[The Wilderness Battlefield]
1864
![[The Wilderness Battlefield] by Unknown](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/the-wilderness-battlefield-306606.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 4 15/16 × 3 5/16 in. (12.6 × 8.4 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.944.12
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the somber aftermath of one of the bloodiest clashes of the American Civil War *[The Wilderness Battlefield]*, a poignant 1864 albumen print capturing the tangled Virginia woods where Union and Confederate forces fought fiercely from May 5-7. This Battle of the Wilderness, Ulysses S. Grant's first major engagement against Robert E. Lee, resulted in over 28,000 casualties amid dense underbrush that turned the landscape into a fiery inferno, obscuring clear victors and foreshadowing the war's brutal end. Crafted from a glass negative—a cutting-edge technique of the era—this small yet ...
About the Artist
Unknown
The artist designated as "Unknown" in our virtual museum's collection exemplifies a poignant chapter in art history: creators whose identities have faded into obscurity despite the enduring power of their work. With only one known artwork attributed to them in our holdings, this figure represents countless anonymous hands that shaped visual culture across centuries. Museums worldwide, including th...