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Maker(s):Gardner, Alexander
Culture:American, born Scotland, (1821-1882)
Title:Incidents of the War, Ruins of Arsenal, Richmond, VA.
Date Made:1865 April
Type:Photograph
Materials:Albumen print
Place Made:North America; United States; Washington DC
Measurements:Mat: 24 in x 20 in; 61 cm x 50.8 cm; Sheet: 12 1/4 in x 15 3/4 in; 31.1 cm x 40 cm; Image: 6 13/16 in x 8 13/16 in; 17.3 cm x 22.4 cm
Narrative Inscription:  Verso (printed in black ink): lwr. l.: ALEX. GARDNER. Photographer,; lwr. ctr.: Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1865, by A. GARDNER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia.; lwr. r.: 511 7th Street, Washington.; lwr. ctr.: Incidents of the War. / RUINS OF ARSENAL, RICHMOND, V.A.; lwr. l.: April, 1865.; lwr. ctr.: Published by PHILP & SOLOMONS, Washington.; upp. r. (in graphite): 91; Verso: upp. r. (in graphite): Z1405
Accession Number:  MH 2009.7.6
Credit Line:Purchase with the Art Acquisition Endowment Fund
Museum Collection:  Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
mh_2009_7_6_v1.jpg

Description:
Black and white photograph showing six soldiers sitting on canonballs in a landscape destroyed by war. Crumbling buildings are in the background, and two boys look on from their perch upon more ammunition at left.

Label Text:
The Confederate arsenal at Richmond was one of the most extensive establishments of the kind in the South. At the commencement of the war the rebel authorities took possession of a large number of private buildings, such as tobacco and cotton warehouses, and manufactories, and transformed them into Government shops. The masonry shown in the photograph formed the abutment of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad bridge. The depot was immediately at the end of the structure, and became a portion of the arsenal. In the background are the ruins of the Franklin paper mill, and on the right those of the carbine manufactories. The space occupied by shells, stone, and blocks of iron formed the yard of the shops, in which the ordnance was made. In the foreground are piled up eleven-inch shells. In the middle are thirty pound shells, near which are half a dozen charges of canister and a large number of grape shot, each bundle of rings enclosing about thirty pounds of balls, and constituting a charge for a gun. Scattered over the yard, and standing near the base of the arch, are seen the elongated one hundred pound shell for rifled cannon.

The arsenal was destroyed by the great fire, at the evacuation of Richmond. The Tredegar Iron Works, where the Confederates manufactured a considerable portion of their artillery, were situated a short distance to the left of the ruins shown here, and escaped the conflagration.

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2009.7.6

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

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