This photograph is from a series that consists of several thousand glass plates
(and modern derivative copies including prints, duplicate negatives, interpositives,
and microfilm) produced by the photographer Mathew Brady and his associates.
Brady (1823–1896) was one of the earliest practitioners of daguerreotype
in the United States and soon became a prolific portrait photographer. In his
New York and Washington, DC, studios, he and his assistants photographed many
of the luminaries of the 1850s and 1860s.
With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Brady endeavored to record the
progress of the war with his camera. Although Brady himself actually may have
taken only a few photographs of the war, he employed many other well-known photographers.
He and his associates, notably Alexander Gardner, George Barnard, and Timothy
O'Sullivan, traveled throughout the eastern part of the country and photographed
many of the battlefields, towns, and people touched by the war. In addition,
Brady photographed distinguished political and military personalities who found
time to stop by his Washington, DC, studio. The result was a collection of some
12,000 images (possibly more), which constitute a rich visual document of the
Civil War period.
After the Civil War, business for Brady's studios gradually declined. In July
1874, when Brady declared bankruptcy, Secretary of War William Belknap purchased
part of Brady's collection of negatives (approximately 2,250 plates) at public
auction for $2,500. In April 1875, the War Department purchased 3,735 plates
directly from Brady under express congressional authorization to "acquire
a full and perfect title to secure and purchase the remainder now in possession
of the artists [for] $25,000." The Library of Congress and other institutions
later acquired significant collections of Brady photographs. Other collections
of Brady photographs are in the Frederick Hill Meserve Collection and the New
York Public Library's collection. Among the more than 6,000 images in the National
Archives are portraits of all of the well-known Union and Confederate commanders
of the war, President Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet officers, congressmen
and senators, and other noted personalities of the time. In addition, Brady
and his cameramen focused on the lives of ordinary soldiers, recording daily
life in camp, troops on the move, and life in forward positions. Also of interest
in this series are views of Union and Confederate naval vessels, railroads,
supply dumps, and hospitals. All photographs contain captions and are available
online in the National Archives Archival Research Catalog (ARC) database (http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/).
Teaching Suggestion:
Provide students with a copy of the photograph, and lead a class discussion
about it using questions from the photograph analysis worksheet. Tell students
that the house in the photograph was where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses
S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War (see Our Documents #39, Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of
Northern Virginia, 1865). Give students a list of all 100
Our Documents, and ask them to identify the significant places associated
with each document. Lead a class discussion about the significance of place
in history.
