The Terminal

1893, printed 1895

Alfred Stieglitz

Associated Names
Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

This is a black-and-white photograph of a horse-drawn tram on a snowy street. The cobblestone street leads from the center of the photograph to the bottom right corner, and the horses turn around the curve, walking towards the right. The large horses are harnessed to a tram labeled "Harlem" and "No Smoking". The street is lined with large banks of snow on either side, and the background shows tall building facades with columns and windows capped with snow. Various signs are visible, including "Trunks & Bags" on the left. White steam rises from the horses, and a person in a long coat and helmet stands in front of them, their back to us.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    carbon print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to image): 19.6 x 30 cm (7 11/16 x 11 13/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1949.3.73

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    128C

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more

  • Key Set Number

    92

The image shows a man leaning his head on his hand, positioned with his face resting on his left hand. He has a mustache, thin-framed eyeglasses, and thick, greying hair that curls slightly at the edges. He is dressed in a formal jacket, a white shirt, and a black bow tie. The background is a soft, dark blur.

Alfred Stieglitz

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1992

  • Stieglitz in the Darkroom, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, October 4, 1992–February 14, 1993

2002

  • Alfred Stieglitz: Known and Unknown, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, June 2–September 2, 2002; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 6, 2002–January 5, 2003

2004

  • Alfred Stieglitz and His Circle: 1905–1930, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2004–2005

2009

  • In the Darkroom: Photographic Processes Before the Digital Age, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2009–2010

Bibliography

2002

  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 92.

Inscriptions

by Alfred Stieglitz, on mount, lower right verso, in graphite: The Terminal—1892 / N Y / original 4 x 5 / Carbon Print (enlarged / negative / 1895)
by later hand, on mount, lower left verso, in graphite: 128 C

Wikidata ID

Q64034670

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

In 1938 Stieglitz told Dorothy Norman that The Terminal was made the day after Winter, Fifth Avenue: “The next day I walked the streets, and found myself before the old Post Office. The Third Avenue street railway system and the Madison Avenue car system had their terminals there. Naturally there was snow on the ground. A driver in a rubber coat was watering his steaming horses” (“From the Writings and Conversations of Alfred Stieglitz,” Twice a Year 1 [Fall–Winter 1938], 97).

The building in the background is Astor House, a storied New York hotel that was at the corner of Broadway and Vesey Street (across the street from the old Post Office).

Other Collections

A print corresponding with this photograph can also be found in the following collection(s):

Private collection [lantern slide] (inscribed: 23 / The Terminus)

Lifetime Exhibitions

A print from the same negative—perhaps a photograph from the Gallery’s collection—appeared in the following exhibition(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime:

1894, London, R.P.S. (no. 421, as The Terminus)
1897, New York, Knickerbocker (as The Terminus, lantern slide)
1897, London, R.P.S. (no. 440, as The Terminus, lantern slide)
1910, Buffalo (no. 420, as The Terminus, 1892, carbon)
1913, New York (no. 2, as The Terminus, New York, 1892)
1915, New York (as The Terminal, Winter)
1918, New York (no. 3, as The Terminal, N.Y., 1892, photogravure)
1921, New York (no. 5, as The Terminal, New York, 1892)
1924, New York (no. 56, as The Terminal, New York, 1892)
1932, New York (no. 31, as The Terminal, 1892)
1937, New York, MoMA (no. 332, as The Terminal, 1892, photogravure from Camera Work)
1944, Philadelphia (no. 8, as The Terminal—Winter, 1892, photogravure)

Lifetime Publications

A reproduction of this work appeared in the following publication(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime:

Camera Work 36 (October 1911): pl. 15 (ill., The Terminal, 1892)

Waldo Frank et al., America & Alfred Stieglitz (New York, 1934): pl. 25a (ill., The Terminal, N.Y., 1902)

Robert W. Marks, “Man with a Cause,” Coronet 4 (September 1938): 163 (ill., The Terminal, 1892)

Twice a Year 1 (Fall–Winter 1938): 98 (ill., Car-horses: New York, 1892)

Robert W. Marks, “Stieglitz—Patriarch of Photography,” Popular Photography 6 (April 1940): 20 (ill., The Terminal, 1892)

Jerome Mellquist, The Emergence of an American Art (New York, 1942), opp. 96 (ill., The Terminal, New York, 1892)

“Speaking of Pictures . . . These are by one of Photography’s Pioneers,” Life 14:14 (5 April 1943): 6 (ill., The Terminal, 1892)

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