Untitled
Horace M. Engle
American, 1861–1949
1896
A circular gelatin silver print that records townspeople gathered to watch a burning building, made to document a local disaster and the communal spectacle of civic life.
The round frame pulls you into a smoky, almost theatrical scene where the skeletal brick facade emerges through clouds of smoke while umbrella-shaded figures—men, women, and children—stand in quiet clusters in the foreground.
As a late-19th-century documentary photograph in a tondo format, it demonstrates how photography transformed fleeting public events into composed, preservable images that bridge journalism and art.
Medium
Gelatin silver print, printed 1972
Dimensions
diameter 8 9/16" (21.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Edward Leos
Accession
469.1973
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
