Dictator, under construction

Artist Albert J. Beals (American, born 1821)

Date1863

MediumAlbumen print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 11 15/16 × 15 11/16 inches (30.32 × 39.85 cm)
Mount: 17 × 20 1/16 inches (43.18 × 50.96 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.196

SignedOn mount recto, bottom, in pencil: "Brady & Co."

InscribedINscribed on mount recto, bottom, in black pen: "Dictator."

Markingsnone

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of the hull of a boat under construction; an American flag is draped over the staircase to the left.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Developing Greatness: The Origins of American Photography, 1839-1885. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9 – December 30, 2007, no. 458.

Rotation 24. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9 – November 12, 2017, no cat.

Gallery Label

Albert J. Beals was probably working for photographer Mathew Brady when he made this photograph. The ironclad Dictator was used in the capture of Fort Fisher, off the coast of North Carolina. The fall of Fort Fisher in 1865 cut one of the South’s major supply routes, hastening the end of the war. In this photograph, the nearly completed vessel appears as sleek and lethal as a white shark.

Provenance

Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1998;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc.. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

Published References

Keith F. Davis, The Origins of American Photography: from Daguerreotype to Dry-Plate, 1839-1885. With contributions by Jane L. Aspinwall. Kansas City, MO: Hall Family Foundation: in association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007. Distributed by Yale University Press. Published in conjunction with Developing Greatness: the Origins of American Photography, 1839-1885, shown at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 193 (repro).

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