Matthew Brady - Definition and Overview

Mathew B. Brady (ca. 1823 – January 15, 1896) was a famous photographer of the American Civil War.

Mathew Brady

Brady was born in Warren County, New York as the son of 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 images were daguerreotypes.

His 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."

He employed Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, William Pywell, George Barnard, and eighteen other men, each of whom were given a travelling darkroom, to go out and photograph scenes from the Civil 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.

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

He photographed many generals in the war such as, Nathaniel Banks, Don Carlos Buell, Ambrose Burnside, Benjamin Butler, George Custer, David Farragut, John Gibbon, Winfield Hancock, Samuel Heintzelman, Joseph Hooker, Oliver Howard, David Hunter, John 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 Sumner, George Thomas, Emory Upton, James Wadsworth and Lew Wallace. Brady also photographed Abraham Lincoln on many occasions.

After the war he became an alcoholic and died penniless and unappreciated in New York City on January 15, 1896.

See also: Photography and photographers of the American Civil War

External links

• Mathew Brady in the Civil War (http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/About%20Mathew%20Brady.htm)
• Civil War Photographs by Mathew Brady and his collaborators (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html), Library of Congress
• Mathew Brady - Biographical Note (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/cwphtml/cwpbiog.html), Library of Congress