Civil War Photography and Its Impact from 1863-1993

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ED 370 593 IR 055 046

AUTHOR Seels, Jody M.; Seels, Barbara A. TITLE Civil War Photography and Its Impact from 1863-1993. PUB DATE 93 NOTE 11p.; In: Visual Literacy in the Digital Age: Selected Readings from the Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (25th, Rochester, New York, October 13-17, 1993); see IR 055 055. PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060) Speeches/Conference Papers (150)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Civil War (United States); Editing; Photographic Equipment; *Photographs; Photography; *Photojournalism; *Reprography; *Technological Advancement; *United States History IDENTIFIERS *Digitizing

ABSTRACT The United States Civil War was the first American war to be documented extensively by photographs, and these photographs have had tremendous impact and importance. During thewar and immediately following, the cost and difficulty of reproducing photographs limited their appeal. Economic pressures actually caused Matthew Brady, the most famous photographer of the Civil War, to sell his collection to the War Department. The invention of the half-tone process, which enabled mass reproduction of photographs, renewed public interest in photography and gave historians readyaccess to photographic materials. As Civil War survivors died, photographs became vital records of detail and lent a feeling of timelessnessto the works they illustrated. The ease with which photographsmay now be edited through digitized methods means that it is increasingly important to establish the history of each photograph and torecord any changes made. (Contains 26 references.) (SLD)

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Civil War Photography and Its Impact from 1863-1993

by Jody See Is Barbara A. Seels

University of Pittsburgh 4A16 Forbes Quandrangle Pittsburgh, PA 15260

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TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES 2 INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC1" Civil War Photography and its Impact from 1863-1993

Jody M. See Is Barbara A. See ls

Since its invention in 1839, photography seethe actual images of people, places, has been an integral part of recording events objects, and events long since gone. thathavesince becomehistory. Understanding a nation's participation in wars The Civil War was not the first war to is an important part of understanding its utilize photography. In 1920, a set of about people and character. The United States Civil sixty anonymous photographic plates from the War was the first American war to be Mexican War (1846-1848) was discovered. extensivelydocumented byphotographs. The Britishuse of photographyinthe Although the use of photography had limited Crimean War was an important influence on effect during the conflict, the photographs photographers at the start of the American have had tremendous impact and importance Civil War. Roger Fenton, the premier in the over 100 years since the event. The photographer of the Crimea, proved that war lack of the technology necessary for efficient photography in the field was possible. The reproduction of photographs during, and majority of photographs taken in the Crimea immediately after, the Civil War impeded the were of officers, camp life and the common use ofphotographyforeffective soldier.Because they were intended to be communication.With the invention of the shown totheroyalfamily,fewgrisly half-toneprocess,which enabledmass- photographs were taken. However, Fenton's reproduction of photographs, public interest in publishedphotographshelpedconvince the photographs was renewed. Historians and Americanphotographersthattherewas scholars at last began to realize the historical business potential for war photographs. value of the photographs. Since1866, countless books, magazines, documentaries, There were a number of technological and movies haveused photographsto advances in photography prior to the Civil communicatt. to the general public why the War. In1851, Frederick Scott Archer Civil War is such an important part of inventedthewet-plateprocesswhich America's history.Photography has been a shortenedexposuretime;however, key to this understanding.It constitutes a reproduction was still impractical and costly. host of visual primary sources that allowus to Thewet-plateprocessrequiredon-site development, thus leading to the development nf "whatsit wagons," the traveling darkrooms describes how battlefield photographs shocked used by the photographers of the Civil War. the American public.

Photography had a limited impact during The livingthatthrong the war because the necessary technologies Broadway care little perhaps that increased its impact had not yet been for the Dead at Antietam, but developed. Portrait photography was widely we fancy they would jostle viewed and popular. By the start of the war, less carelessly down the great Mathew Brady had well established studios in thoroughfare, saunter less at both New York and Washington,and their ease, were a few dripping numerous lesser known portrait studios were bodies, fresh from the field, found throughout the country.Prominent laid along the pavement...As it figures from all aspects of society posed for is, the dead of the battlefield Brady. Collections of the photographs in the come to us very rarely, even in form of "cartes de visite" (small portraits dreams. We see the list in the giveninplaceofcallingcards)and morning paper at breakfast, but stereoscopic views became the rage. When dismiss itsrecollection with war broke out, many soldiers visited these thecoffee. Thereisa studios to have inexpensive photographs, confused mass of names, but called "tintypes," taken of themselves to send theyareallstrangers; we home to their loved ones as remembrances. forget the horrible significance In return, families of soldiers would have that dwells amid the jumble of their portraits taken and sent to the soldiers to tYPe... comfort them. Photographs were even used MR. BRADY hasdone on campaign buttons,including one of something to bring home to us Lincoln which prompted him to say, "Brady the terriblereality and and the Cooper Union [speech] made me earnestness of war.If he has president."[1] not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and In the field, photography of the war was along the streets, he has done significantly more difficult. something very like it. At the Theequipmentwaslargeandbulky. door of hisgallery hangs a Sensitizing chemicals and large numbers of little placard, "The Dead of glass plates had to be transported. Groups of Antietam." Crowds of people photographers could be found following the are constantly going up the armies to battle The exposure time for wet- stairs; follow them and you plate negatives, anywhere from 10 to 30 find thembending over seconds, was so long that action shots could photographic views of that not be taken; therefore, photographers were fearfulbattle-field, taken restricted to photographing the aftermath with immediately after the action. its corpse-strewn battlefields, bloated bodies, Of all objects of horror one and rows of dead soldiers. would think the battle-field should stand preeminent, that This New York Times review of Mathew it should bear away the palm Brady's 1863 exhibition on Antietam of repulsiveness.But on the

