L. de Nabat), signed by J. Bertrand and Coste (697: 116). On Reichsoffen, 'Nos heros - Le marechal MacMahon et les 8e et 9e cuirassiers, a la bataille de Reichsoffen/ signed by Morin (698:133). 19 On Gravelotte, 'Mars-la-Tour et Gravelottes [sic], du quartier imperial de Rozereuilles/ signed by A. Bar and E.M.; 'Quartier imperial de Gravelottes [sic], 5 minutes apres le depart de 1'Empereur/ signed Coste and JB; and 'Bataille de Gravelottes [sic] - Vue generate des positions des armees avant le combat/ signed by G. Janet (698:136-7). On Metz, 'Bataille de Longeville, sous Metz - Passage de la Moselle par les troupes franchises' (D'apres les croquis de M. Moulin [sic]), signed by Godefroy Durand and A. Daude-

286

Notes to pages 197-200

narde; 'L'eglise de Longeville-les-Metz, servant d'ambulance apres la bataille/ signed by JB; 'Passage des troupes a Etains - Route de Metz a Verdun/ signed by A. Bar (698:136-7), and on the last page of the same issue, 'Metz - Le colonel de Galiffet a la tete d'une reconnaissance de chasseurs/ unsigned; 'Entree des francs-tireurs lorrains a Metz/ signed by R Lix and A. Daudenarde (698:144). 20 See on the visit of the king of Prussia to Napoleon III, 'Arrivee du roi de Prusse au chateau de Bellevue/ signed by JFM (Monde illustre 701:180); and 'Entrevue de Napoleon III et de Guillaume ler, apres la capitulation de Sedan/ signed by L (Univers illustre 819: 612). On the castle, on the cover page of the Monde illustre, see 'Le chateau de Bellevue, pres de Sedan, dans lequel a eu lieu 1'entrevue entre Guillaume ler et Napoleon III/ signed by Moullin, Meaulle, and A. Daudenarde (701:177); 'Le chateau de Wilhelmshoehe, pres du Cassel, ou Napoleon III est retenu prisonnier/ signed by A. Deroy and L. Dumont (702: 204); the same engraving was shown in the Presse illustree (156: 8). In the Illustration, see 'Arrivee de Napoleon au camp prussien, apres la capitulation/ signed by Morel-Babeville (1438: 236). Note the use of Napoleon instead of Napoleon III or the French emperor in the caption, which may suggest a lack of respect for the destitute emperor, or it might be a reference to Napoleon I, also exiled in defeat. 21 Here, we have a reference to witches that associates the emperor's surrender with a wicked act. 22 We can assume that it was the responsibility of the draughtsman or the engraver since, as we saw in chapter 2, the sketch was very different from the engraving. 23 There is more of this kind of discourse in the Monde illustre, the tone of which goes from derision to sarcasm. See, for example, 'Le chateau de Wilhelmshoehe/ in 'Bulletin de la Guerre' (702: 202). 24 While none of the papers put the event on the front page, the Illustration reserved a whole page for it: 'La journee du 4 septembre - Proclamation de la Republique sur la place de I'Hotel-de-ville/ signed by P. Blanchard and Smeeton (1437: 201); the Univers illustre allowed two thirds of a page: 'Revolution du 4 septembre - Proclamation de la Republique a 1'Hotel de ville [sic] de Paris/ signed by Perrichon (818: 593); and the Monde illustre had only half a page: 'Paris - Proclamation de la Republique a l'H6tel-deville dans la journee du 4 septembre 1870,' signed by Janet and A. Daudenarde (700:168). 25 The front page engraving portrayed a regiment marching after the proclamation of the republic (344: 289) and the other was a series of portraits of the members of the new government of the Defense Nationale (344: 292-3).

