Jump to content

Mathew Brady

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused withMatthew Brady.

Mathew Brady
Bradyc.1875
Bornc. 1822–1824
Warren County, New York,U.S.
Died(1896-01-15)January 15, 1896 (aged 71–74)
New York City,U.S.
Resting placeCongressional CemeteryinWashington, D.C.
Occupations
Spouse
Juliet Handy
​
​
(m.1850; died 1887)​
Signature

Mathew B. Brady[1](c. 1822–1824– January 15, 1896) was an American photographer. Known as one of the earliest and most famous photographers in American history, he is best known for his scenes of theCivil War.He studied under inventorSamuel Morse,who pioneered thedaguerreotypetechnique in America. Brady opened his own studio inNew York Cityin 1844, and went on to photographU.S. presidentsJohn Quincy Adams,Abraham Lincoln,Millard Fillmore,andMartin Van Buren,and other public figures.

When the Civil War began, Brady's use of a mobile studio anddarkroomenabled thousands of vividbattlefield photographsto bring home the reality of war to the public. He also photographed generals and politicians on both sides of the conflict, though most of these were taken by his assistants rather than by Brady himself.

After the end of the Civil War, these pictures went out of fashion, and the government did not purchase the master copies as he had anticipated. Brady's fortunes declined sharply, and he died in debt.

Early life[edit]

Lithographof Brady,c. 1845

Brady left little record of his life before photography. Speaking to the press in the last years of his life, he stated that he was born between 1822 and 1824 inWarren County, New York,nearLake George.He was the youngest of three children to Irish immigrant parents, Andrew and Samantha Julia Brady.[2]In official documents before and during theAmerican Civil War,however, he claimed to have been born inIreland.[3]

Career[edit]

At the age of 16, Brady moved toSaratoga, New York,where he met portrait painterWilliam Pageand became Page's student. In 1839, the two traveled toAlbany,and then to New York City, where Brady continued to study painting with Page and withSamuel Morse,Page's former teacher.[4]Morse had metLouis Jacques Daguerrein France in 1839, and returned to the US to enthusiastically push the newdaguerreotypeinvention of capturing images. At first, Brady's involvement was limited to manufacturing leather cases that held daguerreotypes.[5]But soon he became the center of the New York artistic colony that wished to study photography. Morse opened a studio and offered classes; Brady was one of the first students.[6][better source needed]

In 1844, Brady opened his own photography studio at the corner ofBroadwayandFulton Streetin New York,[7][8]and by 1845, he began to exhibit hisportraitsof famous Americans, including the likes of SenatorDaniel Websterand writerEdgar Allan Poe.In 1849, he opened a studio at 625Pennsylvania AvenueinWashington, D.C.,where he met Juliet (whom everybody called 'Julia') Handy, whom he married in 1850 and lived with onStaten Island.[7][9][10]Brady's early images were daguerreotypes, and he won many awards for his work; in the 1850s,ambrotypephotography became popular, which gave way to thealbumen print,a paper photograph produced from largeglass negativesmost commonly used in the Civil War photography.

In 1850, Brady producedThe Gallery of Illustrious Americans,a portrait collection of prominent contemporary figures. The album, which featured noteworthy images including the elderlyAndrew Jacksonatthe Hermitage,was not financially rewarding but invited increased attention to Brady's work and artistry.[4]In 1854, Parisian photographerAndré-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéripopularized thecarte de visite,and these small pictures (the size of a visiting card) rapidly became a popular novelty; thousands were created and sold in the United States and Europe.

In 1856, Brady placed an ad in theNew York Heraldoffering to produce "photographs, ambrotypes and daguerreotypes."[11]This inventive ad pioneered, in the US, the use oftypefaceandfontsthat were distinct from the text of the publication and from that of other advertisements.[12]

Civil War documentation[edit]

An 1857 portrait of Brady byCharles Loring Elliott
Brady upon his return from theFirst Battle of Bull RuninManassas;under his long coat, he is wearing a saber awarded to him by theNew York Fire Zouaves.

At first, the effect of the Civil War on Brady's business was a brisk increase in sales ofcartes de visiteto departing soldiers. Brady marketed to parents the idea of capturing their young soldiers' images before they might be lost to war by running an ad in theNew-York Daily Tribunethat warned, "You cannot tell how soon it may be too late."[5]However, he was soon taken with the idea of documenting the war itself. He first applied to an old friend, GeneralWinfield Scott,for permission to have his photographers travel to the battle sites, and eventually he made his application to President Lincoln himself. Lincoln granted permission in 1861, with the provision that Brady finance the project himself.[2]

His efforts to document the Civil War on a grand scale by bringing his photographic studio onto the battlefields earned Brady his place in history. Despite the dangers, financial risk, and discouragement by his friends, Brady was later quoted as saying, "I had to go. A spirit in my feet said 'Go,' and I went." His first popular photographs of the conflict were at theFirst Battle of Bull Run,[dubious–discuss]in which he got so close to the action that he barely avoided capture. While most of the time the battle had ceased before pictures were taken, Brady came under direct fire at Bull Run,Petersburg,andFredericksburg.

