Snapshots of the Past

[Aerial view of Boston; first photograph taken from a balloon; 1861] – Historic Photograph Print

[Aerial view of Boston; first photograph taken from a balloon; 1861], 1903 — historic photograph
[Aerial view of Boston; first photograph taken from a balloon; 1861], 1903. Historic photograph from the Balloons 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 historic photograph of [Aerial view of Boston; first photograph taken from a balloon; 1861] 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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[Aerial view of Boston; first photograph taken from a balloon; 1861]

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Few pictures on this board look down from as high as this one, which was made from a balloon over Boston and shows the city's streets and harbor from above. The photograph is credited to Samuel A. King and J.W. Black, and this 1903 print reproduces it from *The Photographic Miniature*. The caption card gives the date as 1861, but the original is more often dated to 1860, so that date should be treated with caution. Early aerial photographs like this required wet collodion plates and a steady balloon, and they are among the earliest surviving views of an American city taken from the air.

Created / published1903
Medium1 photographic print.
NotesRepro. of photo by Samuel A. King & J.W. Black. In: The Photographic Miniature, July 1903, Vol. V, No. 52, p. 144. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,500 × 2,172 px · prints to 5 × 7 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-116284

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