Notes to pages 200-3 287 26 The engravings related to the siege of Paris were so abundant that it would be impossible to list them all. Only a few will be given as examples. 27 Since the Journal illusive, and the Presse illustree stopped publishing early in the war, only one engraving in the former and three in the latter were related to the defence and the siege of Paris. While the Univers illustre did not discontinue publication until 1 April 1871, one has to remember that its length was cut in half and its means of publication greatly diminished. See 'Avis important' (819: 610). It did, however, publish fourteen engravings, all of them related to the siege of Paris. 28 The cutting of old trees, though understood as a means of defence, was poorly accepted by the papers' editors. All periodicals carried illustrations about the issue. The Illustration (1436:189) and the Journal illustre (346: 308) had the same engraving, signed by Provost and entitled 'La defense de Paris - Abattage des arbres dans la zone avoisinant les fortifications,' although that of the Journal illustre was published two weeks after that of the Illustration and probably came from the bigger paper. I found some variations of the theme in the Monde illustre: 'Defense de Paris - Les mobiles bretons construisant des barricades dans le bois de Boulogne,' signed by Sahib, G. Janet, and Morel-Babeville (705: 252); in the Univers illustre, 'Degagement des fortifications de Paris, le long du bois de Boulogne,' signed by Miranda and G. Perrichon (816: 565). 29 See in the Monde illustre, 'Arrivee au bois de Boulogne du betail devant approvisionner Paris en cas de siege,' signed by J. Bertrand and A. Daudenarde, and 'Le bois de boulogne - Camp des francs-tireurs de la Seine dans la plaine de Longchamps,' signed by Provost and A. Daudenarde (699:156). In fact, the arrival of peasants in the parks of Paris was another topic which attracted more than one periodical. See also, in the Monde illustre, 'Campement dans le jardin du Luxembourg des paysans du Doubs, qui ont offert leurs services au Gouvernement pour les transports d'approvisionnement,' signed by F. Lix and A. Daudenarde (705: 248); in the Univers illustre, 'Les bestiaux parques au bois de Boulogne,' signed by Froment (817: 589); and in the Illustration 'L'approvisionnement de Paris - Betail parque au bois de Boulogne,' signed by P. Blanchard and Smeeton (1437: 209). 30 See the Univers illustre (814: 537), the Monde illustre (697:120), the Graphic (66: 209), the Illustrated Times (806:136), the Canadian Illustrated News (13: 209), the Opinion publique (39: 308), and the Illustrazione popolare (46: 364). It was one of the very few illustrations that could be qualified as international. Only the Illustrirte Zeitung did not carry this engraving, for obvious reasons. 31 See 'Entree des Prussiens a Versailles,' signed by Cosson Smeeton (349:336).

288

Notes to pages 203-8

32 This article was discussed in chapter 3. 33 Bridges were destroyed, gates closed, railways blocked, telegraph lines cut, etc. 34 See, in the Monde illustre, 'Siege de Paris - Interieur du colombier des pigeons messagers appartenant a M. Ed. Cassiers/ signed by Vierge and A. Daudenarde (707: 273). On page 276 of the same issue, in addition to the picture of the pigeon owner's house, there were three small engravings, signed by Sellier and Daudenarde, that explained the parts of the pigeon to which the message was attached. Finally, on the same page, there was an engraving entitled 'Kiosque servant d'observatoire au facteur-chef des postes charge de guetter 1'arrivee des pigeons voyageurs,' signed by Vierge and A. Daudenarde (707: 276). 35 See 'Le ballon captif de la place Saint-Pierre,' signed by P. Blanchard et Casson Smeeton (348: 321); and an article entitled 'Les ballons-poste/ which was unsigned and published on 9-16 October 1870. 36 See 'La defense de Paris - Depart de M. Gambetta, ministre de 1'interieur, pour Tours, par le ballon Armand Barbes, le 7 octobre/ unsigned (705:244); and an article, 'Courrier de Paris,' on 14 October 1870, which was partially devoted to explaining the flaws of the French system. 37 A different version of 'Depart de M. Gambetta,' signed by Smeeton on the front cover of the issue of 15 October 1870 (1442: 285), and 'La guerre Decouverte du ballon apportant des nouvelles de Metz,' signed by P. Blan chard and Smeeton (1439: 260). The Illustration published long post-war articles on 8 and 15 July 1871, explaining in detail the working of the balloon postal system. 38 As we saw in chapter 4, Watelet asserts that the Univers illustre was buying many of its engravings from two foreign papers: the Illustrirte Zeitung and the Illustrated London News. See Jean Watelet, La presse illustree en France, 1818-1914 (Villeneuve d'Asq: Septentrion/Presses universitaires, 2000), 296. He adds that the agreement with the German publication ended in 1870. However, the coverage of the 1870 war by the Univers illustre proves him wrong. Though some of its illustrations could be associated with the London paper, many of them were clearly coming from the Leipzig periodical, even at the beginning of 1871, as their style as well as some signatures testified. 39 The immorality of the Prussian spying system was probably due also to the fact that some civilians were 'corrupted' into collaborating with the enemy. 40 See also the 'Courrier de Paris' of 27 August and 17 September 1870. 41 The two papers, the Journal illustre and the Presse illustree, which had already stopped publishing when the first of these events occurred, cannot be taken into account here for obvious reasons.

