Collage of historical images and cartoons of the American Civil War

Visual Culture of the American Civil WarA Special Feature of Picturing US History

Brady's Studio at 785 Broadway, New York City

This image shows a street-level view of the New York branch of the photography company most readily associated with the American Civil War, Mathew Brady's Studio. Having established his studio as the place politicians, entertainers, artists, and other prominent Americans must patronize to have their portraits taken&mdash;and then prominently displayed in his ground-floor Broadway gallery&mdash;once the war began Brady employed a corps of photographers to cover the conflict. Brady's published series of war images in the form of album cards, mounted prints, and stereographs sold as <em>Brady's Photographic Views of the War</em>, <em>Brady's Album Catalogue</em>, and <em>Incidents of the War </em>were popular items in many northern parlors. And, as the war continued and the carnage mounted, Brady's photographs of the aftermath of the Battles of Antietam and Gettysburg (actually taken by photographers such as Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan) for the first time revealed to the northern public the magnitude and brutality of the fighting<em>.</em> <em id="tinymce" class="mceContentBody " dir="ltr"></em>This image shows a street-level view of the New York branch of the photography company most readily associated with the American Civil War, Mathew Brady's Studio. Having established his studio as the place politicians, entertainers, artists, and other prominent Americans must patronize to have their portraits taken—and then prominently displayed in his ground-floor Broadway gallery—once the war began Brady employed a corps of photographers to cover the conflict. Brady's published series of war images in the form of album cards, mounted prints, and stereographs sold as Brady's Photographic Views of the War, Brady's Album Catalogue, and Incidents of the War were popular items in many northern parlors. And, as the war continued and the carnage mounted, Brady's photographs of the aftermath of the Battles of Antietam and Gettysburg (actually taken by photographers such as Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan) for the first time revealed to the northern public the magnitude and brutality of the fighting.

Source: Courtesy Keith de Lellis Gallery, New York

Date: 1864