Nicole Worth

The Value of a Photograph: Photography’s Influence in the Civil War Era

TRANSCRIPT
Fred R Barnum’s phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words” is one that is well known
to many.1 However, just how much is a picture worth? In terms of its impact on its viewers, that
worth may be quite a lot.
The American Civil War was “the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on American
soil”. 2 The conflict involved 2.4 million Americans between the Union and the Confederacy and
left the South in economic ruin. The effects of the Civil War have extended far beyond its
conclusion and continues to impact modern society today. One of the reasons that this war has
continued to have such a profound impact is its extensive documentation, aided by a relatively
new invention for the time: photography. The Civil War was one of the first conflicts across the
globe to have photographic documentation; these photographs show the people involved, the
campsites and landscapes altered by it, but most importantly for many of the time, they show the
aftermath of battle. It is these depictions that influenced the way not just the Civil War, but
conflict, in general, was viewed. (This image is of General McClellan and the Generals of the
different Divisions, taken by Matthew Brady in 1861, at the start of the conflict. )
Prior to the Civil War, photography was already making waves in the United States.
Photographer Mathew Brady was already well-known for his portraits using the daguerreotype
method of photography; it became well-known amongst well-to-do members of society to “have
your Brady done”, or have your portrait taken by him.3 Brady’s galleries were famous for
featuring photographs of many important people like American artist Thomas Cole, pictured to
the right. To quote the Illustrated News of New York, Brady’s New York gallery was “well
worth a visit from all who desire to witness American and European celebrities.” 4 Just before
the Civil War, a new kind of photograph was becoming popular that Brady, Alexander Gardner
(Brady’s business partner) and their associates would make huge profits off of: the carte de
visite. These were small photographs that could easily be mass produced in batches of four that

1"Picture Is worth a Thousand Words, One." Dictionary.com. 2019. Accessed April 18, 2019.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words--one.
2 Editors, History.com. "Civil War." History.com. October 15, 2009. Accessed April 18, 2019.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history.
3 Cornell, Kari. Mathew Brady Records the Civil War. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Publishing, 2017.
Accessed April 18, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central.
4 Cornell, Mathew Brady Records the Civil War, 32-35
Nicole Worth

people gave as calling cards.5 Brady produced many carte de visites of Union officers, among
other famous people of the time. These photos were hugely important to the progression of
photography because for the first time photographs became affordable for more than just the
wealthy; the everyday person could sit for a session. (Carte de visite of Sergent Boston Corbett,
16th N.Y. Cav. taken by Brady in 1865)
Quite possibly the image that had the biggest impact in the early stages of the Civil War
is the portrait photograph taken by Brady of election candidate Abraham Lincoln. This is the first
image of Lincoln credited with displaying him as a man of learning and sophistication instead of
a country bumpkin. 6 Lincoln himself would later say that this photograph (in conjunction with a
speech he gave around the same time) was what won him the election. (The famous image of
candidate Lincoln taken by Brady in 1860. The image was widely distributed in a variety of
magazines during the time.)
(Letter from Brady to President Lincoln asking for another sitting - Brady would later produce
the image of Lincoln chosen to be on the American $5)
Throughout the Civil War, Lincoln would continue to be influenced by photography.
Eleanor Harvey, a senior curator for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is quoted in her
book The Civil War and American Art as saying that “it is plausible that Gardner’s images [of
the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg] inspired the passage in the Gettysburg Address when
Lincoln mediates on the sacrifices made by those soldiers who lay dead”.7 (Image of Abraham
Lincoln taken by Gardner only days prior to the Gettysburg Address)
During the initial outbreak of the Civil War, Brady and Gardner began considering other
ways that they might make profits off of the conflict. They received permission from Union
Major Irvin McDowell to photograph the conflicts the Union army was involved in, as long as
they covered their own costs.8 The first conflict that Brady traveled to was that of Bull Run but
had no success in obtaining any photographs. Brady and his team were ill-prepared to complete
the complicated and delicate process of photography while out in the midst of battle. 9 After Bull

5 Picture Perfect: The Pomp and Vision of Matthew Brady. 1997.

6 Picture Perfect: The Pomp and Vision of Matthew Brady. 1997.
7 Unknown. "BRADY'S PHOTOGRAPHS.; Pictures of the Dead at Antietam." The New York
Times Archives, October 20, 1862. Accessed April 18, 2019.
8 Unknown. "BRADY'S PHOTOGRAPHS.; Pictures of the Dead at Antietam."
9 The Photographers' War: The North. 2006. Accessed April 18, 2019.
https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=238336&xtid=43204.
Nicole Worth