Notes to pages 208-14 289 42 'Le siege de Paris - Un episode du bombardement' (Scene prise rue Mouffetard)/ signed by F. Lix and Trichon (836:17); 'Le siege de Paris - Effets de 1'explosion d'un obus dans 1'interieur d'une maison/ signed by Trichon (837: 25); and 'Bombardement de la ville de Saint-Denis/ signed by F. Lix and Trichon (838: 33). All three were found on front pages. 43 'Le visa des laissez-passer aux avant-postes allemands devant Paris/ signed by F. Lix and Trichon (840: 49); 'La garnison de Belfort quittant la place avec les honneurs de la guerre/ signed by F. Lix and Trichon (841:57); and 'Ouvriers employes a la reparation des chemins de fer, pendant 1'armistice/ unsigned (841: 60). The first two were on front pages. 44 'Saint-Cloud apres 1'evacuation des Prussiens/ signed by S.D. and Yon (845: 92). 45 'Le grand-theatre de Bordeaux, siege de 1'assemblee nationale/ signed by L. Moullin, F.L., and Trichon (842: 65) on front page; and 'La salle des seances de 1'assemblee nationale a Bordeaux - Discussion des preliminaries de Paix/ signed by L. Moullin and Trichon (842: 68). 46 See, among the most representative in the Monde illustre: 717:13; 718:20,21, 32; 719: 36,44,45,48; 720: 49, and in the Illustration: 1455: 24; 1456: 40. 47 See, among the eleven published by the Illustration: 1458: 53, 60, 61; 1459: 77, 80; 1460: 96; and in the Monde illustre: 721: 73, 76; 722: 88; 724:125. 48 See 1458: 64; 1459: 65,69. Though the Illustration never discussed the signature of the Convention of Paris, Leon Creil wrote, on 20 May 1871, a long article entitled 'Signature du Traite de Paris/ the final document establishing peace between the two countries, as mentioned in chapter 1. The Monde illustre did not allude to that treaty. 49 See 1462:117,120,124,128. 50 See 726: 145,149,156. 51 See 'Paris pendant le sejour des Prussiens - Aspect du boulevard Montmartre/ signed by Smeeton (1463:141). It shows a boulevard, usually crowded with people, then empty. 52 See the Monde illustre, 749:113; 753:188; 758: 264; 759:277; 760: 281; 761:300; 765: 368-9, 376. 53 In 'The bombardment of Sedan and stampede of the French soldiery/ Graphic, 24 September 1870. 54 Though the Prussians did not immediately stop all links between the capital and the outside world, communication had become more difficult, since the French had to ask the enemy for permission either to go out or to send something outside the capital. 55 See 'The war: The fall of Strasbourg/ signed by TB (1617: 365); 'The war: A street of Strasbourg/ signed by S. Read (1617: 384); 'Fall of Strasbourg. Departure of French prisoners/ unsigned (1618: 389); 'The war: Streets

290

56

57

58

59

Notes to pages 214-15

of Strasbourg during the siege/ unsigned (1618: 392); The war: Fall of Strasbourg - Entry of German troops by the porte Blanche/ unsigned (1618: 393); The war: Arrival of a supply of provisions at Strasbourg/ unsigned (1618: 396); The war: Siege of Strasbourg - Lunette captured by the Germans/ signed by RCH, and The war: Siege of Strasbourg Botanic gardens used as a burial ground/ unsigned (1618: 401) The war: The rue de Saverne, Strasbourg, after the siege/ unsigned (1618: 409); The war: Doorway of Strasbourg cathedral/ unsigned (1619: 413); The war: Strasbourg cathedral/ unsigned (1619: 424); The war: Fall of Strasbourg Ruined houses in the rue du Faubourg des Pierres/ unsigned, and The war: Fall of Strasbourg - French guns in the fortifications/ signed by GR (1619:425). See The war: Defence of Paris - A captive balloon at Montmartre/ unsigned (1616: 349); The war: Defence of Paris - Camp in the champ de Mars/ unsigned (1616: 353); The war: Defence of Paris - Battle at Villejuif/ and The war: Defence of Paris -Bridge of Neuilly fortified/ both unsigned (1619: 433); The war: Defence of Paris: Look-out post at the rond-point of Courbevoie/ and The war: Defence of Paris - The pont Napoleon at Bercy/ both unsigned (1620:440); The war: Defence of Paris - The bridges of Asniere and Clichy destroyed/ unsigned (1620: 449); The war: Defence of Paris - Fortress of Mont Valerien/ also unsigned (1620: 460). See The defence of Paris: General Trochu and the national guard/ signed by G. Durand (44: 313); 'Spahis passing through Paris to the front/ also signed by G. Durand (44: 316); 'Camp of Moblots at Paris/ signed by EG (45: 344); 'Before Paris at night at the front/ also signed by EG (48: 412); 'Uhlans tracking the course of a balloon/ signed by G. Durand and H. Harral (49: 437). See The war: King William and his staff at Gravelotte/ unsigned (820: 3601); 'Bazeilles, near Sedan, after its storming by the Bavarians/ unsigned (820: 364); 'The war: The Prussian guards in the battle of Sedan/ also unsigned (821: 372); The war: The final French cavalry charge at Sedan checked by Prussian fire/ signed by Fitenscher (821: 380). See 'Battles on the Loire: Advance of the Germans on Orleans/ unsigned (822: 393-4); The war: Germans advancing to the recapture of Bourget, near Paris/ unsigned (823:404); 'The war: The crown prince of Prussia distributing decorations to German soldiers at Versailles/ unsigned (824:429); 'Scene of a combat during the retreat of the French army of the Loire, after the evacuation of Orleans: the German lines/ unsigned (824: 436); 'A German advanced post near Phalsbourg during the siege/ also unsigned (824: 437).