4 contrary, thereis a terrible greatly influenced by the photographs during fascination about it that draws the war because they did not see them. one near these pictures, and makes him loth to leave them. In general, the public's perception of the You will see hushed, reverent significance of the photographs did not groups standing around these increase in the period immediately following weirdcopiesofcarnage, the war.The people's desire to forget the bending down to look in the war further hindered the use of photographs pale faces of the dead, chained as communication. by the strange spell that dwells in dead men's eyes.It seems But interest in the war did somewhat singular thatthe wane almost Lmmediately after. same sun that looked down on Appomattox. Perhapsthe thefacesofthe slain, market had been saturated by blistering them, blotting out energetic purveyors of these from the bodies all semblance images. Morelikely, to humanity, and hastening Americans preferred not to corruption, should have thus remember the conflict they caughttheirfeaturesupon saw in the brutal reality of the canvas,and given them photograph. Very soon myth perpetuity for ever. But so it and romanticism took the place is.[2] of remembered fact. And the photosthemselveswere These photographs were among the first forgotten,misplaced,or images to show war from a realistic rather deliberately destroyed. [4] than a romantic view.Exhibitions, such as Brady's, drew large audiences.Yet, these Alexander Gardner compiled and released images had limited impact because they could his Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil onlybereproducedinnewspapersas War in 1866, with photographs taken by woodcut engravings; therefore, they were not Timothy O'Sullivan and himself.[5]The seen by the majority of the general public. book was a commercial failure.It was Newspapers mostly based their woodcuts on expensive because each of the photographs artists'sketchesrather thanphotographs had to be manually reproduced and mounted because sketches did not need detail for on the pages. Moreover, the public was just effectiveness. Sketches could capture the not interested in the book; they simply wanted action of the battle making the woodcuts to forget the war.Mathew Brady invested moredramatic,andoftenmuch more approximately one hundred thousand dollars appealing, than many of the gruesomely of his own money in photographing the war. realisticphotographs. Attimes, Brady had relied on the sale of stereoscopic photographers even rearranged bodies and war views to return his investment.These equipment after the battles in an attempt to views were popular during the war, but their make the photographs more dramatic and sale almost stopped completely after the war. appealingtopublishers kid the general His photographic exhibitions, while well public.[3] Despitetheseeffortsthe attended, did not nearly cover the cost of the photographs never gained much popularity, photography. Brady had to give his creditors, and the vast majority of Americans were not E. and H. T. Anthony and Company, one of his sets of negatives to meet his bill. Brady graphic destruction depicted in entreated Congress to purchase two thousand the photographs. The people portrait negatives in 1871, but Congress did and the image were ready for not act. On account of the financial panic of one another.[7] 1873, Brady lost much of his real estate property and his New York gallery. He was When reproduction becameeasier, unable to meet storage payments for his hiitoriansbegantofullyrealizethe negative collection so it was put up for public significance of the Civil War photographs and auction and bought by the War Department started to use them in books, periodicals, and for $2840. Persuaded by President Garfield, eventually movies and documentaries. The Congress gave Brady an appropriation of first of these books appeared in 1894, The $25,000 for the collection. Memorial War Book by George F. Williams. Williams' book was just the beginning.In Thecollectionwaspoorlyhandled, 1912 the ten-volume Photographic History of resulting in many broken and scratched plates. the Civil War was published.Its editor, The duplicate set of Brady negatives stored Francis T. Miller, and his associates, spent by the E. and H. T. Anthony and Company years contacting former soldiers, generals and was virtually forgotten until rediscovered by photographers. [8] Roy M. Mason was hired John C. Taylor of Hartford, Connecticut in an by Miller to search the South for war attic. The collection was purchased by photographs. The result was a monumental Colonel Arnold Rand of Boston and General accomplishmentcontainingthousandsof Albert Ordway of Washington, who carefully photographs reproduced from the original preserved and catalogued the negatives and prints and plates. The accompanying text was periodically added to the collection.[6] often provided by Civil War veterans. New Manynegativeswerestoredbyother technologies led to publication of these and collectors,veterans'societiesandthe other books which made the photographs photographers themselves. accessible to a larger audience.

