The Iconic Image of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern, 1857

The famous photograph of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) standing in front of the massive launching chains of the Great Eastern is one of the most iconic images of the Industrial Revolution. It captures not only a great engineer but also the spirit of Victorian ambition and technological progress.

The photo was taken by Robert Howlett in November 1857. It shows the British engineer during the troubled first attempt to launch the SS Great Eastern, by far the largest ship constructed to that date. Brunel stands before a drum of chain used during the launching of the vessel. He carries his customary cigar case and his boots and trousers are muddy.

Brunel is smoking a cigar and his waistcoat is askew. His pose has been described as casual and self-assured. The image has become iconic of the industrial era and the 19th century, and has been included in many published collections of photographs. It was widely reproduced at the time of the ship’s launch in January 1858 and again after Brunel’s death in 1859.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a British engineer who constructed a number of innovative civil and railway engineering projects and, in 1845, the SS Great Britain, at that time the largest ship ever built. In 1853 he began construction of the SS Great Eastern, six times the tonnage of any vessel built before and a statement of Britain's maritime supremacy. The project was one of Brunel's last and most challenging. With the vessel measuring 692 feet (211 m) in length and 22,500 long tons (22,900 t) in weight, it proved difficult to launch. Beginning in November 1857, it took three months to launch, sideways down an inclined timber ramp.

The Illustrated Times wanted wood-engravings of the ship to accompany an article on its launch. Robert Howlett was commissioned to attend the shipyard and take suitable photographs which could be used to produce the engravings. Howlett was a partner at the London photography studio The Photographic Institution and had been taking photographs since 1852. He joined the studio in 1853 and had previously carried out a commission for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to take portraits of Crimean War soldiers.

Harral’s wood-engraving, as published on January 16, 1858.

Howlett attended the shipbuilding site in Millwall, London, during the first launching attempt, attended by a crowd of 10,000 spectators, in November 1857. In addition to a series of photographs taken of the ship, he took six of Brunel, three portraits of him alone, and three of him among a group of other men. In his photographs Howlett, one of the first to photograph men in the workplace, purposely chose his shots to emphasise the size of the vessel. The photographs were taken on a box camera using the wet plate collodion technique, that allowed for greater detail and reduced exposure times. The process required that the plate be developed immediately so Howlett would have had to rush them to a darkroom on site, potentially a tent that he is known to have designed for the purpose.

One of the group photographs, which also shows three manual workers, has Brunel standing near to one of the checking drums which held long lengths of large chain used to restrain the ship as it was lowered down the ramp. This photograph has been referred to with the title The Great Eastern (wheel and chain drum) and a copy is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The three individual photographs of Brunel all show him standing in front of a checking drum.

Brunel standing near a chain drum with the Great Eastern in the background.

His most famous of the individual photographs became known by the title Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern. In this photograph Brunel stands casually while smoking a cigar and looking out of shot, his hands in his trouser pockets. His trousers and boots are muddy and his waistcoat is askew. Brunel wears his cigar case slung across his shoulder, as was his practice when out in public. Having taken other photographs from an oblique angle Howlett moved his camera to a position directly in front of the drum.

In another of the individual photographs, Brunel is in a similar pose and clothes, but leaning against the chains and the camera is positioned to one side of the drum. In the third individual photograph (a stereogram produced in conjunction with George Downes) Brunel, wearing lighter trousers and without his pocket watch or cigar, is seated on a post in front of the chain drum. He looks directly at the camera with his right hand tucked into his waistcoat.

The photographs were important in providing positive publicity for the Great Eastern project, which was beset with delays and financial difficulties. The series of photographs became Howlett’s most famous work and was one of his last commissions; he died from fever in 1858.