Miner underground, Virginia City, Nevada
Artist
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
(American, born Ireland, 1840 - 1882)
Date1868
MediumAlbumen print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 7 1/16 × 7 7/8 inches (17.94 × 20 cm)
Mount: 18 × 24 inches (45.72 × 60.96 cm)
Mount: 18 × 24 inches (45.72 × 60.96 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.3265
Signednone
InscribedOn mount recto, bottom, in black type with pencil: "No. 87" / "U.S. / ENGINEER DEPARTMENT. / GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION / FORTIETH PARALLEL. / T.H.O'Sullivan, Photographer."
MarkingsOn mount recto, lower right, in pencil: "Virginia Mine / Underground / 42%";
On mount verso, center, in black crayon: "210 / 2/3 red / crop [illeg.] / 251";
On mount verso, center, in red crayon: "41 [illeg']";
On mount verso, upper left corner, in black pen: "76".
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a miner dressed in a dark, short-sleeved shirt and cap working underground inside of a mine shaft. He's seated on a wooden plank facing a rough rock wall while holding a pickaxe against the stone.Exhibition HistoryTimothy H. O’Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs. The Art Institute of Chicago, October 22, 2011 - January 15, 2012, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 7 - September 2, 2012, Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, UT, January 23 - May 26, 2014, no. 30.
Using burning magnesium tapers to provide "flash" light, O'Sullivan recorded the claustrophobic world of workers in the Gould & Curry and Savage mines on the Comstock Lode. High temperatures, poor air circulation and the constant risk of cave-ins were just a few of the dangers faced by these hardy men. O'Sullivan used his smaller format stereo camera in the mines to make negatives approximately 3-1/2-inches square. From these, he created enlarged negatives more than twice that size, from which these final prints were made. Enlarging in this period was technically difficult and thus rarely done. These prints by O'Sullivan are the finest examples of photographic enlarging from this era.
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