Looking at the newspaper clipping from 1870 to 1930 in art and science, this study examines knowledge production and its visual and material background, combining the perspectives of media history with art history and the history of science. It traces the biography of a newspaper clipping in different fields, ranging from highly sophisticated ordering systems in the sciences, to bureaucratic archives, to their appearance in the collages of the Dadaists. Te Heesen emphasises the materiality of paper and analyses the practices connected with it, placing them and their instruments and tools within a theoretical framework. This history also sheds light on the handling of information, information overload and the generation of knowledge, drawing parallels with the internet. Te Heesen offers a counterpoint to existing works on the iconographic meaning of materials by opening up an interdisciplinary framework through the use of different case studies.