Pittsburghesque

Object number2022.33.1

Photographer Selden I. Davis (born 1904)

Date1948

MediumPaper; Emulsion

Credit LineGift of Susan R. Frampton

DescriptionToned silver gelatin print (black-and-white photograph) on rectangular off-white paper. Image depicts downtown Pittsburgh buildings in a smoky haze. Right side has Union Station's arched rotunda, and center background depicts the United States Courthouse, Gulf Tower, and Koppers Building. Foreground has, from left to right, a train with billowing steam, three automobiles, and a row of bench seats with a male figure behind. Front has irregular margins around printed photograph. Reverse is undecorated.DimensionsHeight x Width: 14 x 10.938 in. (35.6 x 27.8 cm)
InscriptionsReverse has handwritten pencil text in top left corner "14+15".
Historical NotesPhotographic print titled “Pittsburghesque, 1948, by Selden Davis. Selden Davis was a Pictorialist photographer based in Pennsylvania. This photograph entitled “Pittsburghesque” is thought to be one of the most important images made of Pittsburgh and is one of his most famous. Born in 1904, he was a part of the country’s oldest operating Pictorialist group during the 1940s, The Photographic Section of the Academy of Science and Art of Pittsburgh, established c. 1885. While employed at Stanley Warner Theaters, Davis began to take photographs that highlighted the post war industrialism of Pittsburgh. In 1940, he exhibited in the Annual Pittsburgh Salon of Photographic Art.

Subjects