New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.

Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia

Artist Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, 1840-1882)

Publisher Philp and Solomons, Washington, D.C. (American)

Date1862

MediumAlbumen print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 10 3/8 × 13 1/16 in. (26.4 × 33.2 cm)
Overall, Paper: 16 7/8 × 20 1/8 in. (42.9 × 51.1 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 1/8 × 24 1/8 in. (51.1 × 61.3 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineGift of David L. Hack and Museum purchase, with funds from Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., by exchange

Object number98.32.18

Terms

U.S. Civil War
Virginia

Collections

Photography

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThe David L. Hack Civil War Photography Collection. Several men are standing in this photograph outside a brick building. There is a large tree in the foreground. The midground appears to be men gathered loosely around an old well. There appears to be a bucket on the ground nearby. On top of the brick house a few men rest on the roof near a (bell tower?) as look-outs with their hands pointing off into the distance. One man is resting near the chimney with an eye on the horizon. Another man is leaning out a second story window, perhaps trying to talk to someone below. This is Plate 3? from _Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War_(Hack Collection No. 209).

Label Text*New Acquisition Timothy H. O'Sullivan American (1840-1882) Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia, 1862 Albumen print Gift of David L. Hack and by exchange Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 98.32.18 After learning his trade working in Mathew Brady's New York studio, Timothy O'Sullivan became one of the most prolific photographers of the Civil War. He left Brady in 1862 and shortly thereafter began working for Alexander Gardner for the duration of the War. Of the 100 photographs in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, O'Sullivan made 44. He used the wet collodion process to make the negative from which this print is made. The negative is on a glass plate the same size as the print that you see here. It was called wet collodion because the photographer had to coat the glass plate, make the exposure, and develop the negative before the wet collodion dried. This necessitated that the photographer must carry a darkroom on location when making the negative. Later, O'Sullivan worked as a photographer on geological and mapping expeditions in the American West and Panama. In 1867, he accompanied the first Western survey, making photographs for the Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel. He was also the first to make photographs in an underground mine, at the Comstock Lode, located in what is now the state of Nevada. Edited By: GLY Edited Date: 09/2004 Approved By: MHM Approval Date: 09/21/2005