Now on Digital Maryland: Life at the Naval Academy… in 1893

The 1893 Color Parade

Ever wonder what it was like to be in the United States Naval Academy in 1893?  The latest collection on Digital Maryland gives you an inside look at Annapolis, capturing the life of both the institution and the cadets training there. From 1882 to 1902, the title “naval cadet” was used instead of “midshipman”.

Artillery Drill, Naval Academy, 1893

The collection of 150 photographs was  taken in 1893 by Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952).   Johnston, after her graduation from the Notre Dame of Maryland Collegiate Institute in 1883, trained at the Académie Julian in Paris and, upon return home to Washington, D.C. in the mid-1880s, studied photography and was trained in darkroom technique by Smithsonian Director of Photography Thomas Smillie, opening her own studio about 1890.

Cadets in class, 1893

These photographs, which were taken early in her professional career, show the breadth of Johnson’s abilities as both a photojournalist and portrait photographer and an early interest in architectural photography.

Check out the entire collection, and much more at Digital Maryland.