Run, Brady would choose to remain at his main studio in Washington D.C. and collect the
various successful photographs that were captured.10 Gardner and other photographers including
Timothy H. O’Sullivan, James F Gibson, and George Barnard would continue to follow the
Union army. Gardner, Gibson, and Sullivan would accompany Union General George B
McClellan’s forces, while Barnard would end up following and documenting General William
Tecumseh Sherman’s efforts in the Western Theater.11
(Image of Brady taken the day after the Battle of Bull Run, in the same hat and jacket
(photographer unknown, but most likely someone from his team))
Photographers in the Civil War had many challenges to face. The work was dangerous,
the process of creating the chemicals to take the photographs with was painstaking, and an entire
image could be corrupted by the slightest wrong movement. Many of the images produced were
of the camps and the soldiers within them, as the actual battle would not have stood still for a
photograph to be produced. (Image of camp photographers and reporters between battles
(photographer unknown)) Some of the most important images produced by Brady and his team at
the time, however, were the images taken by Gardner in the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam.
Brady showcased these images in a collection known as The Dead of Antietam. These images
were the “first reveal of the dark side of war”, and had a pronounced impact on those at home.12
In a New York Times article published October 20th, 1862, the reporter can be quoted as saying
“Mr. BRADY has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war.
If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets, he has done
something very like it.”.13 (Part of the New York Times article describing the gallery and its
impact on its viewers.) This is the first time that war was not portrayed as a noble and honorable
cause, but the stark reality of the loss of life. Viewers were shocked at the carnage, yet the
pictures captured their attention with a “terrible fascination”.14 Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., a
man who viewed the carnage at Antietam while desperately searching for his son, said this about
the accuracy of the images displayed by Brady: “Let him who wishes to know what war is look

10 Picture Perfect: The Pomp and Vision of Matthew Brady. 1997.

11 Cornell, Mathew Brady Records the Civil War, 90-94
12 Picture Perfect: The Pomp and Vision of Matthew Brady. 1997.

13 Editors, History.com. "Civil War." History.com. October 15, 2009. Accessed April 18, 2019.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history.
14 Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Carte-de-visite." Encyclopædia Britannica. June 10, 2016. Accessed
April 18, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/technology/carte-de-visite.
Nicole Worth

at this series of illustrations. Those wrecks of manhood thrown together in careless heaps or
ranged in ghastly rows for burial were alive but yesterday. Many, having seen it and dreamed of
its horrors, would lock it up in some secret drawer, that it might not thrill or revolt those whose
soul sickens at such sights. It was so nearly like visiting the battlefield to look over these views,
that all the emotions excited by the actual sight of the stained and sordid scene, strewed with rags
and wrecks, came back to us, and we buried them in the recesses of our cabinet as we would
have buried the mutilated remains of the dead they too vividly represented.” 15 (This image is one
of the carnage of what has come to be known as Bloody Lane at the Battle of Antietam, taken by
Gardner and exhibited in Brady's collection)
There were many more photographs taken by Brady and his associates just like these, all
at different places across the battlefields. However, perhaps the biggest impacts their images had
came after the war. Brady’s biggest impact over the course of history since the conclusion of the
Civil War was not in his work as a photographer, but of his efforts as a photographic historian.16
Brady was one of the first to recognize how valuable the photographs would come to be in the
course of history, and to start to truly collect the works. This was no easy task, what with the
plates of the photos being delicate and numerous. Brady was also on his own for this venture;
through his business practices and general manner he had alienated many of his associates,
including Gardner, who would later go on to publish his own works separately. 17 Over the
course of the rest of his life, Brady would collect some 10,000 war negatives, at the expense of
his career and his bank account. At the time, Brady’s beliefs that the photos were valuable was
that of a minority, and no one wanted the photos after the war was concluded.18 The Library of
Congress and a few other archives did buy some images from him, and with the help of Secretary
of War William W. Belknap, the US Congress was convinced to buy the entire collection of
photographs for a sum of $25,000. This was nowhere near the cost it had taken to produce and
collect the images, but it did assist Brady in that he was able to pay his debts and find a home for

15 Shumard, Ann. "Antebellum Portraits by Mathew Brady." Facetoface(blog). Accessed April 25, 2019.
https://npg.si.edu/blog/antebellum-portraits-mathew-brady .
16 Catlin, Roger. "How One Mathew Brady Photograph May Have Helped Elect Abraham Lincoln."
SMITHSONIAN.COM, July 28, 2017. Accessed April 18, 2019.
17 Harvey, Eleanor Jones. The Civil War and American Art. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian
American Art Museum, 2012.
18 Harvey, Eleanor Jones. The Civil War and American Art. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian
American Art Museum, 2012.
Nicole Worth

