Major Gen'l Charles Ashe Windham
Medium
Salted paper print, plate 10 from the album "Photographs Taken in the Crimea" (1856)
Dimensions
Image/paper: 14 × 10.6 cm (5 9/16 × 4 3/16 in.); Mount: 58.9 × 42.5 cm (23 1/4 × 16 3/4 in.)
Classification
salted paper print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
146116
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
**Major Gen'l Charles Ashe Wind** (1855) is a striking salted paper print by the photographic team Sharp and Melville, featured as plate 10 in seminal album *Photographs Taken the Crimea* (185). Capturing the poised figure of British Major General Charles Ashe Windham against a stark Crimean backdrop, this intimate portrait measures just 14 × 10.6 cm on its original mount. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media Department, it exemplifies mid-19th-century innovation in visual storytelling. Created amid the Crimean War (1853–1856), this image belongs to one of the earliest photographic efforts to document a conflict in real time. Salted paper prints, a pioneering wet-collodion process, produced soft, tonal images prized for their subtlety and detail—ideal for conveying the grit and heroism of wartime figures like Windham, a key commander. Unlike paintings, these photographs offered unvarnished authenticity, bridging art and journalism. This work highlights photography's cultural shift from studio novelty to historical record, immortalizing military valor while foreshadowing modern war photojournalism. Visitors will appreciate its quiet power: a frozen moment of resolve amid the chaos of empire and innovation.