Civil War photograph collection, circa 1862-1865

Overview of the Collection

Title
Civil War photograph collection
Dates
circa 1862-1865 (inclusive)
Quantity
9 carte de visites (1 folder) ; 2.5x4
1 photographic print (1 folder) ; 5.5x7.5
Collection Number
PH1378
Summary
Carte-de-visite photographs of Civil War battlefield locations, also photograph of Libby Prison
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries’ Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials Curator required to view originals. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Languages
English

Historical BackgroundReturn to Top

Often considered synonymous with Civil War photography, Mathew Brady (circa 1823-1896) was quick to identify the business opportunity that existed in supplying the public with scenes from the frontlines of the Civil War. Brady secured permissions from the War Department to document the burgeoning conflict. While he may have taken a relatively small portion of the photographs himself, Brady did employ many of the photographers who went on to capture some of the Civil War’s most iconic imagery. Relying on the newly invented collodion wet-plate process, photographers like George N. Barnard and James F. Gibson traveled across the South gathering images of individuals, structures, fortifications, and daily life at war. A positive/negative photo process allowing multiple prints to be produced, the collodion wet-plate process requires an involved preparation of plates, relatively long exposure times (5 to 20 seconds), and immediate development to preserve images. Though the process was slow and complex, the images produced would become Brady’s bread and butter as he built his studio and distributed the prints across the country. By employing Barnard, Gibson, and other field photographers, and by purchasing work from private photographers, Brady sought to create a complete photographic collection of the Civil War. The costs of creating and preserving the glass plates exhausted Brady’s resources and he went into deep debt. Though he anticipated his collection selling for $100,000, Brady eventually sold the approximately 5,700 plates to the United States government for $25,000 in 1875. Brady died in 1896 penniless and with little recognition for his role in documenting a formative chapter of American history.

Before working with Mathew Brady, George N. Barnard (1821-1882) opened one of the first daguerreotype studios in the United States in 1846 New York. During the 1850s, Barnard began working with Brady and learned the new collodion wet-plate process. Part of Brady’s initial corps of photographers sent into the field in 1862, Barnard would be named the official photographer for the United States Army, Chief Engineer's Office, Division of the Mississippi by 1864. As the army surveyed landmarks and infrastructure in the South, Barnard’s photography captured the topography, roads and railways, and cities. Though his most famous work is considered the published album on Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s March to Sea campaign in Georgia, Barnard also did studio and field portraiture for troops. After the war, Barnard operated several portrait studios in Ohio, Illinois, and South Carolina and worked with George Eastman (founder of Eastman Kodak Company) in 1880s New York.

An employee and sometimes business partner of Brady, James F. Gibson first gained fame by documenting the carnage after the Battle of Antietam with fellow photographer Alexander Gardner. When Brady’s New York City gallery showed the series, titled The Dead at Antietam, it created a sensation as the first time photography of slain soldiers was ever seen by the public. Partnering with George Barnard, Gibson traveled across the South documenting camp life, the aftermath of battles (limitations in camera technology precluded photographing during battles), and making portraits for soldiers. Gibson would also photograph the casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, the most deadly battle in the war. Following the war, Gibson served as the manager of Brady's New York studio. In an attempt to control his growing debt, Brady even went so far as to sell Gibson a portion of the studio in 1867.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The carte-de-visite photographs were made during or at the end of the Civil War by photographers George N. Barnard, James F. Gibson, and Mathew Brady. Brady operated a gallery in New York and the three were business associates. The photographic print of the infamous Libby Prison was created during the same time frame by Emery R. Gard of Chicago, Illinois. The carte-de-visite photographs from Brady’s Album Gallery document civilian structures taken over by military personnel and earthwork fortifications and artillery during the Siege of Yorktown in the spring of 1862. Civilian structures include Farnhold’s house, Allen’s farmhouse (headquarters of Civil War General Fitz John Porter, and of Revolutionary War General Marquis de Lafayette), and the White House on the Pamunkey (family home of Confederate General William H.F. Lee, a descendant of Martha Washington). These homes were in strategic and convenient locations for the military forces that occupied them; for example, the White House on the Pamunkey was at the river crossing for the Richmond and York River Railroad, completed 1861.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Alternative Forms Available

View the digital version of the collection

Restrictions on Use

Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Processing Note

Processed by Elizabeth Wessells, 2016.

