Photograph by Shannon Ruff, Canon EOS Mark II D digital slr-2007.

Images(2)

Armory Square Hospital, Interior Ward K, Washington, D.C.

AttributionStudio of Alexander Gardner (American (born Scotland), 1821 - 1882)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1865

MediumAlbumen print

DimensionsOverall: 6 5/8 x 9 in. (16.8 x 22.9 cm)

InscribedPrinted on mount in ink: "Armory Square Hospital, Washington, D.C. Interior Ward K."

Credit LineGift of Robert Opet, M.D. and Museum purchase, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Photography Fund

Object number2006.4.5

Not on view

DescriptionAlbumen print from wet collodion negative on original lithographed and titled mount. This photograph is of the interior of a hospital. Men are seated or laying in bed, all are looking towards the camera.

Label TextUnknown American Armory Square Hospital, Interior Ward K, Washington, D.C., ca. 1865 Albumen print Gift of Robert Opet, M.D. and Museum purchase, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Photography Fund 2006.4.5 Walt Whitman's 1865 book Drum Taps was inspired by his visits to the Armory Square Hospital and others. After spending many hours at soldiers' bedsides, he wrote of Ward K, "I am very familiar with this hospital… have spent many days & nights in it-have slept in it often-have seen many die here, have seen the wounded brought here after battles…" Although Whitman visited nearly all of the Washington hospitals, much of his time was spent at Armory Square. It was a pavilion hospital constructed in the summer of 1862 and was located on Seventh Street across from the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution, just beyond the canal. Today this is on the Washington Mall, where the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is located. At this time, the canal was basically an open sewer, which rendered this location rather undesirable. The old City Canal was a garbage dump for all manner of waste. However, the site was close to the major thoroughfares and was easily accessible to the wharves and the railroad depot. Edited By: CW Edited Date: 2007 Approved By: ERL Approval Date: 2007Provenance[An armory] Upstate New York; [Mr. Charles Isaacs] Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York; Chrysler Museum of Art, Museuem Purchase, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Photography Fund, 2006. Exhibition History"An Enduring Interest: The Photographs of Alexander Gardner," The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA., October 20, 1991 - January 5, 1992. A print of this photograph "The World of Photography," Alice R. and Frank B. Sol Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, June 20, 2007 - May 25, 2008 Published ReferencesNational Historical Society, _Fighting for Time: The Image of War, 1861-1863_ (Doubleday Publishing, 03/15/1982), 263. ISBN: 0385182805 Brooks Johnson, _An Enduring Interest: The Photographs of Alexander Gardner_, exh. cat., The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA., 1991. A print of this photograph