They were the keepers of the Interest in the photographs of the Civil image,menwithan War continued to increase.In subsequent appreciation-and a vision-that decades, numerous Civil War movies, such as others lacked.Finally, just Birth of a Nation (1927), Gorse With the Wind before the turn of the century, (1939), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), their hour, and that of their and morerecently,Glory (1990)were photographs, came at last.It produced. Often these films referred to Civil arrivedonthewingsof War photographsforsetand costume technology, the development reconstruction.Many of these movies fell ofthe halftoneprinting short of authenticity vith scenes being overly process. At last, photographs dramatic, even romanticizing war. This could be easily and speedily contrasted with the initial impact of the Civil "printed" in massive quantities. War photographs of the 1860's whichdid At the same time, there was a much to dispel most people's glorified image new generation of Americans of war that was seen in the paintings of the who had not lived through the period. [9] war, who did not feel the old pains revived by seeing the In the Photographic History of the Civil published three books: Gettysburg: A War, many romantic ideas are reiterated. Journey in Time, Grant and Lee: The Virginia Allan Trachtenberg compares captions in the Campaigns: 1864-1865 and Antietam:The Miller series with Gardner's captions: Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Days in which he dispels many of the The 1911 text describes it as a previously unquestioned captions and titles. scene of troops en route to [11] battle...The text weaves the image into a narrative of the From 1981 to 1984, a six-volume series, 'eve' of the first battle of the Images of War, containing hundreds of war, a moment of lighthearted previously unpublished photographs appeared. innocence,laughingyoung [12] The Image of War series tried to correct men 'hardly realizing in the many of the errors found in the captions. In contagion of theirpatriotic the late 1980's, anexhibitionand ardor the grim meaning of real corresponding book entitled the Eyes of Time: war.' The pictureshows Photojournalism in America were presented. something else...The Gardner [13] Both covered how theuseof textismoreexplicitin photography in the Civil War related to and detail...Gardner's text saturates affected the use of photojournalism in the the image, encouraging the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. viewertoincoiporateits detailsintoageneralized Photographshavebeenimportantin narrative of war as a disruption helping both historians and the general public of nature. [10] gain an understanding that is more detailed and realistic than that of previous wars which Millerandhiscollaboratorsaccepted relied only on artists' representations.In idealizations and did not question captions 1990, Ken Burns released histen hour given to the pictures by the photographers and documentary, TheCivilWar.[14] The press in the 1860's. Thus, many errors were documentary integrated the photographs with passed on from the Photographic History of other means of communication, such as the Civil War to subsequent books. narrative,letters,diaries, and music,to increase the impact the information would In 1975, William A. Frassanito sought to have on the public. [15] Some historians are correct some of these errors. Frassanito bothered by the documentary's lack of analyzed hundreds of Civil War photographs accuracy in the use of photographs in relation to determine where, when and by whom they to the narrative. [16] were taken. By studying the photographs, he was able to determine if, and in what way, Ilook for what Icall an the bodies were staged by the photographers. equivalent - that is, an image Frassanito shot the scenes again so that he that may not be what an expert couldbetter understand theoriginal would certify as belonging to photographs. However, the photographic theprecise momentI'm conditionswerenotexactlyduplicated describing, but that combines because he used modern cameras with lenses with the narration to make a that were not equivalent to those used by synthesis that's good history, CivilWarphotographers. Frassanito so that you say, "My God, I hear that.I know what they France made some 80 years later.Together must have felt."[17] they seem part of one time-almost the same war, a part of the same continuing series of Nevertheless, Burns' documentary brought organized struggles which have characterized an understanding of the conflict to a large human history. viewing audience.The effectiveness and impact of this documentary could not have Thelivingskeletonsof been achieved without the availability of Union soldiers released from photography as a means of communication. Andersonville prison in 1865 The photographs brought the viewers closer to cannot be distinguished from the people and events of the Civil War by similar photographic records of letting them feel the emotions of both the thevictims of the Belsen ordinary soldiers and prominent figures in the concentration camp more than period. The detail of the photographs made three-quarters of a century later.