He employedAlexander Gardner,[13]James Gardner,Timothy H. O'Sullivan,William Pywell,George N. Barnard,Thomas C. Roche,and seventeen other men, each of whom was given a travelingdarkroom,to go out and photograph scenes from the Civil War. Brady generally resided in Washington, D.C., where he organized his assistants and rarely visited battlefields personally. However, as author Roy Meredith points out, "He [Brady] was essentially the director. The actual operation of the camera though mechanical is important, but the selection of the scene to be photographed is as important, if not more so than just 'snapping the shutter.'"[14]

This may have been due, at least in part, to the fact that Brady's eyesight had begun to deteriorate in the 1850s. Many of the images in Brady's collection are, in reality, thought to be the work of his assistants. Brady was criticized for failing to document the photographer, though it is unclear whether it was intentional or due simply to a lack of inclination to document the photographer of a specific image. Because so much of Brady's photography is missing information, it is difficult to know not only who took the picture, but also exactly when or where it was taken.

In October 1862, Brady opened an exhibition of photographs from theBattle of Antietamin his New York City gallery, titledThe Dead of Antietam.Many images in this presentation were graphic photographs of corpses, a presentation new to America. This was the first time that many Americans saw the realities of war in photographs, as distinct from previous artists' impressions.

Through his many paid assistants, Brady took thousands of photos of Civil War scenes. Much of the popular understanding of the war comes from these photos. There are thousands of photos in theNational Archivesand theLibrary of Congresstaken by Brady and his associates, Alexander Gardner, George Barnard and Timothy O'Sullivan.[13]The photographs include Lincoln, GeneralUlysses S. Grant,and soldiers in camps and battlefields. The images provide a pictorial cross reference of Civil War history. Brady was not able to photograph actual battle scenes, as the photographic equipment in those days was still in the infancy of its technical development and required that a subject be still for a clear photo to be produced.[15]

Following the conflict, a war-weary public lost interest in seeing photos of the war, and Brady's popularity and practice declined drastically.

Financial struggles and death[edit]

A U.S. postage stamp of U.S. presidentAbraham Lincolnbased on Brady's portrait photo of Lincoln

During the war, Brady spent over $100,000 (about $1,878,001 in 2022) to create over 10,000 plates. He expected theU.S. governmentto buy the photographs when the Civil War ended. Despite a recommendation from Congress' Joint Committee on the Library,[16]the government declined to do so and Brady was forced to sell his New York City studio and file for bankruptcy.Congressgranted Brady $25,000 in 1875, but he remained deeply in debt. Unwilling to dwell on the gruesomeness of the Civil War after it ended, private collectors for Brady's works were scarce.

Depressed by his financial situation and loss of eyesight, and devastated by the death of his wife in 1887, Brady died penniless in the charity ward ofPresbyterian Hospitalin New York City on January 15, 1896, from complications from a street-car accident.[17]Brady's funeral was financed by veterans of the7th New York Infantry,and he was buried in theCongressional Cemeteryin Washington, D.C.

Legacy[edit]

Brady photographed 18 of the 19 American presidents fromJohn Quincy AdamstoWilliam McKinley.The exception was the ninth president,William Henry Harrison,who died in office three years before Brady started his photographic collection. Brady photographedAbraham Lincolnon many occasions. His Lincoln photographs have been used for the$5 billand theLincoln penny.One of his Lincoln photos was used by theNational Bank Note Companyas a model for the engraving on the90-cent Lincoln Postageissue of 1869.[18]

The thousands of photographs which Mathew Brady's photographers (such as Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan) took have become the most important visual documentation of the Civil War, and have helped historians and the public better understand the era.

Brady photographed and made portraits of many seniorUnionofficers in the war, including:

On theConfederateside, Brady photographedJefferson Davis,P. G. T. Beauregard,Stonewall Jackson,Albert Pike,James Longstreet,James Henry Hammond,Henry Hopkins Sibley,andRobert E. Lee.[19]Brady also photographedLord Lyons,the British ambassador to Washington during the Civil War.

