The Terminal, 1893, printed 1895

Key Set Entry

Related Key Set Photographs

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, 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)
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)
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)

Inscription

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

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.

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.

Related Content