Matthew brady civil war biography essay

Mathew Brady was the first to undertake the photographic documentation of the American Civil War. Brady was almost killed at Bull Run, VA. He got lost for three days and eventually wound up in Washington D. Film maker Ken Burns who is famous for his television series "The Civil War"said his Civil War series could not have been made if it were not for Mathew Brady's photographs.

On April 15,President Abraham Lincoln called up 75, militiamen to put down an insurrection of southern states. Mathew B. Brady secured permission from Lincoln to follow the troops in what was expected to be a short and glorious war; he saw only the first engagement, however, and lost his wagons and equipment in the tumult of defeat. Deciding to forgo further action himself, Brady instead financed a corps of field photographers who, together with those employed by the Union military command and by Alexander Gardner, made the first extended photographic coverage of a war.

The terrible contest proceeded erratically; just as the soldiers learned to fight this war in the field, so the photographers improvised their reports. After the war, Brady continued to operate a Washington gallery into the early s. Inhe gained some relief from his chronic money troubles when the U. These images are preserved today at the National Archives.

He recovered well enough to move to New York and begin preparing an illustrated lecture of his Civil War photos for a presentation at Carnegie Hall. It was scheduled for January 30,but he was hospitalized and died on January He is buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington. You can opt out at any time. Through his many paid assistants, Brady took thousands of photos of Civil War scenes.

Matthew brady civil war biography essay: Mathew Brady is arguably one of

Much of the popular understanding of the war comes from these photos. Grantand 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.

Matthew brady civil war biography essay: Mathew Brady arrived in New

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

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 inBrady died penniless in the charity ward of Presbyterian Hospital in New York City on January 15,from complications from a street-car accident.

The exception was the ninth president, William Henry Harrisonwho died in office three years before Brady started his photographic collection. Brady photographed Abraham Lincoln on many occasions. One of his Lincoln photos was used by the National Bank Note Company as a model for the engraving on the cent Lincoln Postage issue of 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 senior Union officers in the war, including:. Brady is credited with being the father of photojournalism. 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.

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 midth century typically had a weighty cast iron base 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. While Brady stand is a convenient term for these trade-specific articles of studio equipment, there is no proven connection between Brady himself and the Brady stand's invention c. The original namesake Brady was W. Tate Bradya prominent businessman in Tulsa's early history, who had connections to the Ku Klux Klan and other racist organizations.

Following considerable controversy, the City Council of Tulsa voted on August 15,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.

Matthew brady civil war biography essay: Photographs show camp life, routines,

Brady and his studio produced over 7, pictures mostly two negatives of each. One set, "after undergoing extraordinary vicissitudes," came into U. His own negatives passed in the s to E. They "were kicked about from pillar to post" for 10 years, until John C. Taylor found them in an attic and bought them; from this they became "the backbone of the Ordway—Rand collection; and in 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 by Edward Bailey Eaton ," who set in motion "events that led to their importance as the nucleus of a collection of Civil War photos published in as The Photographic History of the Civil War. Some of the lost images are mentioned in the last episode of Ken Burns ' documentary series The 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 in greenhouses and cold frames. In the years that followed the end of the war, the sun slowly burned away their filmy images and they were lost. The idea that many of the Civil war negatives perished by being used in greenhouses is probably a myth.

Zeller's book The Civil War in Depth reproduces many of these images the way they are supposed to be seen, instead of just half shown in 2-D.

Matthew brady civil war biography essay: 19th-century American photographer who was celebrated

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 of The 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. On September 19,two days after the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of combat on U.

Contents move to sidebar hide.