It is often said that history is written by the victors, the powerful – and that they are men. But have you ever considered what they were writing on? Paper has a history of its own, revealed to me by Madeleine Killacky in History Today (December 2022).
Papermaking involved beating rags collected in the rag trade, before stretching, pulping, soaking, heating and drying them. Finished paper also had to be coated in a gelatin-based emulsion, made from boiled up animal parts, to prevent ink-blots. And most of this work was done by what Killacky repeated calls “low-status women”.
Highbrow and low-status
How many of history’s great historians, I wonder, wrote their histories on paper made by these “low-status women”? Almost all of them, we can assume. Which paints – or scribes – a rather different portrait of history.
Every narrative of victory, every male-centred gaze upon the great moments that have defined great men, were all written upon pure white paper beaten into being by the sweat of “low-status women”.
Hidden histories
This is not a unique tale, of course. That paper was made from rags, not trees as I had always imagined, is revealing of other layers of unseen history: that of ethnic minorities. Jews thrived in the trade of schmatta (rags), while their history remained hidden to the wealthy and literate of London and New York.
Paper pulp from trees wasn’t first achieved until 1800 in Germany. It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that tree-based paper became the norm, allowing such limitless amounts to be made that we could even start wiping our bums with it.
Before that, the laborious rag trade was the only route to a nice, bright white piece of paper, ready for the quill to hit it. I’ll never see a blank piece of paper the same again.
And fast forward to today – what hidden stories lie behind the ice white screen on which this post is typed?
Talking of words and letters, ever wondered where ‘Zed’ comes from?