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

 

Container(s) Description Dates
Folder item
1 1 Union soldiers standing in front doorway and on roof of Farnhold's house, Yorktown, Virginia
Barnard & Gibson (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Brady's Album Gallery No. 360 Farnhold's House, with part of Federal Battery No. 1 on York River.Note: Battery fortifications and wagon visible in left background.
circa 1862
1 2 Overview of parrott rifles and earthwork fortifications near Farnhold's house, Yorktown, Virginia
Barnard & Gibson (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Brady's Album Gallery No. 364 View of Battery No. 1 at Farnhold's House, York River, mounting 5 100-pound, and 1 200-pound rifled guns.
circa 1862
1 3 Parrott rifles positioned along sandbag and gabion fortification near Farnhold's house, Yorktown, Virginia
Barnard & Gibson (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Brady's Album Gallery No. 365 South-west View of Battery No. 1 at Farnhold's House, York River, mounting 5 100-pound and 1 200-pound rifled guns.
circa 1862
1 4 White and black Union soldiers standing with escaped slaves, known as contraband, in front of Allen's farmhouse, Yorktown, Virginia
Barnard & Gibson (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Brady's Album Gallery No. 369 Headquarters of General Lafayette before the Battle of Yorktown.
circa 1862
1 5 Three Union soldiers standing with mortars positioned along hillside fortification during the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia
Barnard & Gibson (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Brady's Album Gallery No. 376 Battery No. 4 near Yorktown, mounting 10 13-inch mortars each weighing 20,000 pounds. South end.
circa 1862
1 6 Union soldiers standing by mortars positioned near timber and earthwork fortifications during Siege of Yorktown, Virginia
Barnard & Gibson (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Brady's Album Gallery No. 377 Battery No. 4 near Yorktown, mounting 10 13-inch mortars each weighing 20,000 pounds. East-South end.
circa 1862
1 7 Six mortars positioned along hillside fortification during the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia
Barnard & Gibson (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Brady's Album Gallery No. 379 Battery No. 4 near Yorktown, mounting 10 13-inch mortars each weighing 20,000 pounds. East-North end.
circa 1862
1 8 Flag flying from roof of the White House on the Pamunkey, New Kent County, Virginia
Barnard & Gibson (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Brady's Album Gallery No. 384 White House, formerly residence of Mrs. Custis Washington, now the residence of Colonel Lee. 17th May 1862.Note: This was the family home of Confederate General W.H.F. Lee, and later headquarters of Union General George B. McClellan at White House Landing, Virginia.
May 17, 1862
1 9 Full-length portrait of Union General William "Bull" Nelson
Mathew Brady (Photographer)
Note: General Nelson was shot and killed by another Union general, Jefferson C. Davis, I n September 1862.
circa 1860-1862
2 10 Soldiers standing in front of Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, while prisoners sit in barred windows
Emery R. Gard, Chicago (Photographer)
Caption on verso: Printed from a negative taken in Richmond, under the superintendence of Reverend Dr. William H. Ryder and S.D. Kimbark, Esquire, for the Arms and Trophy Department of the Great Northwestern Sanitary Fair.The photograph of Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, shows the former warehouse of the Libby grocery business in May 1865. The prison was operated by Confederate forces to hold Union soldiers, and is infamous for severe overcrowding and disease. When the Union forces took over Richmond in April 1865, Libby Prison was converted to hold Confederate prisoners. In 1889, the building was dismantled and shipped to Chicago to be reassembled as a war museum.
May 1865

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Artillery--Photographs
  • Barricades (Military science)--Photographs
  • Carte de visite photographs--Specimens
  • Civil War--United States--Photographs
  • Civil war--Photographs
  • Fortification--Virginia--Photographs
  • Fugitive slaves--Virginia--Photographs
  • Soldiers--Virginia--Photographs
  • War--United States--Photographs

Geographical Names

  • United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Photographs

Form or Genre Terms

  • Black-and-white prints (photographs)
  • Cartes-de-visite (card photographs)

Other Creators

  • Personal Names
    • Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, (photographer)
    • Brady, Mathew B., approximately 1823-1896, (photographer)
    • Gard, Emery R., (printmaker)
    • Gibson, James F., 1828- (photographer)

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)