House of General Washington, Cambridge, Massachusetts
ca. 1855
Medium
Photography-Photoprint
Classification
Photography-Photoprint
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Accession Number
1994.91.285
Tags
Art Historical Context
This evocative photoprint captures the historic house in Cambridge,, where General George Washington made his headquarters during the early months of the Revolutionary War. Created around 1855 by pioneering John Adams Whipple, the image preserves the stately Georgian residence at a moment when it was already steeped in national memory. Later home to poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the building stood as a living link between America’s founding era and its emerging literary identity. Whipple, an early innovator in American photography, worked during the medium’s formative decades when images l...