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Johnstown disaster, May 31, 89--debris on fire at bridge / Filson & Son, Photo., Steubenville, O. – Vintage Photo Print

Johnstown disaster, May 31, 89--debris on fire at bridge / Filson & Son, Photo., Steubenville, O., c1889. — stereograph
Johnstown disaster, May 31, 89--debris on fire at bridge / Filson & Son, Photo., Steubenville, O., c1889.. Stereograph from the Johnstown Flood collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This stereograph of Johnstown disaster, May 31, 89--debris on fire at bridge / Filson & Son, Photo., Steubenville, O. brings a moment of history to your wall. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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Johnstown disaster, May 31, 89--debris on fire at bridge / Filson & Son, Photo., Steubenville, O.

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The debris jam piled against the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over Stony Creek sets this view apart. After the South Fork dam failed on May 31, 1889, floodwater carried houses, rail cars, and timber down the valley and lodged them against the bridge, and the mass caught fire. Filson & Son, a photography studio in Steubenville, Ohio, issued the picture as a stereograph, a pair of nearly identical views meant to be seen together through a stereoscope for a three-dimensional effect. The flood killed roughly 2,200 people, and views like this carried news of the disaster to viewers far from Pennsylvania.

Created / publishedc1889.
GenreStereographs 1880-1890.
SubjectsFire--1880-1890. Floods--Pennsylvania--Johnstown--1880-1890.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 714 px · prints to 5 × 2 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-169387

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