Locomotion: Walking by Steam, Riding by Steam, Flying by Steam
ca. 1830
Medium
Hand-colored etching
Dimensions
sheet: 9 11/16 x 13 3/4 in. (24.6 x 35 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Paul Bird Jr., 1962
Accession Number
62.696.15
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the early 19th, amid Britain's Industrial Revolution, artist Robert Seymour captured the public's fascination—and trepidation—with emerging steam technology in his satirical hand-colored etching *Locomotion: Walking by, Riding by Steam, by Steam* (ca. 1830). Published by McLean, a prominent London caricaturist, this print humorously exaggerates the era's rapid innovations in transportation. Steam locomotives were transforming rail travel, steamboats conquering rivers and seas, and even balloonists experimenting with steam-powered flight, all promising unprecedented speed but often deliverin...
About the Artist
Robert Seymour|Thomas McLean (British|British) · 1798 |1788 –1836 |1875
British, Somerset 1798–1836 London|British, 1788–1875