Notes to pages 215-17 291 60 See also 485:17,29. On this last page, two engravings were published, the top one depicting the French feeding on cats, dogs, and rats, and the bottom one showing the Prussians stealing French cattle, a statement in itself. See also 487: 49,53; 488: 65; 489: 88. 61 See, for the French army, in the Illustrated London News, 1632: 25; 1633: 56, 61, 64-5; 1634: 80; in the Graphic, 59: 41; 63 72,73,85; and in the Illustrated Times, 826: 25; for the Prussian army, in the Illustrated London News, 1631: 5, 8; 1632: 32,33; 1633:53,72; in the Graphic, 58:13; in the Illustrated Times, 826: 24,28,29; 828: 53. For the bombardment of Paris, in the Illustrated London News, 1632: 34, 35; 1633: 80; in the Graphic, 59:32; 63:89; in the Penny Illustrated Paper, 487: 56. For the provisioning of wood and food, in the Illustrated London News, 1632:12,13,36; 1633: 56,57; 1634: 77,84,96; in the Graphic, 58: 4; 59: 28; 62: 96. 62 See, in the Illustrated London News, 1632: 28,29; in the Graphic, 58:1; 63: 88; in the Illustrated Times, 825:13; 826: 29. 63 See, in the Illustrated London News, 'Bombardment of Paris: Effects of a shell bursting in the third and fourth stories of a house/ unsigned (1638:189); 'The ruins around Paris: The town of St Cloud [sic] destroyed by fire/ signed by CH (1639: 212); 'The ruins around Paris: Home/ signed by FSW and Dalh (1639: 213). In the Graphic, 'Paris under bombardment/ and 'A room in the rue de la Procession, Vaugirard/ both unsigned (65:185); 'A colony in a cellar/ signed by EB (65:185). 64 See, for instance, 'Revictualling of Paris: First arrival of fish at the Halles/ unsigned (1638:193); 'Relief of Paris: The English gift of food - Entrance to the magasin du Bon Marche, rue de Sevres/ signed by CR (1639: 201); 'Relief of Paris: Distribution of the English gift at the Magasin du Bon Marche, rue de Sevres/ unsigned (1640: 204); 'Relief of Paris: Venders of poultry and rabbits - Scene near the rue Lafayette/ signed by JB (1640: 205) 'Relief of Paris: Distribution of the English gift at the Maison du Grand Corde/ unsigned (1640: 235); in 'Relief of Paris: The rush to the provision shops/ unsigned (1640: 237); 'Relief of Paris: Dealers in provisions from St Denis [sic] at the Prussian advanced post on the Canal Bridge/ signed by CR (1640: 241); 'Relief of Paris: Arrival of a vessel in the Seine with provisions from London/ unsigned (1640: 248). 65 For example, in the Graphic, 'Revictualizing [sic] Paris/ signed by JH (65: 165); 'Raid on the provision dealers in the Halles centrales in Paris/ unsigned (65:165); 'The Prussian barrier at the grand Montrouge: Parisian going to buy white bread/ signed by JH (66:196); 'Arrival of the first oxen in Paris during the armistice/ unsigned (66:196); 'A queue in Paris/ signed by WS (67: 217).

292

Notes to pages 217-37

66 It was also shown on the front page of the Illustrirte Zeitung, 8 April 1871 (1449: 229). 67 See 1424: 264,272; 1428: 329,341; 1429: 345, 349,352-3. 68 The engraving, with its easily identified signature H.X.A., was entitled Trench calvary men killing their horses on the eve of the capitulation' (Canadian Illustrated News 9:141; Opinion publique 9:103). It was a full-page illustration vividly depicting the scene in the stalls the night that the French troops murdered their horses. While outrage might be the initial reaction, both the illustration and the accompanying article really capture the agony and reluctance with which the French troops carried out the deed. It is interesting that a German paper would attribute such compassionate feelings to the French soldiers when the French publications always pictured the Prussians as nasty and barbarous. 69 This engraving was shown in almost all the other papers, except the Penny Illustrated Paper, but much earlier.in the war, and, sometimes, with slight variations, which might have been the work of the engraver. 70 Also shown in the Opinion publique and in the Illustrirte Zeitung. 71 Only the French periodicals and the Illustrated London News used the back page for engravings. Most other papers used it for advertising. 72 See, for instance, 1441: 277; 1445: 317; 1448: 357; 1449: 365. 73 See 1450: 373,1451: 389,1452: 405,1453: 413. 74 See 834:1, 835: 9, 836:17, 837: 25, 838: 33. 75 See 842: 65, 843: 73, 845: 89. 76 See 1455: 24,1456: 40,1459: 80,1460: 96,1466:190. 77 Some back pages had two small engravings. 78 'Application de la chambre noire dans les ports pour 1'explosion des torpilles/ unreadable signature (143: 8). 79 See, for instance, 1633: 53,1635:101; 1636:125; 1637:149; 1638:173; 1640: 221; and 1641: 253. 80 See, for instance, 35:97; 43: 289; 45: 337; 46: 361; 48:409; 52: 505; 58:1; and 62: 93. 81 For Prussians as victors, see 466:145; 471: 225,; 475: 289; and 490: 97. For Prussians as barbarians, see 474: 273; 485:17; 486: 33; and 488: 65. Conclusion: Constructing Memories 1 The Illustrirte Zeitung was also publishing engravings of the war with an important time lag, sometimes with a delay of more than a month. Though the causes of such delays were obviously different from those experienced by the North American papers, the effects were similar.

