Civil War Photography and Portrait Artist, MATTHEW BRADY

Virtually any Civil War photography seen in a text book or documentary was produced under the name of Matthew Brady.

SERENDIPITY - It's WHO You Know

His earliest recorded friendship was with the artist William Page (1811 -1885). In turn Page was a student of the artist and inventor (inventor of the telegraph), Samuel Morse (1791 - 1872) to whom he introduced Brady. Brady then enrolled at New York University where Morse was an instructor, and, during the early 1840's, supported himself by making jewel cases.

The Daguerreian Society presents the Daguerrotype Process at this link. This account is from the Scientific American of Jan. 1887.

"The Camera Is The Eye Of History" (Brady)

His portrait of Booth and Booth's daughter, Edwina, utilized the popular new imaging process, Carte de Viste, where a thin paper photograph (2 1/4 × 3 1/2 inches) was mounted on a thicker paper card(2 1/2 × 4 inches). These photo cards became a type of calling card which people exchanged with each other.

Matthew consistently worked to improve the artistry of his photography. Another revolutionary technique he implemented was the wet-plate process which produced inexpensive, high quality negatives allowing duplicate photographs from the same negative.

As a result of the wet-plate process, common people as well as the elite could suddenly own a photograph of their leaders.

Scotland born photographer, Alexander Gardner, encouraged him to work with these new techniques in order to modernize his photography.

Civil War photography was created with the Wet Plate Process. Follow this link for a graphic detailed explanation.

An especially good year for Matthew was 1851 when he married Juliette Handy, his wife for 40 years. In that same year he won first prize in a Daguerrotype competition sponsored by Queen Victoria as part of the first World's Fair.

Lincoln Inaugeral Portrait by Matthew Brady

Nevertheless President Abraham Lincoln responded to his invitation for "a sitting", and arrived at the studio on Pennsylvania Avenue February 23, 1861 for his inaugeral portrait.

A neighboring artist in the same building commented of Lincoln, "He did not utter a word, and he seemed absolutely indifferent to all that was going on aobut him; and he gave the impression that he was a man overwhelmed with anxiety, fatigue and care". (Meredith, Roy: The world of Matthew Brady)

"A spirit in my feet said, 'Go', and I went."

In response to his wife and friends who told him to stay home and manage his successful portrait studio, he replied,"I felt I had to go. A spirit in my feet said, 'Go', and I went."

Due to his increasingly dimished eyesight and the increasing extent of the war, he hired a team of approximately 20 photographers to assist in the daunting task of chronicling the war. He organized travelling crews using wagons to carry the cumbersome metal plates and chemicals for the wet-plate process which had to be completed within an hour of taking the picture. Civil War photography was anything but point and shoot.

LOCK IT UP IN A SECRET DRAWER

He and his teams were welcomed on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line because of their courage, compassion and accuracy. They were true reporters. They didn't take sides. They were right there in the thick of the battle, but they also haunted the killing fields in the stillness after the battle. The dead were much easier to photograph for equipment that had little tolerance for movement.

In all he spent $100,000 in Civil War photography documenting the war. Initially his photographs were very popular allowing the populace to glimpse the reality of the war. But as the war dragged on his very real photographs of death and dying became obnoxious to the people, reminding them painfully of the deaths of their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons.

As he looked through Brady's photographs for his son among the dead at Antietam, Oliver Wendell Holmes mourned, "These wrecks of manhood thrown together in careless heaps,or ranged in ghastly rows for burial were but alive yesterday.... Many people would not look through this series. Many, having seen it and dreamed of its horrors, would lock it up in some secret drawer."

By the end of the war, his thousands of prints (approximately 3,500), primarily Civil War photographs, lanquished in storage for lack of an audience. He had accumulated large debts both in hazard pay to his photographers and for supplies and equipment which were largely purchased on credit.

Bankrupt, Broke and Broken - But What A Legacy!

He was blind, broke and alone. The use of his fortune to fund his Civil War photographs had bankrupted him personally, but had left a historically accurate account of the Civil War for millions after him.

As a nation, we will be forever grateful.

Now that you've completed Matthew Brady's Civil War Photography, you are invited to explore the biographies of other Famous Photographers

History of Photography Highlights of the 1800s

Ansel Adams, A Legend In His Own Time;

Edward Curtis had a passion to capture Native American culture just as Matthew Brady was inspired toward Civil War Photography.

Dorothea Lange, Depression Era Photojournalist

Alfred Eisenstadt of VJ Day photo fame.

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