Ruined Tower
c. 1858
Medium
albumen print
Dimensions
image: 21.8 × 17.5 cm (8 9/16 × 6 7/8 in.) mount: 49 × 34.8 cm (19 5/16 × 13 11/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Purchased as the Gift of the Richard King Mellon Foundation
Accession Number
2018.8.5
Art Historical Context
Frederick Scott Archer’s *Ruined Tower* (c. 1858) captures the haunting beauty of architectural remnants through the delicate tones of an albumen print. Archer, a pioneering British photographer who invented the wet-collodion process in 1851, helped transform photography from a novelty into a widely practiced art. This image, made just a few years after his innovation, reflects the Victorian fascination with picturesque ruins—subjects that evoked both the romance of the past and the inevitability of time’s passage. The albumen print medium itself marks an important chapter in photographic his...