Deck Scene of the Great Eastern (1857): Art, History and Details

Deck Scene of the Great Eastern (1857) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Robert Howlett (British, 1831–1858).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A leading professional photographer of the mid-1850s, Robert Howlett is best known for his extended group of photographs documenting the construction and launching of the Great Eastern steamship. Designed by one of the greatest engineers of his time, I.K. Brunel, the Great Eastern took over four years to construct and, because of its immense size, an unprecedented three months to launch. For over forty years, the Great Eastern was the largest steamship ever constructed and it became a symbol of Great Britain's national pride and industrial supremacy. In this image, Howlett has captured the steamship's deck in the midst of construction while laborer's stand idly in the background and gentleman and engineers seem to confer in the foreground.

Object facts

• Title: Deck Scene of the Great Eastern
• Date: 1857
• Creator attribution: Robert Howlett (British, 1831–1858)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative
• Dimensions: Image: 28.4 x 36 cm (11 3/16 x 14 3/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
• Collection: Photography
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1996.355

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.