Brady, Mathew

Revision as of 00:50, 7 November 2007

Mathew B. Brady, circa 1875

For other persons named Matthew Brady, see Matthew Brady (disambiguation).

Mathew B. Brady (ca. 1823 - January 15, 1896), was a celebrated American photographer whose rise to prominence occurred largely in the years preceding and during the American Civil War. He is most known for having photographed that war. Following the conflict, a war weary public lost interest in seeing photos of the war, and Brady’s popularity and practice declined drastically.

Life and Early Work

Brady was born in Warren County, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, Andrew and Julia Brady. He moved to New York City at the age of 17. By 1844, he had his own photography studio in New York, and by 1845, Brady began to exhibit his portraits of famous Americans. He opened a studio in Washington, D.C. in 1849, where he met Juliette Handy, whom he married in 1851.

Brady's early images were daguerreotypes, and he won many awards for his work. In the 1850s ambrotype photography became popular, which gave way to the albumen print, a paper photograph produced from large glass negatives most commonly used in the American Civil War photography. In 1859, Parisian photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri popularized the carte de visite and these small pictures (the size of a visiting card) rapidly became a popular novelty as thousands of these images were created and sold in the United States and Europe.

Photographing the American Civil War

The American Civil War was not the first to be photographed—that accolade is usually given to the Crimean War, which was photographed by Roger Fenton and others. Fenton spent three and a half months in the Crimea, March 8 to June 26, 1855, and produced 360 photographs under extremely difficult conditions. Fenton's work gives a documention of the participants and the landscape of the war, but Fenton's photographs contain no actual combat scenes and no scenes of the devastating effects of war.

Brady's efforts just over half a decade later to document the American Civil War earned Brady his place in history. He attempted to do this on a grand scale by bringing his photographic studio right onto the battlefields. Despite the obvious dangers, financial risk, and discouragement of his friends, he is later quoted as saying "I had to go. A spirit in my feet said 'Go,' and I went." Brady's photographs did show the horrors and devastation of war, and were probably the first to present war and its results in that full way. His first popular photographs of the conflict were at the First Battle of Bull Run, in which he got so close to the action that he only just avoided being captured.

Brady did little of the actual photographing of the war himself. He employed numerous photographers: Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, William Pywell, George N. Barnard, Thomas C. Roche and seventeen other men. Each of them was given a traveling darkroom, to go out and photograph scenes from the Civil War. Brady generally stayed in Washington, D.C., organizing his assistants and rarely visited battlefields personally. This may have been due, at least in part, to the fact that Brady's eyesight began to deteriorate in the 1850s.

Also in 1862, Brady presented an exhibition of photographs from the Battle of Antietam in his New York gallery entitled, "The Dead of Antietam." Many of the images in this presentation were graphic photographs of corpses, making the presentation totally new to America. This was the first time that most people had seen the realities of war firsthand (albeit in photographs) as distinct from previous "artists' impressions".

Mathew Brady as an old man. This photo was taken shortly before his death.

During the war Brady spent over $100,000 to create 10,000 prints. He expected the U.S. government to buy the photographs when the war ended, but when the government refused to do so he was forced to sell his New York City studio and go into bankruptcy. Congress granted Brady $25,000 in 1875, but he remained deeply in debt. Depressed by his financial situation, and devastated by the death of his wife in 1887, Brady became an alcoholic and died penniless in the charity ward of Presbyterian Hospital in New York City from complications following a streetcar accident. His funeral was financed by veterans of the 7th New York Infantry. He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Levin Corbin Handy, Brady's nephew by marriage, took over his uncle's photography business after his death.

People Brady Photographed

Brady photographed portraits of many senior Union officers in the war, such as Ulysses S. Grant, Nathaniel Banks, Don Carlos Buell, Ambrose Burnside, Benjamin Butler, Joshua Chamberlain, George Custer, David Farragut, John Gibbon, Winfield Hancock, Samuel P. Heintzelman, Joseph Hooker, Oliver Howard, David Hunter, John A. Logan, Irvin McDowell, George McClellan, James McPherson, George Meade, David Dixon Porter, William Rosecrans, John Schofield, William Sherman, Daniel Sickles, Henry Warner Slocum, George Stoneman, Edwin V. Sumner, George Thomas, Emory Upton, James Wadsworth, and Lew Wallace. On the Confederate side, Brady managed to photograph P.G.T. Beauregard, Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet, Lord Lyons, James Henry Hammond, and Robert E. Lee. (Lee's first session with Brady was in 1845 as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, his final after the war in Richmond, Virginia.) Brady also photographed Abraham Lincoln on many occasions.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Hobart, George, Mathew Brady, Masters of Photography, London: MacDonald, 1984, ISBN 0356105016
Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., and the editors of Time-Life Books, Mathew Brady and His World: Produced by Time-Life Books From Pictures in the Meserve Collection, Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books; Morristown, N.J.: School and Library Distribution by Silver Burdett Co., 1977.
Panzer, Mary, Mathew Brady and the Image of History, Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 1997. ISBN 1588341437
Sullivan, George, Mathew Brady: His Life and Photographs, New York: Cobblehill Books, 1994. ISBN 0525651861
Horan, James David, Picture Collation by Gertrude Horan, Mathew Brady, Historian With a Camera, New York: Bonanza Books, 1955.
Meredith, Roy, Mathew Brady's Portrait of an Era, New York: Norton, 1982. ISBN 0393013952

