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| William Edward Kilburn Chartist meeting in London 1848 daguerreotype Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"A town, such as London, where a man may wander for hours together without reaching the beginning of the end, without meeting the slightest hint which could lead to the inference that there is open country within reach, is a strange thing. This colossal centralization, this heaping together of two and a half millions of human beings at one point, has multiplied the power of this two and a half million a hundred fold; has raised London to the commercial capital of the world, created the giant docks and assembled the thousand vessels that continually cover the Thames. But the sacrifices which all this has cost become apparent later. After roaming the streets of the capital a day or two, one realizes for the first time that these Londoners have been forced to sacrifice the best qualities of their human nature to bring to pass all the marvels of civilization. The very turmoil of the streets has something repulsive about it – something against which human nature rebels. The hundreds of thousands of all classes and ranks crowding past each other – aren't they all human beings with the same qualities and powers, and with the same interest in being happy? And aren't they obliged, in the end, to seek happiness in the same way, by the same means? And still they crowd by one another as though they had nothing in common, nothing to do with one another, and their only agreement is the tacit one – that each keep to his own side of the pavement, so as not to delay the opposing streams of the crowd – while no man thinks to honor another with so much as a glance. The brutal indifference, the unfeeling isolation of each in his private interest becomes the more repellent and offensive, the more these individuals are crowded together within a limited space. And however much one may be aware that this isolation of the individual, this narrow self-seeking, is the fundamental principle of our society everywhere, it is nowhere so shamelessly barefaced, so self-conscious, as just here in the crowding of the great city."
– from The Condition of the Working Class in England (1848) by Friedrich Engels, quoted by Walter Benjamin in The Arcades Project (Harvard University Press, 1999)
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| William Edward Kilburn Chartist meeting in London 1848 daguerreotype Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"This daguerreotype records the immense crowds at one of the Chartist rallies held in South London in 1848. Calling for political reform, and spurred on by the recent February Revolution in France, the Chartist movement was seen by many as a terrifying threat to the established order. Fears were so great that on the eve of the meeting, the Duke of Wellington stationed troops across London and the royal family were moved to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. In the event the rally passed peacefully and Prince Albert later spoke at a Chartist meeting about the sympathy and concern the royal family felt for the working classes. This is one of a pair of daguerreotypes of the event acquired by Prince Albert."
– curator's notes from the Royal Collection
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| Anonymous photographer Rue de Rivoli, Paris ca. 1865 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Robert Howlett I.K. Brunel and others observing Great Eastern launch attempt 1857 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"His 'great babe' is how engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel referred to his creation, the Great Eastern. At nearly twenty-two thousand tons, it was the largest ship built in the nineteenth century. Robert Howlett was commissioned by The Illustrated Times to document its building and launching. In this photograph Howlett swung his camera away from the enormous ship to record the human reaction to the anticipated spectacle. The image has the casual structure of an unposed snapshot. It was an illustration meant to accompany a newspaper account of the events. Looking nervously expectant, the men grouped around an imperious Brunel – the short man at the center front, facing right – on the dock were investors from the syndicate that had spent three million dollars for the ship's construction. Brunel did not want onlookers present, but the owners sold tickets and people came by the thousands. The Great Eastern stubbornly refused to be moved down the launching ramp, and steam winch handles spun wildly out of control, killing two crewmembers and threatening the spectators. Several more months of pushing and pulling ensued before Brunel's ship was successfully waterborne."
– curator's notes form the Getty Museum
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| Robert Howlett Steamship Great Eastern under construction at Millwall 1857 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Robert Howlett I.K. Brunel with launching chains of the Great Eastern 1857 albumen silver print Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| John Thomson Whitechapel, London 1877 Woodburytype photograph Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Anonymous photographer Queen Victoria's Jubilee Procession Thames Embankment, London 1887 albumen print Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Anonymous photographer Queen Victoria's Jubilee Procession Thames Embankment, London 1887 albumen print Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"As I study this age which is so close to us and so remote, I compare myself to a surgeon operating with local anesthetic: I work in areas that are numb, dead – yet the patient is alive and can still talk."
– Paul Morand, quoted by Walter Benjamin – from the section On the Theory of Knowledge, Theory of Progress in The Arcades Project (Harvard University Press, 1999)
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| Oliver H. Copeland New Market, New Hampshire 1875 albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Anonymous photographer Street scene with crowd ca. 1900 gelatin silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Underwood & Underwood State Street, Chicago 1903 photograph Library of Congress, Washington DC |
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| Julius M. Wendt Street Scene - Albany, New York ca. 1900-1910 gelatin silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Julius M. Wendt Street Scene - Albany, New York ca. 1900-1910 gelatin silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |