View of the Great Solar Eclipse

Artist John Adams Whipple (American, 1822 - 1891)

Date1869

MediumAlbumen print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 5 1/4 × 4 7/8 inches (13.34 × 12.38 cm)
Mount: 6 9/16 × 5 5/16 inches (16.67 × 13.49 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.338

Signednone

InscribedTitled on mount recto, bottom, in brown ink: "VIEWS OF THE / GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSE, / 1869."; Inscribed on mount verso, bottom, in blue pen: "grandfather's (John A. Whipple), / He went to Shelbyville, Ky., / to take this eclipse for Harvard."

Markingsnone

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionFour images of the moon; the upper left depicts a small sliver of a moon and the lower right is a full eclipse with a small band of light encircling a dark moon.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Heavens. The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 11 – November 13, 2011, no cat.

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

Gallery Label

John Adams Whipple made many technical and scientific contributions to the photographic process. Starting in 1846, he made daguerreotypes through both the microscope and the telescope. Whipple made this image of a solar eclipse through a telescope, while working as an official member of the Harvard Astronomical Expedition. As protection against overcast skies, the group photographed the eclipse at several locations along its path. Whipple was stationed at Shelbyville, Kentucky, specifically to capture this view.

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, 255 (repro).

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