External links

Persondata
NAME	Brady, Mathew B.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION
DATE OF BIRTH	ca. 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH	Warren County, New York
DATE OF DEATH	1896-01-15 or 1972-71-73
PLACE OF DEATH	Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, New York

Warning: Default sort key "Brady, Mathew B." overrides earlier default sort key "Brady, Mathew".

cs:Mathew Brady de:Mathew Brady es:Mathew B. Brady fr:Mathew Brady it:Mathew B. Brady sv:Mathew Brady

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{epname|Brady, Mathew}} {{claimed}}
-{{dablink|For people named "Matthew Brady", see [[Matthew Brady (disambiguation)]].}}
+[[Image:Mathew Brady 1875 cropped.jpg|225px|thumb|right|Mathew B. Brady, circa 1875]]
+{{otherpersons|Matthew Brady}}
-[[Image:Mathew Brady 1875 cropped.jpg|225px|thumb|right|Mathew Brady, circa 1875]]
+'''Mathew B. Brady''' (ca. [[1823]] - [[January 15]], [[1896]]), was a celebrated American [[photographer]] whose rise to prominence occurred largely in the years preceding and during the [[American Civil War]]. He is most known for having photographed that war. Following the conflict, a war weary public lost interest in seeing photos of the war, and Brady’s popularity and practice declined drastically.
-'''Mathew B. Brady''' (ca. [[1823]] &ndash; [[January 15]], [[1896]]) was a famous [[photographer]] of the [[American Civil War]].
+==Life and Early Work==
+Brady was born in [[Warren County, New York]], to [[Irish people|Irish]] immigrant parents, Andrew and Julia Brady. He moved to [[New York City]] at the age of 17. By 1844, he had his own photography studio in New York, and by 1845, Brady began to exhibit his portraits of famous Americans. He opened a studio in [[Washington, D.C.]] in 1849, where he met [[Juliette Handy]], whom he married in 1851.
-Brady was born in [[Warren County, New York]], as the son of [[Irish people|Irish]] immigrants. He moved to [[New York City]] at the age of 17. By [[1844]], he had his own photography studio in New York, and by [[1845]], Brady began to exhibit his portraits of famous Americans. Brady's early images were [[daguerreotype]]s, and he won many awards for his work; in the 1850's [[ambrotype]] photography became popular, which gave way to the [[albumen print]], a paper photograph produced from large glass negatives most commonly used in the American Civil War photography. In [[1859]], [[Paris]] photographer [[André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri]] introduced ''[[carte de visite | cartes de visite]]'' and these small pictures (the size of a visiting card) rapidly became a popular novelty with millions of these images sold in the United States.
+Brady's early images were [[daguerreotype]]s, and he won many awards for his work. In the 1850s [[ambrotype]] photography became popular, which gave way to the [[albumen print]], a paper photograph produced from large glass negatives most commonly used in the American Civil War photography. In 1859, [[Paris|Parisian]] photographer [[André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri]] popularized the ''[[carte de visite|carte de visite]]'' and these small pictures (the size of a visiting card) rapidly became a popular novelty as thousands of these images were created and sold in the United States and Europe.
-Brady's efforts to document the Civil War on a grand scale by bringing his photographic studio right onto the battlefields earned Brady his place in history. Despite the obvious dangers, financial risk, and discouragement of his friends he is 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 the [[First Battle of Bull Run]], in which he got close enough to the action that he was almost captured.
+==Photographing the American Civil War==
-He employed [[Alexander Gardner (photographer)|Alexander Gardner]], [[James Gardner]], [[Timothy O'Sullivan]], [[William Pywell]], [[George Barnard]], and eighteen other men, each of whom were given a traveling [[darkroom]], to go out and photograph scenes from the Civil War. Brady generally stayed in [[Washington, D.C.]], organizing his assistants and rarely visited battlefields personally. A notable exception was the [[Second Battle of Bull Run]] in [[1862]], where his photos of retreating [[Union army | Union]] soldiers created a sensation.
+The American Civil War was not the first to be photographed—that accolade is usually given to the Crimean War, which was photographed by Roger Fenton and others. Fenton spent three and a half months in the Crimea, March 8 to June 26, 1855, and produced 360 photographs under extremely difficult conditions. Fenton's work gives a documention of the participants and the landscape of the war, but Fenton's photographs contain no actual combat scenes and no scenes of the devastating effects of war.