Photojournalism and honors[edit]

Brady is credited with being the father ofphotojournalism.[20]He can also be considered a pioneer in the orchestration of a "corporate credit line". In this practice, every image produced in his gallery was labeled "Photo by Brady"; however, Brady dealt directly with only the most distinguished subjects, and most portrait sessions were carried out by others.[21]

As perhaps the best-known US photographer in the 19th century, it was Brady's name that came to be attached to the era's heavy specialized end tables which were factory-made specifically for use by portrait photographers. Such a "Brady stand" of the mid-19th century typically had a weightycast ironbase for stability, plus an adjustable-height single-column pipe leg for dual use as either a portrait model's armrest or (when fully extended and fitted with a brace attachment rather than the usual tabletop) as a neck rest. The latter was often needed to keep models steady during the longer exposure times of early photography. WhileBrady standis a convenient term for these trade-specific articles of studio equipment, there is no proven connection between Brady himself and the Brady stand's inventionc. 1855.[22]

In 2013, Brady Street inTulsa, Oklahoma,was officially renamed Mathew Brady Street. The original namesake Brady wasW. Tate Brady,a prominent businessman in Tulsa's early history, who had connections to theKu Klux Klanand other racist organizations. Following considerable controversy, the City Council of Tulsa voted on August 15, 2013, to retain the name Brady for the street, but that it would now refer to and honor Mathew B. Brady instead. Mathew Brady never visited Tulsa in his lifetime.

In 1968 Brady became one of the first two Americans named to theInternational Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.[23]

Books and documentaries[edit]

Brady and his studio produced over 7,000 pictures (mostly two negatives of each). One set, "after undergoing extraordinary vicissitudes," came into U.S. government possession. His own negatives passed in the 1870s toE. & H. T. Anthony & Companyof New York, in default of payment for photographic supplies. They "were kicked about from pillar to post" for 10 years, untilJohn C. Taylorfound them in an attic and bought them; from this they became "the backbone of theOrdway–Randcollection; and in 1895 Brady himself had no idea of what had become of them. Many were broken, lost, or destroyed by fire. After passing to various other owners, they were discovered and appreciated byEdward Bailey Eaton,"who set in motion" events that led to their importance as the nucleus of a collection of Civil War photos published in 1912 asThe Photographic History of the Civil War.[24]

Some of the lost images are mentioned in the last episode ofKen Burns' 1990 documentary seriesThe Civil War.Burns claims that glass plate negatives were often sold to gardeners, not for their images, but for the glass itself to be used ingreenhousesandcold frames.In the years that followed the end of the war, the sun slowly burned away their filmy images and they were lost.[25]

The idea that many of the Civil war negatives perished by being used in greenhouses is probably a myth.[26]This is also dispelled by the Civil War photo historian Bob Zeller.[27]Practically all histories of Civil War photography omit the fact that most were taken in 3-D and many were published as side-by-side 3-D images. Zeller's bookThe Civil War in Depthreproduces many of these images the way they are supposed to be seen, instead of just half shown in 2-D. Indeed, the picture of Brady in a straw hat shown in this article is reproduced as a stereoscopic side-by-side image on page 12 ofThe Civil War in Depth.Mathew Brady's photographers created many of the Civil War images, most of which were in 3-D according to Zeller.

Exhibitions[edit]

On September 19, 1862, two days after the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of combat on U.S. soil with more than 23,000 killed, wounded or missing, Brady sent photographer Alexander Gardner and his assistant James Gibson to photograph the carnage. In October 1862, Brady displayed the photos by Gardner at his New York gallery under the title "The Dead of Antietam."[28]The New York Timespublished a review.[29]

In October 2012, theNational Museum of Civil War Medicinedisplayed 21 original Mathew Brady photographs from 1862 documenting the Battle of Antietam.[28]