his collection. 19 (One of the photographs within the Library of Congress’ Civil War Collection
taken by Brady) Gardner (as stated earlier) would go on to publish Gardner’s Photographic
Sketch Book of the War, in conjunction with “Incidents of the War”, a projection of images from
Gardner’s photographs. The sketch book was carefully constructed by Gardner so as to have the
maximum impact; 100 different images of different places in the war were accompanied by
descriptive texts written by Gardner himself. The New York Daily Tribune would go on to say
“The dead appear to almost speak; the distant to overcome space and time and be close and
palpable.” about the projections, while Eleanor Harvey goes on to say that Gardner’s album was
“a culminating statement about the role of Civil War photography in remembering the war,
appropriating the traditional role of the fine arts to comment on the human drama of the
conflict”. 20 (The original cover of Gardner's book (photo quality is due to age and photographic
quality of the time)) George Barnard’s work in Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign,
which documented General Sherman’s campaigns in the Western Theater of the war, was well-
received by viewers who found the 61 images within it built to create a narrative of both the
events during the war and the devastating aftermath. Harvey states that Barnard’s album
portrayed “the destruction of the South”, and that it was “calculated to shock complacent
Northerners into recognition of the actual devastation wrought to the landscape and major cities
across the South”. 21 Barnard’s album was also praised for the geniune quality of the images
contained within it. (One of the pages from Barnard's book, featuring the photograph "Battle
Field of New Hope Church", taken in Georgia)
Only now is the extent of the work done by Civil War photographers being recognized
for its importance. The efforts of Brady, Gardner, and their associates are the roots of what is
known today as photojournalism, a profession that continues their example of documenting
conflicts all around the globe. At the time the photographs were taken, it changed the way war
was viewed, and garnered support for the cause as well as the public sympathy, a powerful tool
in any conflict. In the many years since the conclusion of the Civil War, Brady’s collection of
photographs has allowed historians, journalists, and students to continually review the war, and

19 Harvey, Eleanor Jones. The Civil War and American Art. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian
American Art Museum, 2012.
20 Picture Perfect: The Pomp and Vision of Matthew Brady. 1997. Accessed April 18, 2019.
https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=238336&xtid=42574.
21 Harvey, Eleanor Jones. The Civil War and American Art. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian
American Art Museum, 2012.
Nicole Worth

for filmmakers and reenactors to accurately portray the camps and the soldiers involved.22 Most
importantly, the photographers’ work was the first instance of just how powerful a photograph’s
influence could be, the first to demonstrate the unending value a photograph has to different
people, and how the right photograph can change the perception of reality.
(Photograph was taken by Mathew Brady of the Grand Review of the Army in Washington D.C.)
(It is important to note that although many of the images displayed here are credited to Mathew
Brady, it is possible that the real photographers are any one of Brady’s associates, as credit was
simply given to Brady in many cases due to his owning the studio where they were produced.
Gardner would later go back and try to identify specific photographers within his and Brady's
work. )

EXPLANATION
The Civil War was one of the first conflicts to have been extensively photographed; there
are thousands of photographs of everything from camp set ups, landscapes, and most
importantly, the aftermath of the battles that were fought. In my project I explore the impact that
this collection of photographs had before, during, and after the war on its viewers. I draw on
primary sources from newspapers of the time, with articles about the impact the exhibitions of
photographs had on the article authors and the viewers at the galleries. One primary source that I
found even compares the photographs to the actual battlefields that he himself witnessed while
searching for his wounded son. My third primary source is that of the photographs featured
within my project, which even now-to someone who would not have possibly known the subjects
portrayed-evoke a sense of sadness and an understanding of how senseless war can be. I include
information from two different scholarly monographs, one with a focus on the photographic
efforts of Mathew Brady, a wartime photographer, before, during and after the conflict. The
other monograph is written by a senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, who
22 Harvey, Eleanor Jones. The Civil War and American Art. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian
American Art Museum, 2012.
Nicole Worth

focuses on how the Civil War impacted art, and includes information about the different
photographic efforts that went on during the conflict. Scholarly articles that are used in my
project are about specific methods of photography or particular photographs of influence, that
add tidbits of information about how photographs were taken and notable exact examples of the
impact of photography. Other sources of information that I use to develop and prove my
argument include documentaries produced by different history channels about the methods of
photography used on the battlefield and about the individual photographers’ lives.
The use of a wide variety of images taken by different photographers within my
StoryMap protrays the different in photographic method and in each photographer’s style. In
particular, many of Alexander Gardner’s photographs show the aftermath of battle, while George
Barnard photographed mostly landscapes. Brady’s photographs are mostly portraits, but there are
some of battlefields, although it is possible that these particular photographs were taken by
Brady’s associates as credit was not always given to the individual photographer of an image.
Together, the images I have displayed in my project shows the diversity of the collections of
images that we still have today documenting the Civil War. This diversity is important because
each picture affects the viewer a different way, and each photograph was taken to maximize that
impact.
Photography is something that is extremely commonplace in today’s society, but during
the Civil War Era it was a new and interesting art form. My project aims to show that the
photographic documentation of the conflict would change the way that war itself was viewed,
and how the images impacted viewers during the time period.