Notes to pages 237-46 293 2 See Roger Chartier, Forms and Meanings: Texts, Performances, and Audiences from Codex to Computer (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1995). 3 Peter W. Sinnema, Dynamics of the Pictured Page: Representing the Nation in the Illustrated London News (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), 8-9. 4 Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning and Recovering (New York: Henry Holt, 2003), 19. 5 Sinnema, Dynamics, 8. 6 Supporting, here, Ehrenreich's observations that war 'inverts all that is moral and right/ in the sense that it is right to kill, steal, burn cities and farms, and rape women. See Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War (New York: Holt, 1997). 7 Perhaps they are more difficult to find in Germany because of the destruction of public buildings during the Second World War, 8 Hogart, The Artist as a Reporter (New York: Studio Vista/Reinhold, 1967), 15.

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Illustration Credits

Archives de la bibliotheque Forny: Univers illustre: Figures 17,32. Archives de la bibliotheque municipale de Compiegne: Journal illustre, Figures 6,25. Jean-Pierre Bacot's private collection: Illustration, Figures 12,13, 28. Bishop's University Archives: Illustrated London News, Figures 4,10,19,24. Center for Research Libraries: Graphic, Figures 1,8,9,11,20,21,22,26,29,31. Jackson, Pictorial Press (1885): Figures 2,3. McGill University Archives: Canadian Illustrated News, Opinion publique, Figures 18,30. Michele Martin, private collection: Monde illustre, Figures 5,14,15,16,23,27. University of Leipzig (Department of Communication): Illustrirte Zeitung, Figure 7.

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Index

agenda of periodicals, 7,162,170, 172,177,196,211,214,215,236, 237,250n Ambroise-Rendu, Anne-Claude, 52, 63,112,261n, 264n, 273n Anderson, Benedict, 38,48,49,257n, 260n Andrew, John, 66, 68,266n Andrieux, B., 82,221 artist, 43,45,51, 54,57, 61,62,64,66, 70, 72,73, 74, 78, 80,81,82, 83,85, 86,88,90,91,92,103,104,106,148, 151,169,173,219,236,238,240, 241, 243,263n, 267n, 268n, 269n Audouin-Rouzeau, Stephane, 39, 138,140,255,257n, 277n Aurenche, Marie-Laure, 65,66,249n, 264n,265n Babeville, 83,88,284n, 285n, 287n Bacot, Jean-Pierre, 12,15, 39,45, 248n, 249n, 257n, 260n, 283n Barnard, R, 81 Barnhurst, K.G., 6,247n Bazaine, Francois-Achille, 125,137, 142,213,229,233,273n, 275n, 282n Beck, Auguste, 30,181,182

Becker, Jean-Jacques, S., 39,138,140, 255n, 257n, 258n, 277n Beetham, Margaret, 46,47,48,259n, 260n Berard, E. de, 85,148 Bertrand, Antoine, 68,89,266n, 269n, 284n, 285n Best, Jean, 66,68,266n Bewick, Thomas, 46, 67,68,266n Bismarck, Otto, von, 17,33,34,35,37, 41,91,109,119,132,135,141,151, 153,172,178,213,255n, 256n, 257n, 258n, 272n Blachon, Remy, 67,69,88,262n, 263n, 265n, 266n, 269n Blanchard, Pierre, 83, 286n, 287n, 288n Bocourt, E., 85 Brown, Joshua, 6,53,61,247n, 262n, 263n, 265n Canada, 7,8,15,30,31,32,41,51,68, 70,91,157,249n Canrobet, Marshal, 178 Chalaby, Jean K., 17,18,44,252n, 259n Chapon, L., 85,200

