Fortifications at Manassas
Alexander Gardner
American, born Scotland. 1821–1882
March 1862
An albumen silver print by Alexander Gardner that records Union fortifications at Manassas, attempting to document the material realities—men, supplies, and earthworks—of the Civil War.
Your eye moves from a rough wooden causeway in the foreground past stacked barrels and groups of silhouetted men to low earthen ramparts on the horizon beneath a pale, flattened sky, giving the scene a quiet, methodical feeling of military labor and order.
As part of Gardner’s Civil War imagery, this photograph helped establish documentary photography’s power to reveal the logistics and human work behind modern warfare and to shape public understanding of conflict.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
7 × 9 1/16" (17.8 × 23 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Anonymous gift
Accession
34.1941.11
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
