Operating Tent, Camp Letterman, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
1863
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 6 1/4 × 8 3/8 in. (15.9 × 21.3 cm) Mount: 9 1/8 in. × 12 7/8 in. (23.2 × 32.7 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.1119
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the shadow of the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, photographer brothers David and Peter Weaver captured this stark albumen silver print titled *Operating Tent, Camp Letterman Gettysburg, Pennsylvania*. Camp Letterman, established just outside the town, served as the Union Army's largest field hospital the Civil War, treating over 3,000 wounded soldiers amid makeshift tents that doubled as operating theaters. This image offers a rare, unflinching glimpse into the human cost of the war's bloodiest clash, where surgeons worked around the clock under canvas roofs, illuminated by lant...