Ruins of Gallego Flour Mills, Richmond

A wide panoramic view of gutted brick buildings, their walls and window openings standing open to the sky along a cleared street. Rubble and debris fill the foreground, and a pale expanse of water or open ground runs across the lower right. The albumen print shows the aftermath of the 1865 fire in Richmond.

Look closer: A thin, distant chimney stub rises above the far skyline near the center of the panorama.

Artist

Alexander Gardner

Date

1865

Medium

Albumen silver prints from glass negatives

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

1905 × 861 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933