Gallery and related images[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Meredith, Roy (1974).Mr. Lincoln's camera man, Mathew B. Brady.New York: Dover Publications, Inc. p. 1.OCLC1169230.
  2. ^abPritzker, Barry (1992).Mathew Brady.East Bridgewater: JG Press.ISBN1-57215-342-3.
  3. ^"An Irishman's Diary: Parallels between Seán Keating's wild west and the real thing".The Irish Times.
  4. ^abSmith, Zoe C. (February 2000)."Brady, Mathew B."American National Biography Online.RetrievedJanuary 25,2009.
  5. ^abCrain, Caleb (August 4, 2013)."How Soon It May Be Too Late".The New York Times.RetrievedAugust 4,2013.
  6. ^The tuition was fifty dollars, which Brady earned by working as a clerk for department store tycoonAlexander Turney Stewart.
  7. ^ab"14 Facts About Mathew Brady".July 13, 2018.RetrievedJuly 23,2018.
  8. ^"Photograph of President Abraham Lincoln".World Digital Library.1861.RetrievedFebruary 10,2013.
  9. ^The couple had no children, but lavished their attention on Julia's nephew, Levin Handy, who would continue to run Brady's studio until after Brady's death.
  10. ^Wilson, Robert.Mathew Brady: Portraits of a NationBloomsbury, 2014, pp. 27, 117, 241
  11. ^Volo, James M. (2004).The Antebellum Period.Greenwood Press. p. 106.ISBN0-313-32518-9.
  12. ^Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850–1920 – Duke LibrariesArchivedJune 11, 2016, at theWayback Machine.Library.duke.edu (March 16, 2010). Retrieved September 2, 2011
  13. ^ab"Antietam, Maryland. Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln, and Major General John A. McClernand: Another View".World Digital Library.October 3, 1862.RetrievedJune 10,2013.
  14. ^Meredith, Roy (1974).Mr. Lincoln's Camera Man, Mathew B. Brady(Second Revised ed.). New York: Dover Publications. pp. vii.ISBN048623021X.
  15. ^The National Archives."Ingersoll, Jared, (1749–1822)".US Government: National Archives.RetrievedNovember 1,2010.
  16. ^Peters, Benjamin Franklin."H. Rept. 41-46 - Brady's collection of historical portraits. March 3, 1871. -- Ordered to be printed and recommitted to the Joint Committee on the Library".GovInfo.gov.U.S. Government Printing Office.RetrievedJune 15,2023.
  17. ^Orlikoff, A. J. (May 17, 2022)."Mathew Brady: The Father of Photojournalism".Historic Congressional Cemetery.RetrievedMay 18,2024.
  18. ^Smithsonian National Postal Museum.Arago.si.edu (May 16, 2006). Retrieved September 2, 2011
  19. ^Lee's first session with Brady was in 1845 as a lieutenant colonel in theU.S. Army,his final after the war inRichmond,Virginia.
  20. ^Horan, James D. (1988).Mathew Brady: Historian With a Camera.New York: Random House.ISBN0-517-00104-7.
  21. ^Smith, Zoe C. (February 2000)."Brady, Mathew B".American National Biography Online.RetrievedJanuary 25,2009.
  22. ^Macy,et al., "Macy Photographic Studio's Dispatch, The", Northampton MA, Spring–Summer 1913, pp. 2–3
  23. ^"Mathew B. Brady".International Photography Hall of Fame.RetrievedJuly 22,2022.
  24. ^"The Photographic History of the Civil War, in Ten Volumes",Francis Trevelyan Miller,editor-in-chief, andRobert S. Lanier,Managing Editor,The Review of Reviews Co.,New York, 1912, p. 52
  25. ^Kinship of the soul – 1993 Commencement address by filmmaker Ken Burns,University of Delaware Messenger. Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 6, Summer 1993. Retrieved June 2011
  26. ^"10 Facts: Civil War Photography".November 16, 2020.
  27. ^"Bob Zeller".
  28. ^ab"Matthew Brady Antietam Photography Exhibit From 1862 Recreated at National Museum of Civil War Medicine (PHOTOS)".Keedysville, Maryland. October 5, 2012.
  29. ^"Brady's Photographs: Pictures of the Dead at Antietam".The New York Times.New York. October 20, 1862.
  30. ^Museum, George Eastman (June 10, 2015)."Portrait, Civil War Officer".Archived fromthe originalon January 1, 2003.
  31. ^Illustrated in: Frassanito, William A., E474.65.F7 (P&P) Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day, E474.65.F7 (P&P). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 31, with comments on pages 30-32
  32. ^The irregular black edge would not have appeared in the official final portrait prints.

Further reading[edit]

  • Guthrie, Jason Lee. "Ill-Protected Portraits: Mathew Brady and Photographic Copyright."Journalism History45.2 (2019): 135–156.
  • Holzer, Harold. "The Campaign of 1860: Cooper Union, Mathew Brady, and the Campaign of Words and Images." inLincoln Revisited(Fordham University Press, 2009) pp. 57–80.
  • Meredith, Roy.Mr. Lincoln's Camera Man, Mathew B. Brady(1974).
  • Panzer, Mary (1997).Mathew Brady and the Image of History.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books.ISBN1-58834-143-7.LCCTR140.B7 P36 1997
  • Trachtenberg, Alan.Reading American Photographs: Images as History-Mathew Brady to Walker Evans(Macmillan, 1990).

Primary sources[edit]

  • Lossing, Benson John, and Mathew B. Brady.Mathew Brady's Illustrated History of the Civil War, 1861-65 and the Causes that Led Up to the Great Conflict(1912)online.
  • Wilson, Robert (2013).Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation.London: Bloomsbury,ISBN978-1-62040-203-0.online

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMathew Brady.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mathew_Brady&oldid=1232434011"