Bonaventure Cemetery, Four Miles from Savannah
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 34 x 26.4 cm (13 3/8 x 10 3/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.281
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the evocative stillness of *Bonaventure Cemetery, Four Miles Savannah* (1866), a poignant albumen silver print by George N. Barnard. Captured just after the American Civil War, this 34 x 26.4 cm photograph from a glass negative showcases Barnard's mastery as a pioneering documentary photographer. He served as the official photographer for General William T. Sherman's campaigns, including the infamous March to the Sea, which brought Union forces through Savannah in late 1864. Bonaventure Cemetery, with its moss-draped oaks and Victorian tombs, became a symbol of Southern resilience a...
About the Artist
George N. Barnard · 1819–present
George N. Barnard (1819–1902) was a pioneering American photographer whose six-decade career spanned the dawn of the medium, from daguerreotypes to Civil War documentation. Born into a farming family in Coventry, Connecticut, on December 23, 1819, he lost his father at age seven and apprenticed in family businesses before marrying in 1843 and relocating to Oswego, New York. There, he launched one ...