You know have you ever wondered about how we have some of the most graphic to an immediate detail of pictures from the Civil War and so fourth that it makes you feel when you are looking at time, that your right in the middle of where the battle is taking place and it's not a painting of the battle represented by an artist like maybe the 100 years war of the 15th century (although painting like those are a different story of their own).
But one Photographer and one of the earliest captured the Civil War of America through photos recording the battle this way and all it's graphics of it that we are drawn to, so let talk about this Photographer his name is Mathew B. Brady and will be talking about him the story of America cards; Thought and Culture section.

(Who is Mathew B. Brady?)

Mathew B. Brady was one of the earliest photographers in American history. Best known for his scenes of the Civil War, he studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique in America, In 1844 he opened his own studio in New York City, and photographed John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln, among many other public figures.

(Recording a War in Pictures)

The day-by-day reporting of modern battles and wars is covered in Graphic detail through the marvel of television.
By contrast, during the American Revolution the first reports of battle often took days to arrive and then they were only occasionally accompanied by sketches.

The first real breakthrough in pictorial reporting occurred during the Civil War through the medium of photography.
And the man who introduced this new style of reporting was Mathew B. Brady.

Born in Warren County, New York around 1823, Brady was encouraged to pursue an art career by the artist; William Page, Page introduced Brady to Samuel F.B. Morse who was involved in the new art of photography then known as daguerreotype (after the Frenchman who invented the process, L.J.M. Daguerre).

Brady learned all he could about the invention and soon began experimenting on his own.
As early as the 1840s he opened a portrait studio in New York City and became an immediate success, photographing scores of important political and social leaders of the day.

In 1850 a collection of Brady's photographs was published, and the following year he won a prize at the Great Exhibition in London for his showing of 48 portraits.
Brady abandoned the daguerreotype method in 1855 in favor of the new "wet plate" process.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Brady persuaded President Abraham Lincoln and others whom he had often photographed to allow him and his assistants to follow the Union armies.
Working out of a black mobile laboratory, Brady and his men photographed nearly all the newsworthy battles and most of the major figures of the war.

He and his teams took thousands of war photographs, many of them appearing in 1870 in Brady's National Photographic Collection of War Views and Portraits of Representative Men.
Unfortunately, his pictures could not be used in newspapers because printing processes had not advanced that far; most papers used correspondents who sent in on-the-scene sketches of the battles.

As a result, although Brady's photographs represent a unique and valuable record of the period, the project bankrupt him as there was no commercial market for his work.
Although Brady continued his career as a photographer after the war, he never regained his fortune or early fame, Failing eyesight and ill health afflicted him in his declining years, and he died alone and in poverty on January 15th 1896, in New York City. at the age of 72.

(Legacy left by a War Photographer)

Brady has photographed over 18 of the 19 presidents at the time (and those who were still alive at that time) from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley, the reason he only photographed 18 was because the 9th President; William Henry Harrison died in office 3 years before Brady started his collection photography.
Brady photographed Abraham Lincoln on many occasions. His Lincoln photographs have been used for the $5 bill and the Lincoln penny.

The thousands of photographs which Mathew Brady's photographers (such as Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan) took have become the most important visual documentation of the Civil War, and have helped historians and the public better understand the era.

Brady Photographs a lot of Union Officers such as Ulysses S. Grant to Lew Wallace (You can find more of the names on the wikipedia) and Brady did not just take pictures of Union soldiers but of Confederate as well like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, he also photographed Lord Lyons, the British ambassador to Washington during the time of the Civil War.

(Ending)

And that would be it on the Photographer; Mathew B. Brady, hope you liked it and I did good on the history for him, just to give a seek peek of what i may do next for history cards, will be staying in the Thought and Culture category for a while, as next I'll go over history of a Lady's Book to a Magazine that had the goal of exposing Corruption, so if those interest you stay tooned for that.