Mathew Brady: Biographical Note
Early Career Mathew Brady arrived in New York City at the age of sixteen. He worked as a department store clerk, and started his own small business manufacturing jewelry cases. He also learned the new daguerreotype process, the first practical method of making photographic portraits. By 1844, he had his own daguerreotype studio on New York's Broadway (see the Background and Scope section of...
Taking Photographs During the Civil War
Wagons and camera of Sam A. Cooley, U.S. photographer, Department of the South LC-DIG-cwpb-03518 During the Civil War, the process of taking photographs was complex and time-consuming.
Solving a Civil War Photograph Mystery
General Grant at City Point Is this photo fact or fiction? The title information on the bottom left corner of the print says "General Grant at City Point," so the image claims to show General Ulysses S. Grant on horseback, in front of his troops at City Point, Virginia, during the American Civil War. But, once you look closely at the content of the...
Stereographs
Stereographs flourished from the early 1850s through the 1930s. During the Civil War, photographers produced thousands of stereo views ranging from camp scenes to dead soldiers on the battlefield.
1961 Microfilm Edition Booklet
Editor's Note: Among the online Civil War Photographs are 1,047 that were originally published as a microfilm in 1961. The microfilm and an accompanying index were the work of two Library of Congress staff members: Hirst D. Milhollen of the Prints and Photographs Division and Donald H. Mugridge of the (then) General Reference and Bibliography Division.
Time Line of the Civil War
1861. January 1861 The South Secedes When Abraham Lincoln, a known opponent of slavery, was elected president, the South Carolina legislature perceived a threat. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the union known as the United States of America. The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,...
Does the Camera Ever Lie?
Detail from Quarters of photographers attached to Engineer Corps in front of Petersburg. Petersburg, Va. March 1865. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction number: LC-B8184-7347 Photographers often want to communicate a thought or emotion with their work. Although the camera lens views the world impartially, the photographer constantly judges, deciding what to photograph and how to photograph it -- focusing on creating...