298 Index Charton, Edouard, 12,24,25,68, 266n Claretie, Jules, 86,112,116,137,138, 139,140,142,276n, 277n class, 39,40,84; bourgeois, 3,5,8,16, 23,24,89,141,164,186,188,203, 227,229,245,265n; petty bourgeois and middle, 16,47,186,245, 265n; working and low-income, 17,22,24,26,28,51,137,178,186, 195,200,229,252n competition among periodicals, 14, 16,19,24,26,38,43,49,109,124, 135,149,155,161,163,214,217, 227, 229 conflict, 14,15,20,22,31, 34,35, 36, 37.39,41,51,53,106,122,146,151, 156,170,177,182,183,184,191, 226,232,235,236,237,239,240 content of periodicals, 9,10,12,14, 16,19,20,49, 111, 143,165,185, 188,194,199,235,238,239,243, 246; written, 47,51,53,89,185,237, 238 Cosson, Jean, 68,266n, 287n Coste, Edouard, 85,88,89,211, 284n, 285n coverage of periodicals, 10,19,42,72, 80.113,145,146,148,150,151,152, 155,159,161,165,169,178,184, 186,194,196,200,211,219,221, 227,228,236,237,240 Cozic, Henri, 112,113,117,118,130, 132,133,134,146,209,276n, 277n Dagron, Rene, 94,95,96, 98 Dalloz, Paul, 89,253n Darjou, A., 83, 85, 88,198 Daudenarde, Amedee, 85,169,203, 226, 227,285n, 286n, 287n, 288n

Deroy, A., 83,85, 88,203,286n Desbarats, Georges E., 15,30,31,151 discourse, 10,17,18,20,45,48,49, 134,157,188,194,195,196,203, 212,226,237-40 Dore, Gustave, 66, 89,163,269n draughtsman, 13,46,54,56,57, 61, 62,64, 65, 66, 74,80, 83,84,85,88, 91,92,101,147,148,198, 241,246, 252n drawings and sketches, 44,45,51,52, 54,56, 57, 61,68, 69, 72, 73, 78,81, 82,84, 86, 87,88,92,236,241,262n Dumont, Louis, 83, 89,286n Dupuy, Aime, 33,51,101,103,124, 140,253n, 254n, 255n, 257n, 258n, 261n, 270n, 271n, 272n, 273n, 274n, 275n, 276n, 277n, 279n Durand, Godefroy, 82,162,169,285n, 290n Dutheil, A., 162,169 economic, 16, 20, 29, 42, 48,143, 237, 240, 246,257n Ecosses, A., 169 editors, owners, and founders, 9,19, 21,23,24,26,27,70,72, 73,80,103, 106,107,109,112,119,123,144, 148,151,152,160,165,174,180, 183,187,194,215,223, 229,235, 238,243,244,252n educational function of periodicals, 6,8,12,24,29,42,146,246, 259n Elliot, L.V., 30,181,234,275n England, 5, 7, 8,15,20,34, 35,36,41, 50,68, 71, 89,91,110,171,248n, 256n, 263n engraver, 9,13,46,54,56,57, 61, 62, 63,64, 65, 66,67,68, 82,86,88,89, 91,113,176,198,227,241,246,266n

Index 299 engraving, 6,23,25,27,28,30,46,51, 52,53-4, 57,61,62,63-5,67,68,70, 72,74,78,81,82,86,87,89,92,107, 109,113,118,119,122,134,143, 145,161,162,163,164,165,166, 169,170,172,173,174,176,177, 178,179,180,181,185,186,187, 188,192,193,194,195,196,198, 200,203,205,208,209,211,212, 213,214,215,217,219,221,222, 223,226,227,228,229,231,232, 233,234,235,237-^4 passim, 246, 252n, 259n, 263n, 265n, 279n, 281n, 287n,292n Eugenie, Empress, 32,33,125,193 Favre, Jules, 108,127,132,172, 213, 227 Fitenscher, Otto, 181,283n, 290n France, 3,5,7,8,12,14,16,17,32,33, 34,35,36,37,38,40,41,50, 53,54, 67,68,71,73,91,108,109,112,118, 124,125,126,127,130,132,134, 139,140,142,145,146,147,149, 151,152,153,154,156,157,159, 162,164,169,199, 200, 211, 212, 219,228,239,252n, 255n, 257n, 263n, 272n, 277n Froment, Eugene, 67,205,284n, 285n Fyfe, Gordon, 44,259n Gaildreau, J., 83,86,167,226,284n Gambetta, Leon, 39,96,108,117,126, 140,227,271n, 272n Gautier, Theophile, 28,83,86, 203 Gavarni, 66, 72,252n, 265n, 267n Gerlier, 227 Germany. See Prussia

