Wharves at Richmond, Virginia
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933
Accession Number
33.65.222
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the poignant aftermath of the American Civil with *Wharves at Richmond Virginia*, an 1865 albumen silver print from a negative by Alexander Gardner, under the studio of Mathew B. Brady Captured just after the Confederate capital's fall in April 1865, photograph from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's depicts the bustling yet scarred wharves along the James River, a vital hub for wartime commerce and supply lines now transitioning to peace. Gardner and Brady, pioneers of documentary photography, raced to Richmond to record its ruins and revival, producing some of the era's most vivid v...
About the Artist
Alexander Gardner|Mathew B. Brady
Alexander Gardner was born on 17 October 1821 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and came of age in a culture shaped by radical social thought. Influenced by the cooperative ideals of Robert Owen, Gardner initially apprenticed as a jeweler and harbored dreams of founding a utopian community in America. His encounter with photography changed the course of his life. After seeing Mathew Brady's cele...