United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
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U.S. Capitol, East Front Stereoview

Stereoview with two nearly identical black and white photographs of the Capitol, seen from the southeast corner, with a few visitors and horse-drawn carriages, and bare ground, arranged side by side on blue-green cardboard, captioned, “U.S. Capitol, East Front, Washington, D.C.”/tiles/collection/6/6775.xml
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Stereoview with two nearly identical black and white photographs of the Capitol, seen from the southeast corner, with a few visitors and horse-drawn carriages, and bare ground, arranged side by side on blue-green cardboard, captioned, “U.S. Capitol, East Front, Washington, D.C.”
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Date

ca. 1870

Artist

Charles Bierstadt

Dimensions

3 1/2 x 7 in. (8.9 x 17.8 cm)

Accession Number

2009.098.001

Credit Line

Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Object Details

The Capitol’s East Front was, for many years, the primary face of the building, and a popular subject in prints and photographs. Charles Bierstadt, who was known for his images of grand tourist sights, produced this view around 1870. Unusually, some anecdotal landscape details—people scattered about the lot, an approaching carriage—are also included in the image. The speed of exposures made it necessary to eliminate as many moving objects as possible to avoid spoiling the illusion of real space in the image.

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