Work

Terre-plein off the Gorge, Fort Sumter

Soldiers and civilians posed among dismounted guns on the terreplein of Fort Sumter.

Armed Confederate soldiers and top-hatted civilians draped over the pivot guns on the terreplein, four days after the bombardment began. The museum calls it perhaps the most dramatic of the war’s first photographic views.

Given that Alma Pelot was a young studio portraitist with little field experience, these modest-size prints with their rounded corners and mature balance of architectural description and human incident are extraordinary.The Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the attribution

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s own wording is “Attributed to Alma A. Pelot (American, active Charleston, South Carolina, 1850s–1860s)”.

Research notes

The Metropolitan Museum of Art publishes no object number or accession number for this loan, so there is no identifier here to order a copy by. The object belongs to the New-York Historical Society, and both the identifier and the rights would have to come from there rather than from the exhibiting museum.

The record

Title, as catalogedTerre-plein off the Gorge, Fort Sumter
PhotographerAlma A. Pelot
FirmJ. H. Bolles’s photographic gallery
AttributionAttributed
Date, as catalogedApril 15, 1861
PlaceFort Sumter, Charleston Harbor
Controlling forceConfederate-held
Processalbumen silver print from glass negative
Formatphotograph
DimensionsImage: 13.5 x 18.6 cm (5 5/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
Negative or printprint
CollectionOn loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
RepositoryThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Credit lineNew-York Historical Society Library, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections
RightsNo rights statement located
Rights advisory, verbatimNo rights statement is published in the museum record. The credit line reads: New-York Historical Society Library, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections.
Catalog recordhttps://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/302570
ConfidenceVerified
Last verified2026-08-30

Sources