John Lavars, Bristol, [for the author], Ventnor, Isle of Wight, 1857
As well as depicting sites directly related to the Crimean War (cemeteries and hospitals), Blackwood illustrates local landscapes and architecture, as seen for example in Sebastopol, Bakhchisaray and Constantinople. She also captures a great deal of the local colour by depicting the local Turks amidst their favourite places in their traditional dress.
Lady Alicia Blackwood (1818â1913) was an English painter and nurse married to the Rev. James Stevenson Blackwood. Both were moved to assist those suffering as a result of the Crimean War, so her husband obtained a chaplaincy to the forces whilst she applied to Florence Nightingale at the Scutari Barracks (nowadays Ãsküdar, Turkey) in December 1854, offering her assistance. She was tasked with setting up and managing an unofficial hospital for "some two hundred poor women in the most abject misery...the wives of the soldiers who were allowed to accompany their husbands" (Blackwood), as well as their widows and children. Blackwood greatly admired Florence Nightingale's work, dedicating this album, based on her own sketches, to her.
Two volumes in one, folio (56 x 37cm). Lith. title, dedication leaf, list of plates, 9 lith. pl. incl. 3 double-page; lith. title, dedic. leaf, list of pl., 10 lith. pl. incl. 2 double-page -- in all 21 plates of tinted lithographs incl. 2 lith. title pages and 5 folding double-page panoramas. Publisher's lithographed upper wrappers bound at end, in recent half calf over marbled boards, spine in eight compartments decorated in gilt, red morocco label lettered in gilt.
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