Court-house Savannah
1860/80
Medium
Albumen print, stereo
Dimensions
Left image: 7.6 × 7.6 cm (3 × 3 in.); Right image: 7.6 × 7.9 cm (3 × 3 1/8 in.); Card: 8.7 × 17.6 cm (3 7/16 × 6 15/16 in.)
Classification
stereograph (albumen)
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
145929
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
This stereograph by J. N. Wilson captures the Savannah Courthouse in Georgia during the years 1860 to 1880, a period of profound transformation in the American South. As an albumen print mounted on a card, the work exemplifies the stereograph format that became immensely popular in the nineteenth century. Viewers would have placed the card in a stereoscope to experience the illusion of three-dimensional depth, allowing distant audiences to feel as though they were standing before the building itself. Wilson’s choice of subject reflects the courthouse’s role as a central civic landmark in Sava...