Broadway in New York, gezien vanaf Barnum's Museum op de kruising van Broadway en Ann Street richting het noorden 1860 - 1863

Curator: This remarkable albumen print offers a glimpse into mid-19th century New York. The anonymous artist captured Broadway, looking north from Barnum's Museum between 1860 and 1863. Editor: It’s immediately striking, the sheer density of people and traffic. You can almost hear the clatter of hooves and the rumble of carriage wheels on the street! It feels very much about capturing a sense of burgeoning urban space through technological innovation. Curator: Exactly. Photography in this period was rapidly evolving and its relationship with portraying civic life, particularly in the context of commercial imagery, created an increasingly visible urban identity. Barnum's Museum itself would have played a significant role as a cultural landmark, drawing crowds and shaping public spectacle. Editor: It’s also clear how constructed this image is – it takes time to set up this picture, get people to hold still long enough for the shot. Note that there aren’t actually *that* many figures. The focus seems less about perfect reproduction, and more about showcasing photographic craft, particularly within the limits of these new mediums like the albumen print process itself. The labor-intensive means to create a photographic surface on which images such as this were printed and fixed, and how it democratizes picture making practices. Curator: You make an important point about the construction and reception. The daguerreotype had certainly paved the way in that democratizing pictorial sphere, so the public’s fascination for detail would also reflect photography’s emerging role in reinforcing ideas about American progress, urbanity, even democracy. These city views, in their ubiquity, become performative objects for American visual culture. Editor: Absolutely, the material conditions themselves speak to that burgeoning urban progress you’ve identified. From the chemical processes and photographic apparatus used to manufacture and print photographs, to their potential for being commercially distributed in order to document the rise of cities and the construction of modern American society. Curator: This image, in essence, represents both a literal snapshot of Broadway and a figurative snapshot of a society eager to document and disseminate its own transformation. Editor: Yes, I'll definitely be thinking more about what "progress" and "transformation" really entailed through my material lens!