Petersburg Virginia. Earthworks in front of Petersburg – Vintage Photo Print
(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
A window into the past: Petersburg Virginia. Earthworks in front of Petersburg, preserved in this historic photograph. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.
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Petersburg Virginia. Earthworks in front of Petersburg
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Earthworks defending Petersburg, Virginia, make up the subject here, a reminder of how much of the Civil War was fought from trenches rather than open ground. Petersburg, a rail and supply hub south of Richmond, was besieged by Union forces from June 1864 until Confederate lines broke in early April 1865, and the fortifications pictured here are the kind of works that held the siege for nearly ten months. The image is a wet collodion glass negative, a fragile process that required the photographer to coat and expose the plate on the spot, and it was made by David B. Woodbury, who died in 1866. Look closely at the raw, layered earth of the parapets to see how much labor went into the lines.
| Created / published | 1865 |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 negative : glass stereograph wet collodion. |
| Notes | Title from Civil War caption books. Caption from negative sleeve: Earthworks in front of Petersburg Va. Forms part of Civil War glass negative collection (Library of Congress). · Woodbury D. B. (David B.) d. 1866 photographer. |
| Subjects | United States--History--Civil War 1861-1865. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Civil War Photographs |
| Original scan | 5,120 × 2,150 px · prints to 17 × 7 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-CIV-50530 |
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