Gilbert, Robert, 83,85, 89,268n Girardin, Emile de, 112,274n Gluck, E., 89,226 Gramont, Antoine, duke of, 33,34, 254n,255n Gusman, Pierre, 67,265n Guys, Constantin, 72 Hall, Sydney, 82,268n Harral, H., 82,89,215,290n Hobsbawn, Eric, 58, 257n Hogart, Paul, 21,71, 72, 73,88,252n, 262n, 263n, 265n, 266n, 267n, 268n, 269n, 293n Hohenzollern, Prince Leopold von, 5,32,33,37,146,255n Home, Alistair, 40,44,254n, 255n, 256n, 257n, 258n, 272n, 273n Howard, Michael, 251n, 254n, 255n, 257n, 258n, 272n, 273n Hugo, Victor, 33,253n, 255n ideology, 6,10,19, 38,42,49, 50,52, 143,161,182,184,235,238,240, 243,246 illustrated magazine, 6, 7,45,246; newspaper and paper, 3,4, 7,12, 13,14,15,16, 23, 45, 46,47,49, 50, 51,52,54,57,61, 63, 64,66, 67,68, 70, 27, 78, 80, 82, 87,107,109,112, 117,136,137,147,185,193,217, 228,238,254n; periodicals, 5, 7,8, 9, 20,25, 30, 42,46,48, 53, 54, 71, 86,91,103,106,108,123,143,145, 147,148,159,160,161,169,177, 182,184,186,223,235,236,237, 238, 240,244,245,246; press, 6, 7, 8,9,12,15,19,38,45,48,53,65,67, 70, 71,245,246 information and knowledge, 18,19,

300 Index 27,42,51,52,53, 64, 66, 71, 80,90, 91,103,104,105,106,136,140,141, 147,148,151,153,154,156,157, 161,163,164,165,166,167,179, 180,186,205,208,215,222,226, 231,237,238,239,259n Ingram, Herbert, 20,22,24 Jackson, Mason, 12,45,46,56,81, 249n, 252n, 259n, 260n, 262n, 263n, 265n, 268n, 269n Janet, Gustave, 81,164,198,284n, 285n, 286n, 287n Johannot, Tony, 66 Jones, Aled, 50,260n Kaiser, 181,283n Katow, Paul de, 85,188 Kreig, Alice, 19,252n labour process, and workers 9,49,51, 65, 70, 72, 81,82,106 Langon, Auguste, 83, 84, 86, 88,112 Landells, R.T., 20, 81 Law, John, 44, 259n Lecaillon, Jean-Francois, 136,137, 254n, 276n Leloir, Isidore, 68 Linton, Henry, 66, 266n Linton, J.W., 66 literacy, 4,14,24 Lix, R, 85,88,148,203,211,269n, 284n, 285n, 287n, 289n Loeffler, L., 163 Maidment, B.E., 46,48,260n Marc, Auguste, 112,117,118,125, 128,132,274n, 278n Marchandiau, Jean-Noel, 249n, 278n

Marichal, G., 83, 88 Marie, Adrien, 88, 89,205 Maupassant, Guy de, 141,277n McKendry, Virginia, 247n, 248n, 260n, 263n Meason, William Frederick, 68,266n Meaulle, Fortune, 67,83,85, 88,211, 221,227,286n mediation, 42,43,48,52,63, 70,106, 238,243 memories and imaginaries, 15,33, 106,161,164,165,178,184,203, 213,238,243,245,246; collective, 7, 8,9, 38,50,63,160,238,246; national, 8,106,139,143,223,238, 246 Merton, S., 180 military, 30, 34,35,36,39,40,41,53, 54,70, 72, 74,80, 81,83,85, 86,89, 91,93,94,95,96,100,101,103,104, 106,108,110,112,113,117,124, 125,130,136,137,155,162,167, 177,179,180,181,193, 205, 221, 231,239,256n Moller, P., 83, 85,88 morality, 22, 23, 24,121,176,191, 240 Morel, N., 83,88,211,284n, 285n, 287n Morin, Edmond, 88, 200, 211,212, 228 Morris, Frankie, 50,260n, 263n Moullin, L., 85,148,284n, 285n, 286n Mousseau, J.-A., 156,157 Napoleon 1,33,41,93,124,171 Napoleon III, 3,16,32,33,37,57,107, 108,110,112,119,122,123,124, 125,138,152,153,154,156,170, 172,177,182,187,197,198,199, 213,214,220,226,227,233,234,

