Samuel John Dixon Crossing Niagara Falls Below the Great Cantilever Bridge
About this artwork
Samuel John Dixon (1852-1891) was a studio photographer in Toronto in the 1880s. In 1890, on his way to a meeting of the Photographers' Association of America in Washington, his train passed over the bridge beside the wire put there by the acrobat, Blondin, who first crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1859. Dixon 'suddenly concluded that he could also walk it, and so stated to several at the convention, but no one believed he meant what he said'. He did so successfully twice, in 1890 and 1891, but tragically drowned in Wood Lake, Muskoka, later that year.
Updated before 2020
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artist:George BarkerAmerican (1844 - 1894)
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title:Samuel John Dixon Crossing Niagara Falls Below the Great Cantilever Bridge
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date created:1895
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materials:Albumen print stereograph
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measurements:8.10 x 7.70 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Gift of Mrs. Riddell in memory of Peter Fletcher Riddell 1985
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accession number:PGP R 860
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George Barker
George Barker
George Barker was one of the most successful North American commercial photographers of the nineteenth century. Born in Ontario, Canada, he opened his own photographic studio in Niagara, New York during the 1860s. He published views of the Niagara Falls area, which over a thirty-year period...
