Fort Totten, N.W. of Washington
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933
Accession Number
33.65.384
Tags
Art Historical Context
Captured in 1865, *Fort Totten, N.W. of Washington* is a poignant albumen silver print from a glass negative, to the studio of Mathew B. Brady the pioneering photographer of the American Civil War. Located just northwest of the nation's capital, Fort Totten one of the extensive ring of earthwork fortifications built by the Union Army to defend Washington, D.C., against potential Confederate assaults. This image, taken at the war's close—mere months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox—offers a rare glimpse into the massive defensive network that safeguarded the Union heartland, featuring soldie...
About the Artist
Mathew B. Brady|Unknown · 1823–1896
Mathew B. Brady (c. 1823–1896) was an American photographer who became the most famous photographer of the Civil War era and one of the founding figures of American photographic history. Born in Warren County, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, he learned the daguerreotype process from Samuel F.B. Morse and William Page and opened his first portrait studio in New York City in 1844. Brady quick...