Bird's-eye view, Andersonville Prison, Georgia
Artist
Andrew Jackson Riddle
(American, active 1860s)
Date1864
MediumAlbumen print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 3 3/16 × 4 13/16 inches (8.1 × 12.22 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.202
SignedOn mount recto, bottom, in black type: "Entered according to Act of Congress, in 1865, by A.J. RIDDLE, in office of Dist. Court of U.S. for South'n Dist. of N.Y.";
On mount recto, bottom, in black type: "Photographed by A.J. Riddle, August 17th, 1864"
InscribedOn mount recto, bottom, in black type: "ANDERSONVILLE PRISON, GEORGIA. / Bird's Eye View--Gathering Roots to Boil Coffee. / Thirty three Thousand Prisoners in Bastile."
MarkingsOn mount recto, upper left corner, in black pen: "No. 45";
On mount recto, bottom, in black pen: "#45";
On mount verso, upper left, in black pen: "3006 / p";
On mount verso, upper left, in pencil: "P1102";
On mount verso, bottom, in pencil: "443-1-96".
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage taken from above looking down onto a landscape filled with tents and a wooden fence-like structure running diagonally.Exhibition HistoryDeveloping Greatness: the Origins of American Photography, 1839-1885. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 9 June – 30 December 2007, no. 344.
Surveillance. The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO. September 16, 2016 – January 29, 2017, no cat.
Andrew Jackson Riddle
American, active 1860s
Andersonville Prison, Georgia. Bird's Eye View; Gathering Roots to Boil Coffee; 33,000 Prisoners in Bastille, August 17, 1864
Albumen print
Andrew Jackson Riddle was one of the few Southern photographers to hold an official position with the Confederate military. In 1864, he made a shocking series of views at Andersonville Prison, where Union prisoners were kept in absolute squalor. These views have an oddly surreptitious quality, and there is little evidence that the prisoners were aware of being recorded. Few of these photographs were sold during the war, but by the 1880s these had become highly desired by collectors.
Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc., 2005.27.202
American, active 1860s
Andersonville Prison, Georgia. Bird's Eye View; Gathering Roots to Boil Coffee; 33,000 Prisoners in Bastille, August 17, 1864
Albumen print
Andrew Jackson Riddle was one of the few Southern photographers to hold an official position with the Confederate military. In 1864, he made a shocking series of views at Andersonville Prison, where Union prisoners were kept in absolute squalor. These views have an oddly surreptitious quality, and there is little evidence that the prisoners were aware of being recorded. Few of these photographs were sold during the war, but by the 1880s these had become highly desired by collectors.
Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc., 2005.27.202
Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1996;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
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), 193 (repro), 336.
Bob Zeller, The Blue and Gray in Black and White: A History of Civil War Photography (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005): 150-51.
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Andrew Joseph Russell
May 3, 1863
2005.27.277
Charles D. Arnold
1893
2005.27.410
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