-In [[1862]], Brady presented an exhibition of photographs from the [[Battle of Antietam]] in his New York gallery entitled, "The Dead of Antietam." Many of the images in this presentation were graphic photographs of corpses, making the presentation totally new to America.  No one had seen anything like this before.
+Brady's efforts just over half a decade later to document the American Civil War earned Brady his place in history. He attempted to do this on a grand scale by bringing his photographic studio right onto the battlefields. Despite the obvious dangers, financial risk, and discouragement of his friends, he is later quoted as saying "I had to go. A spirit in my feet said 'Go,' and I went." Brady's photographs did show the horrors and devastation of war, and were probably the first to present war and its results in that full way. His first popular photographs of the conflict were at the [[First Battle of Bull Run]], in which he got so close to the action that he only just avoided being captured.
-[[Image:Matthew-brady.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Mathew Brady as an old man, photo taken shortly before his death.]]
+Brady did little of the actual photographing of the war himself. He employed numerous photographers: [[Alexander Gardner (photographer)|Alexander Gardner]], [[James Gardner]], [[Timothy H. O'Sullivan]], [[William Pywell]], [[George N. Barnard]], [[Thomas C. Roche]] and seventeen other men. Each of them was given a traveling [[darkroom]], to go out and photograph scenes from the Civil War. Brady generally stayed in [[Washington, D.C.]], organizing his assistants and rarely visited battlefields personally. This may have been due, at least in part, to the fact that Brady's eyesight began to deteriorate in the 1850s.
-Brady photographed portraits of many senior [[Union (American Civil War) | Union]] officers in the war, such as [[Ulysses S. Grant]], [[Nathaniel Banks]], [[Don Carlos Buell]], [[Ambrose Burnside]], [[Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]], [[George Custer]], [[David Farragut]], [[John Gibbon]], [[Winfield Hancock]], [[Samuel P. Heintzelman]], [[Joseph Hooker]], [[Oliver Howard]], [[David Hunter]], [[John Logan]], [[Irvin McDowell]], [[George McClellan]], [[James B. McPherson|James McPherson]], [[George Meade]], [[David Dixon Porter]], [[William Rosecrans]], [[John Schofield]], [[William Sherman]], [[Daniel Sickles]], [[Henry Warner Slocum]], [[George Stoneman]], [[Edwin V. Sumner]], [[George Henry Thomas|George Thomas]], [[Emory Upton]], [[James S. Wadsworth|James Wadsworth]], and [[Lew Wallace]]. On the [[Confederate]] side, Brady managed to photograph [[P.G.T. Beauregard]], [[Stonewall Jackson]], [[Lord Lyons]], [[James Henry Hammond]], and [[Robert E. Lee]]. (Lee's first session with Brady was in [[1845]] as a lieutenant colonel in the [[U.S. Army]], his final after the war in [[Richmond, Virginia]].) Brady also photographed [[Abraham Lincoln]] on many occasions.
+Also in 1862, Brady presented an exhibition of photographs from the [[Battle of Antietam]] in his New York gallery entitled, "The Dead of Antietam." Many of the images in this presentation were graphic photographs of corpses, making the presentation totally new to America. This was the first time that most people had seen the realities of war firsthand (albeit in photographs) as distinct from previous "artists' impressions".
-During the war Brady spent over $100,000 to create 10,000 prints. He expected the U.S. government to buy the photographs when the war ended, but when the government refused to do so he was forced to sell his New York City studio and go into bankruptcy. Congress granted Brady $25,000 in [[1875]], but he remained deeply in debt. Depressed by his financial situation, Brady became an alcoholic and died penniless in the charity ward of Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, from complications following a streetcar accident. His funeral was financed by veterans of the 7th New York Infantry and he is buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington.
+[[Image:Matthew-brady.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Mathew Brady as an old man. This photo was taken shortly before his death.]]
+During the war Brady spent over $100,000 to create 10,000 prints. He expected the U.S. government to buy the photographs when the war ended, but when the government refused to do so he was forced to sell his New York City studio and go into bankruptcy. Congress granted Brady $25,000 in 1875, but he remained deeply in debt. Depressed by his financial situation, and devastated by the death of his wife in 1887, Brady became an alcoholic and died penniless in the charity ward of Presbyterian Hospital in New York City from complications following a streetcar accident. His funeral was financed by veterans of the 7th New York Infantry. He is buried in the [[Congressional Cemetery]] in Washington, D.C.
