No. 155a. Lower Lock Des Moines Rapids Canal

Art Historical Context

Henry P. Bosse’s cyanotype “No. 155a. Lower Lock Des Moines Rapids Canal” (1891) captures a pivotal moment in American infrastructure. The deep Prussian-blue print shows the newly completed lock surrounding canal works along the Mississippi near Keokuk, Iowa, with buildings, rail lines, and the waterway itself. Bosse, a German-born draftsman and photographer employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, systematically recorded such river-improvement projects in the 1880s and 1890s, producing hundreds of cyanotypes that served both as official engineering records and striking visual documents. ...