Index 301 243,244,257n, 258n, 286n nation, 7, 8,9,17,32,38,39,48,50, 119.128,130,132,137,138,147, 148,160,162,167,184,196,209, 226, 228; national feelings, 38,39, 118,143,184,186; national identity, 8,48,49,50,133,140,143,146 nationalism, 8,38,39,121,138,143, 145,158,160,167,184,185,208, 226,235,238,246,279n Nerone, John C, 6,45,247n, 259n Nipperdey, Thomas, 158,254n, 255n, 256n,280n Pajet, Pierre, 118,134 Paris Commune, 211 Paulin, Alexandre, 24,25 Pelcoq, Jules, 81,92,268n, 269n Pellistrandi, Benoit, 256n, 257n, 258n Perrichon, Georges, 89, 287n Peterson, L., 248n, 261n politics, 7, 9,14,16,18,29,34,35,37, 38,42,43,45,48,49,51,53,103, 113.117,119,126,134,147,148, 155,161,166,184,185,186,187, 188,193,194,195,196,199, 208, 213, 219, 234,235, 237, 238, 240, 241,255n, 257n, 274n production, 6, 7, 8, 9,10,18,19, 42, 43,44,45,46,48,50,53,54, 57, 63, 64,66,67, 68,69, 70, 81,143,182, 237,241,246,258n; and commodity; 7,46,50,237; and hierarchy, 10, 23,65,67,143; and inequality, 9, 149 Prussia, and Germany, 3,5, 7,8,12, 14,16,17,30,32, 34,35,36,40,41, 50,53, 64,68,71, 85,91,108,112, 125,126,132,133,139,145,146, 147,149,150,152,153,154,155,

158,169,170,197,211,212,216, 220,221,246,247n, 252n, 255n, 263n, 266n, 274n Rabinowitz, Paula, 44,259n Raymond, D.N., 255n, 256n Read, Gregory S., 66 readers, 5, 6, 7,10,13,15,19,20,23, 25,27,29, 30,38,48,49,50,51,52, 61,62, 63,65, 72,83,104,106,110, 111, 119,123,124,137,140,143, 147,148,154,161,165,166,170, 172,174,182,183,184,185,186, 188,191,192,193,200,203, 209, 213,215,219,223,226,227,228, 229,234,235,237,238,241,243, 245, 246,250n, 252n, 277n; subscribers, 14,91,148,253n, 254n, 279n Regamey, R, 81 Rickebusch, 208 Ricoeur, Paul, 10,160,248n, 281n Robert, T., 83,85, 89 Roth, Francois, 33,138,141,254n, 255n, 256n, 257n, 261n, 262n, 270n, 272n, 273n, 279n Rowbotham, T.L., 82 rupture, 10,160,183,184,185,195, 208, 220, 222,235, 236, 246; and eventuation, 10,161,162,167,177, 183,184,236,237, 243; periodical, 10,161,184,194,212,214,219,235, 236,237, 243,244; political, 10,161, 184,186,193,194,234, 236,237, 243,244 Russell, William Howard., 17,51,90, 251n, 261n, 266n Said, Edward, 38, 257n Schivelbusch, Wolfgang, 35, 111, 112,

302 Index 118,121,130,134,240, 254n, 256n, 257n, 258n, 272n, 273n, 274n, 275n, 276n, 279n, 293n Simmel, Georg, 132,276n Simpson, Williams, 66, 74,81 Sinnema, Peter W., 46,48,49,239, 243, 245,248n, 249n, 259n, 260n, 293n Small, W., 66 Smeeton, Joseph B., 68,113,167,180, 193,203,226,227,266n, 284n, 286n, 288n Staniland, J.C., 81 strategies, 9,20,50,143,145,147,148, 155,161,165,169,172,178,184, 185,187,188,193,195,196,208, 209, 227,228,229,235, 236, 238, 240,246 Sutherland, Fraser, 30,152,254n, 279n technologies, 7,9,14,27,30,44,51, 52, 57, 61, 64, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 80, 86,87,91,92,94,95,96,97,100, 101,103,119,140,155,163,165, 167,169,178,196, 200, 205, 227, 238, 240, 266n Thiers, Adolphe, 134, 227 Thiesse, Anne-Marie, 38,257n, 264n Thomas, W.L., 122,265n Thompson, William, 67,68 Trichon, Auguste, 195,269n, 284n, 289n

Trochu, Louis, 117,119,180,234, 275n Vauvert, Maxime, 112,119,135,138, 142,197, 271n Verdeil, Pierre, 67,88 Veron, Pierre, 100,112,116,119,121, 125,128,148 Victoria, Queen, 20,36,132,149,213 Vierge, Daniel, 66,87,88,211 Vizetelly, Henry, 20,246 Watelet, Jean, 253n, 276n, 288n Wawro, Geoffrey, 158,251n, 257n, 258n, 261n, 270n, 272n, 274n, 279n, 280n Weber, Eugen, 164 Weber, Wolfgang, 249n, 254n Weill, Georges, 252n, 260n, 263n, 267n, 277n Wilhelm of Prussia, King, 4,32,33, 35,41, 81,119,122,154,156,221, 266n, 279n Woodville, R.C., 66 Wuttke, Heinrich, 17, 251n, 254n, 257n Yon, Ed., 89, 269n Yriarte, Charles, 90,112,118,119, 121,135,196,205 Zola, Emile, 140,141,274n, 277n