The Great Eastern under Construction
Photograph
18 November 1857 (made)
18 November 1857 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Photograph
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | The <i>Great Eastern</i> under Construction (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Albumen print from wet collodion negative |
Brief description | Albumen print. Howlett, Robert. The 'Great Eastern' Under Construction 1857; Howlett, Robert. The 'Great Eastern' Under Construction 1857 |
Physical description | Photograph |
Dimensions |
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Style | |
Gallery label | Howlett documented the construction of the Great Eastern over four years. Weighing more than 22 thousand tonnes, on completion the ship was the largest man-made object ever built. In this study, workers are dwarfed by the steamship’s hull, emphasising its massive size. Ultimately, the ship’s magnitude proved its downfall. Too large to dock at most ports and unable to fit through the strategically important Suez Canal, it was scrapped in 1888.(May 2023) |
Credit line | Purchased, 1979. |
Subjects depicted | |
Bibliographic reference | Val Williams and Susan Bright, How we are: photographing Britain, from the 1840s to the present London: Tate Publishing, 2007. ISBN: 9781854377142. |
Collection | |
Accession number | PH.258-1979 |
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Record created | January 8, 2003 |
Record URL |
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