Private "Alabama" Receveing Her Supplies at Singapore, 1865
1865
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
12 × 19 cm (4 3/4 × 7 1/2 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.583 (75b)
Art Historical Context
In 1865, Scottish photographer John Thomson captured a maritime moment with his albumen silver print *Private "Alabama" Receiving Her Supplies at Singapore*. This intimate 12 × 19 cm image, made from a glass negative using the wet-collodion process, depicts the private vessel *Alabama* being resupplied at Singapore's bustling harbor—a vital British colonial port connecting Europe, India, and China. Thomson, then in his early 20s and embarking on his groundbreaking travels across Asia, documented everyday scenes of trade and travel with remarkable clarity and immediacy. The photograph's histor...
About the Artist
John Thomson · 1837–1921
John Thomson (1837–1921), a pioneering Scottish photographer, was born on 14 June 1837 in Edinburgh as the eighth of nine children to William Thomson, a tobacco spinner and trader, and Isabella Newlands.) After schooling in the early 1850s, he apprenticed with a local optical and scientific instrument manufacturer, where he mastered the principles of photography, completing his training around 185...