"View in the fiord of what may be termed a jam of icebergs"
George P. Critcherson
American, 1823–1892
John L. Dunmore
American, 1833–1897
William Bradford
American, 1823–1892
1869
An albumen silver print from a glass negative that records a crowded fjord of broken icebergs, made to bring the remote drama of a polar landscape to a Victorian audience.
You’re immediately struck by the monumental sweep: a compact mass of serrated ice rising from a flat, dark sea, its chiseled surfaces and subtle sepia tonality conveying both texture and vast, wind‑scoured emptiness.
Created in 1869, the photograph exemplifies early expeditionary and documentary photography, turning scientific exploration and 19th‑century ideas of the sublime into visual evidence of places most viewers would never see.
Medium
Albumen silver print from a glass negative
Dimensions
11 × 14 1/2" (28.0 × 36.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Transferred from The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Accession
466.1981.51
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
