About This Collection

In 1954 the Library of Congress purchased from Alice H. Cox and Mary H. Evans, the daughters of Levin C. Handy approximately 10,000 original, duplicate, and copy negatives. The L.C. Handy Studio had been located at 494 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC. Levin C. Handy (1855?-1932) was apprenticed at the age of twelve to his uncle, famed Civil War photographer Mathew B. Brady (1823?-1896). Handy became an independent photographer and over the years owned studios in partnership with Samuel Chester and with Chester and Brady. The Maryland Avenue studio was the most permanent and was the place where Levin Handy resided at his death in 1932. In the 1890s Brady himself had worked and lived at the Maryland Avenue address.

E. and H.T. Anthony acquired Brady's Civil War negatives as payment for his debt to that photographic supply company. These negatives, distinguished by the prefix LC-B8, were purchased by the Library in 1943 and are known as the Civil War Photographs; those materials are available separately in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.

The remaining negatives in the Brady-Handy studio that came to the Library through the 1954 purchase are known as the Brady-Handy Collection and are distinguished by the prefix LC-BH8. The majority of the Brady-Handy negatives are of Civil War and post-Civil War portraits, with a small collection of Washington views. The online collection shown here includes primarily original glass plate negatives. Many duplicate and copy negatives were not scanned. Three series with the LC-BH8 prefix are not shown here, but are included in the Civil War Photographs because of their close connection to the Civil War negatives.

Information about obtaining copies is available through the "How to Order" link near the top of each catalog record.