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Balloon View of Washington, D.C.

A colored print showing an aerial view of Washington in 1861, looking southwest from the Capitol, including the Potomac river. The dome of the Capitol is under construction./tiles/collection/6/6101.xml
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A colored print showing an aerial view of Washington in 1861, looking southwest from the Capitol, including the Potomac river. The dome of the Capitol is under construction.
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Date

1861-07-27

Artist

Jacob Wells

Publication

Harper's Weekly

Publisher

Harper & Brothers

Dimensions

10 1/4 × 15 in. (26 × 38.1 cm) Framed: 18 3/4 × 23 in. (47.6 × 58.4 cm)

Accession Number

2007.335.002

Credit Line

Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Object Details

When this print was made, the nation awaited the start of the Civil War with interest. Harper’s Weekly touted its ability to satisfy readers’ hunger for news with innovations like hot air balloons that allowed “artist-correspondents” to show entire battlefields. Until there were battles, they made do with images like this one, of Washington at the start of war, with the unfinished dome of the Capitol in the foreground.

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Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov