Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 601

South Kensington Museum (Brompton Boilers), Educational Museum, Mechanics gallery(?)

Photograph
1857 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the V&A's history and the Museum has an extensive collection of images from the 1850s through to the present which documents the construction and development of the V&A and the South Kensington site.

Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSouth Kensington Museum (Brompton Boilers), Educational Museum, Mechanics gallery(?) (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print
Brief description
Photograph, South Kensington Museum (Brompton Boilers), Educational Museum, Mechanics gallery(?), albumen print, 1857
Physical description
A mounted sepia-coloured photograph of a display of educational and mechanical objects including globes and framed images of steam trains. A gas light fixture hangs from the skylit ceiling. There are upper galleried spaces on either side of the main exhibition area.
Marks and inscriptions
'A.b. LONDON: South Kensington Museum. / Photograph of the making of the museum, 1857. ' (typed label, lower right mount)
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the V&A's history and the Museum has an extensive collection of images from the 1850s through to the present which documents the construction and development of the V&A and the South Kensington site.

Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography.
Other number
799 - Negative number (V&A Archive Guard Book reference)
Collection
Accession number
1955-1938

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Record createdJuly 1, 2009
Record URL
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