Photographer Spotlight: Mathew B. Brady

Sunrise. Sugarloaf Mountain, Colorado, 2014

I just finished going through Mr. Lincoln’s Camera Man (1947, with later reprints) by Roy Meredith about the incredible Mr. Brady (1823-1896), which included some 350 images from the period. I had known something of Brady’s contributions before, but not the details.

Impressive.

This is a definite must read for the photographer interested in either Civil War history or the history of photography.

Here are some of the more interesting highlights:

–Brady is considered to be the Civil War photographer and was the first to attempt war photojournalism on a planned, systematic scale.

–He didn’t take all of the Civil War pictures–he hired some 20 photographers to work for him. They worked in teams and covered the various theaters of war. Brady, however, was the undisputed director of it all–and he funded the whole thing, too–so he generally gets the credit for the whole collection of images.

–The soldiers called his photographic wagons, “Whatsit” or Whatizzit” wagons as they were such a novelty.

–He was arguably the undisputed top photographer of the1840s through the 1870s, having won first place honors at the 1851 London World’s Fair for the quality of his daguerreotypes.

–His Civil War and later images were primarily done using the wet plate process, which required the photographer to develop the glass plate within about ten minutes of the exposure (depending on temperature–warmer temps = less time, colder temps = more time).

–On several occasions he came under direct fire from the Confederate side and, once, very nearly was killed. (The other side may have thought his big Anthony camera on the tripod with its big, brass lens was a new, bizarre weapon.)

–His New York and Washington, D.C. photo galleries were tremendous successes during the late 1840s through the end of the Civil War and anybody who was anybody in high society went to him for a sitting. Especially coveted were his large (and expensive) “Imperial” prints (14×17 to 17×20).

–Also very popular, especially as the nation ramped up to war, were his “cartes des visites“, sort of an early photographic calling card. They were “massed produced” with a camera with six lenses and the soldiers going off to war piled in by the thousands to have them made for their loved ones.

–Brady married the daughter of a Washington, D.C. lawyer (and sort of an adopted daughter of Andrew Jackson), Julia Handy, who was extremely supportive of his career and helped maintain their contacts in the nations highest social circles. It was a blow to Brady when she died in 1887.

–The “B” as Brady’s middle initial doesn’t stand for anything–it was there for appearances only.

–He practiced a bit of 19th century “photobombing“–you can see Brady in a number of his images of troops in the field.

–You’ll often see the “Brady chair” in many of Brady’s photographs. This was actually Lincoln’s chair when the latter was a representative from Illinois and was a gift to Brady. It was used for many famous sittings over the years.

–If you have ever cracked open a high school or university history textbook you have likely seen his photographs–especially those of Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, some of the gruesome post-battle Civil War scenes, and the hanging of the John Wilkes Booth co-conspirators (which included a woman, by the way).

–His biggest “missed” shot: The surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox Court House. He did, however, make images of the McLean House and the empty rooms after the fact. He just didn’t get word with enough notice to get to the site on time.

–One of his images of Lincoln was used on the five dollar bill.

–In later years, his eyesight began to fail him (along with his finances). The vision loss had to be maddening for a man who devoted his life to the visual arts.

–Brady, a man who always walked quickly about town, was hit by a runaway horse cart, suffered some severe injuries from which he never really recovered, and he died penniless in 1896 (when my own grandfather was five years old!). A sad fate for a man who contributed so much to the recording of the great persons and great events of his time.

Famous Brady (and crew) Photographs – A VERY Partial List

–All of the U.S. Presidents from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley (except William Henry Harrison, who died in office before Brady was a photographer).

–Some of his non-military subjects included: Jenny Lind (the Swedish Nightingale), P.T. Barnum, Madame Lydia Sigourney, Edgar Allan Poe (roughly a month before his obscure, drunken death), Clara Barton, James Fenimore Cooper, Walt Whitman, Samuel F.B. Morse, Lord Lyons, Mary Todd Lincoln, Chief Justice Taney, the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) and his entourage, among many, many others.

–He also photographed at least two delegations of Native Americans who came to the White House…Spotted Tail and Red Cloud, along with many other Sioux Chiefs, and a group of Ponca Chiefs.

–Field scenes: post-battle images at Fredericksburg, Antietam, Gettysburg, images of pontoon bridges, fortifications of both sides, telegraph stations, railroad depots, embalming posts, balloon observation sites, soldier camps, troops on the move, the victory parades in Washington, D.C., and so on. A couple of images were even made while the shooting was actually taking place.

–Confederate side (generally, before or after the war): Jefferson Davis, P.G.T. Beauregard, Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet, John Wilkes Booth, James Henry Hammond, and most famously, Robert E. Lee. (George S. Cook was probably the most notable of the photographers on the Confederate side, but lacked the means for an extensive photographic effort a la Brady.)

–Union side: (before, during and after the war): Philip Sheridan, Joseph Hooker, Kit Carson, George McClellan, William Sherman, George Meade, Nelson Miles, Philip Kearny, George Custer, Allan Pinkerton, U.S. Grant, and Abraham Lincoln.

–Images of Union prisoners of war, the inside of Ford’s Theater after the assassination (Sec of War Stanton tried to have all plates of these images destroyed), the hanging of the Lincoln conspirators (which included a woman, Mary Surratt).

NOTE: Nearly all of the links I have provided above (mainly Wiki) will include a Brady image somewhere in the entry.