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Obelisk, Western face of Point Roberts

Photograph
ca. 1860-1 (photographed)
Artist/Maker

In 1856 the War Department appointed the South Kensington Museum photographer Charles Thurston Thompson to teach photography to the Royal Engineers. On one expedition these soldier-photographers documented the border between the USA and Canada. From the crest of the Rockies westwards along the 49th Parallel to the coast, they painstakingly recorded everything that crossed their path, producing 'one of the earliest signifcant body of photographs made in the Pacific Northwest'.

Object details

Category
Object type
TitleObelisk, Western face of Point Roberts
Materials and techniques
Albumen print from wet collodion-on-glass negative
Brief description
'Obelisk, Western face of Point Roberts', photograph by the Royal Engineers, North America, ca. 1860-1
Physical description
Photograph of an obelisk.
Dimensions
  • Support paper height: 270mm
  • Support paper width: 342mm
  • Support height: 26.9cm
  • Support width: 34.3cm
  • Photographic image height: 174mm
  • Photographic image width: 140mm
Marks and inscriptions
  • No.75. Obelisk on 49th parallel, on western face of Point Roberts, at western terminus of continental boundary. East face.
Credit line
Received from the Foreign Office 1863
Production
Photographed by a Royal Engineers photographer on a U.S.-Canada Border Survey.
Subject depicted
Summary
In 1856 the War Department appointed the South Kensington Museum photographer Charles Thurston Thompson to teach photography to the Royal Engineers. On one expedition these soldier-photographers documented the border between the USA and Canada. From the crest of the Rockies westwards along the 49th Parallel to the coast, they painstakingly recorded everything that crossed their path, producing 'one of the earliest signifcant body of photographs made in the Pacific Northwest'.
Collection
Accession number
40107

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Record createdOctober 17, 2008
Record URL
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