Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "Mr. Lincoln's Cameraman" Story

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The "Mr. Lincoln's Cameraman" Story

Mathew Brady (ca. 1822 - Jan. 15, 1896)

It was an ordinary day. Visiting in Maryland with my daughter and her family and just got back from the supermarket. Most mornings when we visit I make a trip to the supermarket to buy donuts and muffins for breakfast. Oh yeah, I also pick up one of my favorite newspapers, the Washington Post. Today's edition had a special insert included which was listed as a special Veterans Day Issue. The cover of the insert, black with reverse printing, stated: 'I regarded myself as under obligation to my country to preserve the faces of its historic men and mothers" - Mathew Brady. The small photo with "The Civil War" under it gave me the clue that I was going to thoroughly enjoy it.

Brady photo of Union General Potter and staff before
the battle of Wilderness, VA in May, 1864.

For many years, while teaching high school juniors and seniors photo- graphy, I spent a portion of the school year on photo- graphic history. Photography during the Civil War was one of my favorite topics to teach and Mathew Brady as well as Alexander Gardner were two of my favorite Civil War photographers. Brady was best known for his photographs of the Civil War as well as photographing American Presidents.

Brady photo taken Feb. 27, 1860 hours
after Cooper Union Speech. This photo
led to his being nominated by the GOP.

He is credited with being the father of photojournalism. He captured images of 18 of the 19 American Presidents from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley with the exception of William Henry Harrison who died in office three years before Brady started his Photographic Collection. The photos taken by Brady and Gardner, along with Timothy O'Sullivan, William Pywell, Thomas C. Roche and George Barnard, have become the most important visual documentation of the Civil War. It was their photographs that influenced and laid the foundation for future battlefield photographers to follow. These photos of war helped us understand war; it's policies, conflicts, reality and tragedy. Brady photographed Abraham Lincoln many times and it is his image of Lincoln that is still used on the $5 bill and Lincoln penny.

The gatehouse of Evergreen Cemetery along Cemetery
Ridge in Gettysburg, 1863.

Lincoln's favorite photographer was Mathew Brady and it was said that one of Brady's photos of Lincoln changed the course of the nation. Lincoln claimed that the photo gave him the GOP nomination since it dispelled the notion that his looks were hideous and made him unelectable. During the Civil War Brady spent over $100,000 to create approximately 10,000 glass plates (same as film negatives).

Photo by Mathew Brady.

He expected the US Government to buy the photographs when the war ended, but that didn't happen. He went into bankruptcy, became despondent due to the loss of his eyesight and loss of his wife and died penniless in the charity ward of a New York hospital following a streetcar accident.

Insets of Alexander Gardner on this photo
showing a "traveling darkroom."

Brady employed Gardner as well as 21 others and each was given a "traveling darkroom" to go out and photograph scenes from the Civil War. Brady pretty much stayed in Washington, DC, organizing his employees and rarely visited the battlefields. Probably due to his deteriorating eyesight. The images taken by his assistants gave the public an actual view of history in the making. Eventually after the conflict, the war-weary public tended to lose interest and that lead to Brady's decline. Alexander Gardner, my other favorite Civil War photographer, arrived on the bloody Antietam battlefield in 1862 in his traveling darkroom which usually was a horse drawn covered wagon known as a "what is it" wagon.

Gardner's phto of Lincoln visiting
Gen.McClellan after he hesitated
to attack Lee at Antietam.

He made many attempts to document a battlefield before the dead had been cleared away. He traveled from field to field taking photos with his heavy equipment, eventually doing so in the newest technique of the time, Stereographic or 3-D. His two lenses captured two photos simultaneously, which provided a three-dimensional image when seen through a viewer. Now the country would see the horror of war in 3-D. The photos sent back to Brady's studio sometimes ended up in shows with Brady's name on them. Eventually Gardner ended his working relationship with Brady because of his practice of attributing his employees' work as "Photographed by Brady." I have added a few photos to give you a feel for war photography as it was during the Civil War from 1861-1865. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.