Girard College. Philadelphia
1865
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
21.4 × 32.4 cm (8 7/16 × 12 3/4 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.583 (124a)
Art Historical Context
In 1865, Scottish-born photographer John Thomson captured the grandeur of Girard College in Philadelphia this striking albumen silver print. image showcases the institution's iconic Greek Revival facade, designed by architect Thomas Ustick Walter and in the 1840s. Founded by wealthy merchant Stephen Girard to educate poor white orphan boys, the college symbolized 19th-century American philanthropy neoclassical aspirations, its towering Corinthian columns evoking ancient temples amid an urban landscape. Thomson's photograph, made from a glass negative, exemplifies the albumen silver process—th...
About the Artist
John Thomson · 1837–1921
John Thomson (1837–1921), a pioneering Scottish photographer, was born on 14 June 1837 in Edinburgh as the eighth of nine children to William Thomson, a tobacco spinner and trader, and Isabella Newlands.) After schooling in the early 1850s, he apprenticed with a local optical and scientific instrument manufacturer, where he mastered the principles of photography, completing his training around 185...