7559-Enormous 11-inch shell from Japanese siege gun, beginning its deadly flight into Port Arthur

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Publisher Underwood & Underwood Publishers (American (active Ottawa, KS and New York, NY), 1882 – 1941)

Photographer James Ricalton (American, 1844 – 1929)

Date1905

MediumGelatin silver prints mounted on cardstock

DimensionsMount: 3 1/2 × 7 in. (8.9 × 17.8 cm)

Credit LineGift of Simón de Swaan

Object numberS2023.1.16

Not on view

DescriptionDetailed information on back from “Notes of Travel, No. 20, copyright, 1905, by Underwood & Underwood.” Text is printed horizontally. Title is printed on the back of cardstock in English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, and Russian.

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Markings Recto, center of left margin: [SUN SCULPTURE TRADE MARK]

Inscribed Recto, bottom right margin: "7559-Enormous 11-inch shell from Japanese siege gun, beginning its deadly flight into Port Arthur. / Copyright 1905 by Underwood & Underwood."
Recto, left margin (vertical): "Underwood & Underwood. Publishers./ New York. London. Toronto - Canada. Ottawa - Kansas. "

Recto, right margin (vertical): "Works and Studios~ / Arlington N.J. Littleton N.H. Washington. D.C."
Verso, starting on top left: "Port Arthur is between two and three miles away out of sight beyond two high ranges of hills. From another hill two miles distant, high enough to command a view of the Russian forts and the harbor, telephonic instructions as to aim have come to the battery commander. / A gigantic shell, just like those waiting at the foot of the bank, a 500 pound weight of steel and infernal Shi-mose powder, was hoisted to the breech of the immense mortar and slid into place.
(See stereograph 7587 for the loading.) The men hastily stuffed cotton in their ears to save ear- drums from rending – a roar as if the heavens themselves were rent, and there goes the shell. You can see it high in the air now, an elongated, darkish blur; it is cutting at a high angle through the sunshiny sky above the hills; in a few seconds it will fall with diabolical exactness in precisely the spot intended. / This gun is one of a score made in Osaka for Japanese coast-defence. It came by steamer to Dalny, then for a few miles by rail over the abandoned Russian branch of the Trans-Siberian. From the nearest point on the
railway it was hauled by hand on wooden skids. three hundred muscular soldiers silently tugging and straining at the cables, as they floundered knee-deep in Manchur-lan mud. That huge mortar-barrel weighs ten tons."

Verso, starting on top right: "Villiers and Barry in their books on Port Arthur both tell about the terrific risks run by Mr. James Ricalton, the photographer, in making this negative. The Russians were sending a frantic return fire over here trying to destroy this very battery. A Russian shell burst within a few feet of the camera, tearing the earth open and turning the place into a miniature cyclone of steel and dirt and flying stones.
London papers call this the most remarkable photograph of its kind in the world.
From Notes of Travel, No. 20, copyright, 1905, by Underwood Underwood."

Verso, bottom right quarter of the page: "Enormous Japanese shell beginning its fight into Port Arthur. (following by the same inscription in French, German, Spanish, Swedish, and Russian.)"