Interieur van een keuken met ketels, vermoedelijk in Stockholm before 1891

This is a photograph of the interior of a kitchen with kettles, believed to be taken in Stockholm by V. Wolfenstein. What does it mean to depict a kitchen this way? The industrial scale of this Swedish kitchen suggests a wider story about institutional catering, perhaps for a hospital, barracks, or even a prison. The photograph makes meaning through its visual codes, inviting us to see food preparation not as a domestic activity but as a mechanized and regimented system. Was this image commissioned by the institution itself, or was it part of a wider survey of the social landscape? To fully understand this photograph, we might consult archives and records of Swedish institutions at the time. What kinds of social and economic forces would have brought about the need for mass catering? The role of the historian is to connect the image with these wider contexts, revealing how even a simple photograph can speak volumes about social and institutional histories.