+[[Levin Corbin Handy]], Brady's nephew by marriage, took over his uncle's photography business after his death.
+==People Brady Photographed==
+Brady photographed portraits of many senior [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] officers in the war, such as [[Ulysses S. Grant]], [[Nathaniel Banks]], [[Don Carlos Buell]], [[Ambrose Burnside]], [[Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]], [[Joshua Chamberlain]], [[George Custer]], [[David Farragut]], [[John Gibbon]], [[Winfield Hancock]], [[Samuel P. Heintzelman]], [[Joseph Hooker]], [[Oliver Howard]], [[David Hunter]], [[John A. Logan]], [[Irvin McDowell]], [[George B. McClellan|George McClellan]], [[James B. McPherson|James McPherson]], [[George Meade]], [[David Dixon Porter]], [[William Rosecrans]], [[John Schofield]], [[William Sherman]], [[Daniel Sickles]], [[Henry Warner Slocum]], [[George Stoneman]], [[Edwin V. Sumner]], [[George Henry Thomas|George Thomas]], [[Emory Upton]], [[James S. Wadsworth|James Wadsworth]], and [[Lew Wallace]]. On the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] side, Brady managed to photograph [[P.G.T. Beauregard]], [[Stonewall Jackson]], [[James Longstreet]], [[Lord Lyons]], [[James Henry Hammond]], and [[Robert E. Lee]]. (Lee's first session with Brady was in 1845 as a lieutenant colonel in the [[U.S. Army]], his final after the war in [[Richmond, Virginia]].) Brady also photographed [[Abraham Lincoln]] on many occasions.
 ==See also==
 *[[Photography and photographers of the American Civil War]]
+==References==
+*Hobart, George, ''Mathew Brady'', Masters of Photography, London: MacDonald, 1984, ISBN 0356105016
+*Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., and the editors of Time-Life Books, ''Mathew Brady and His World: Produced by Time-Life Books From Pictures in the Meserve Collection'', Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books; Morristown, N.J.: School and Library Distribution by Silver Burdett Co., 1977.
+*Panzer, Mary, ''Mathew Brady and the Image of History'', Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 1997. ISBN 1588341437
+*Sullivan, George, ''Mathew Brady: His Life and Photographs'', New York: Cobblehill Books, 1994. ISBN 0525651861
+*Horan, James David, Picture Collation by Gertrude Horan, ''Mathew Brady, Historian With a Camera'', New York: Bonanza Books, 1955.
+*Meredith, Roy, ''Mathew Brady's Portrait of an Era'', New York: Norton, 1982. ISBN 0393013952
 ==External links==
 {{commonscat|Mathew Brady}}
+*http://www.mathewbrady.com
 *[http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/About%20Mathew%20Brady.htm Mathew Brady in the Civil War]
+*[http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war-index-001.htm Complete collection of Mathew Brady's Civil War photographs]
 *[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html Civil War Photographs by Mathew Brady and his collaborators], [[Library of Congress]]
 *[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/cwphtml/cwpbiog.html Mathew Brady - Biographical Note, Library of Congress]
 *[http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/brady/ Mathew Brady's Portraits] at the [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|National Portrait Gallery]], [[Smithsonian Institution]]
+* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=128 Find-A-Grave profile for Matthew Brady]
-[[Category:1823 births|Brady, Mathew]]
+__NOTOC__
-[[Category:1896 deaths|Brady, Mathew]]
-[[Category:War photographers|Brady, Mathew]]
-[[Category:American photographers|Brady, Mathew]]
+<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] —>
+{{Persondata
+|NAME=Brady, Mathew B.
+|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
+|SHORT DESCRIPTION=
+|DATE OF BIRTH=ca. [[1823]]
+|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Warren County, New York|Warren County]], [[New York]]
+|DATE OF DEATH=[[1896-01-15]] or [[1972-71-73]]
+|PLACE OF DEATH=[[NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital|Presbyterian Hospital]], [[New York City]], [[New York]]
+}}
+{{DEFAULTSORT:Brady, Mathew B.}}
+[[Category:1823 births]]
+[[Category:1896 deaths]]
+[[Category:War photographers]]
+[[Category:American photographers]]
+[[Category:Portrait photographers]]
+[[Category:Pioneers of photography]]
+[[Category:People from New York City]]
+[[Category:People from Warren County, New York]]
+[[Category:Irish-Americans]]
+[[Category:People of Washington, D.C. in the American Civil War]]
+[[Category:American photojournalists]]
+[[Category:Burials at the Congressional Cemetery]]
+[[cs:Mathew Brady]]
 [[de:Mathew Brady]]
+[[es:Mathew B. Brady]]
 [[fr:Mathew Brady]]
+[[it:Mathew B. Brady]]
 [[sv:Mathew Brady]]
-[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
-[[Category:Biography]]
-{{credit|43145873}}