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

South Kensington, the guard room, constructing museum buildings

Photograph
1860 (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, the guard room, constructing museum buildings (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print
Brief description
Photograph, 'South Kensington, the guard room, constructing museum buildings', albumen print, 1860
Physical description
A mounted sepai coloured photograph of three laborers working on the construction of a building. Two workers are using shovels, another is using a shovel with a wheel barrow. A streetlamp fixture is visible in the distance.
Dimensions
  • Mount height: 38.2cm
  • Mount width: 53.2cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
'A.b. LONDON / Building Wall 1860' (department classification 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
2425 (MA/32/12) - Negative number (V&A Archive Guard Book reference)
Collection
Accession number
4977-1910

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Record createdJuly 1, 2009
Record URL
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