Banks of the Nile at Cairo
ca. 1857, printed 1870s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1973
Accession Number
1973.608.1.26
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Banks of the Nile at Cairo (ca. 1857, 1870s) the timeless allure of Egypt's lifeblood, the Nile River, as seen through the lens of pioneering photographer Francis Frith. Frith, a British innovator in travel photography, ventured into Egypt during the 1850s, producing some of the earliest detailed images of its landscapes and daily scenes. This albumen silver print from a negative depicts the bustling riverbanks near Cairo, with boats dotting the water—a vivid snapshot of 19th-century commerce and tranquility along one of the world's oldest waterways. Frith's work, often distributed by his c...
About the Artist
Francis Frith|Francis Frith and Company · 1822–1898
Francis Frith (1822–1898) was born on 7 October 1822 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, into a prosperous Quaker merchant family as the second child and only son of Francis Frith Sr. and Alice Walker. Educated at Quaker schools including Ackworth and Camp Hill in Birmingham from around 1828 to 1838, he apprenticed in the cutlery trade before establishing himself as a wholesale grocer in Liverpool, suppl...