[19] the war, and the people involved, seem more realistic than wars and participants rendered Because of photography we now have a byartists'interpretationsonly. When record of the people who so greatly shaped paintings and photographs of the time period our country.The detail in photographic arecompared,theimportanceofthe portraits provides a wealth of information on photograph becomes more apparent because the personalities and emotions of both leaders details omitted in a portrait of Lincoln are and common people. One can look at clearly seen in a photograph of Lincoln. [18] portraits of Lincoln to see the emotional and physicaltollthe war exacted on him. The significance of the photographs has Photographic portraits allow us to observe the increased immensely since the Civil War. changes in Lincoln by comparing photographs For, as the decades passed, the people who taken at different times during his campaign had first-hand knowledge of the Civil War and presidency.Comparing a photograph died, leaving historians no choice but to rely taken on February 27, 1860 at the time of the onformsofrecordedinformationto Cooper Union Institute speech during his first understandthewar. Photographyhas campaign [20] with a portrait taken on provided society with an extensive record of November 15, 1863 [21] three years into the detail in uniforms, weapons, forts, and a war, the lines on his face are markedly soldier's camp life.Battle-maps can be deeper. A photograph taken op April 9, 1865 reconstructedfromphotographs. The five days before his death is one of the few photographs confirm letters, diary entries, and pictures taken of Lincoln where he is smiling. otherwrittencorrespondence. When He had just heard news that Lee had compared with photographs from subsequent surrendered to Grant. [22] wars, similarities give history a feeling of timelessness. Photographs can never be a complete factual source because the viewer can only In many ways Civil War photography see what the photographer decided was actually seems to foreshadow the recorded important to see. The photographs cannever image of World War II. A photograph of the be looked at from the perspective of someone dead against a fence on the battlefield of who was alive during the war.They will Antietam is a companion piece to a scene of always be viewed and studied from a modern corpses along a hedgerow on the battlefield of perspective. photograph After 100yearsorso, the computer. The content of a photographs no longer trigger printed on photographic paper can be scanned thelivingmemoryofa into a computer, stored and manipulated as a concreteexperience,but digitized image.This phenomenon of the become historical abstractions electronicdarkroomhasimportant which can only help another iinplications for photographic archivists. generation imagine how it was. [23] Historians use the word "provenience" to describe the history of a photograph's origin Wagner described Civil War photography and ownership including changes in context as a type of "timebomb." There were or technology whichhave affectedthe. immediate effects, but the aftershocks are photograph and its interpretation. When immensely more important. They provide the changes in form, content or context that affect keytounderstanding an eventinour interpretation can be identified, the historical country's history, the Civil War, that has a value of the photograph is preserved, and the profound impact on the developmentand photograph can be used as documentation. character of the United States. [24] The historical record of the photograph is intact when changes in the prints can be noted We will never know what it was like to be and analyzed. With Civil War photographs, at the Brady exhibition ofblack and white for example, the original glass plate was photographs from Antietam in 1863. We do usually cleaned and reused.Second and know that Civil War photographs command succeeding generation copies became the interest even today.When photographs of historical record. Although the original plate soldiers killed in Somalia or Bosnia are may no longer exist, the likelihoodof changes shown on television in schools, some students from the negative to a colts& printis laugh as a body explodes.This may be minimalbecausethetgehnologywas becauseso much violenceisseen on relatively primitive.Digitind photography entertainmentprogramming,actualwar makes it almost impossible to detect changes photographs no longer seem real.On the made by editing. other hand, war photographs have increased impact now because they are seen by more Thus, it becomes increasingly important to people immediately, and the impact of war have access to the original photograph and photography todayisalso increased by information about any subsequent changes advances in camera technology and media made by photographers or editors.If the presentation techniques. originalphotograph(thenegative)is preserved, then a trail is left for history's Photographic images can now be edited detectives. The value of the photograph as andreproducedwithoutusingfilmor "evidence" is enhanced by a record on film chemically based processes.Technologies and by documentation of the changes at all such as high-resolution desktop scanners, stages when digitized imageryisused. image processing software, Photo CD and Regardlessof howthephotographis continuoustoneprintersaregradually produced, it is important to remember that: replacingtraditionalchemically produced imagery. [25] Today the analog image from The camera is the eye of history the television camera can be easily converted ...you must never make bad pictures. to digitized format and manipulatedthrough ...Mathew Brady [26] 9 List of Reference Notes

[ 1]Taft, Robert.1938. Photography and [10] Trachtenberg, Alan. 1989. Reading the American Scene: A Social American Photographs; Images as History.NY: Dover Publications, History, Mathew Brady to Walker 195. Evans. NY: Hill and Wang, 98-99.

[ 2]Brady's Photographs:Pictures of the [11] Frassanito, William A.1983.Grant Dead at Antietam", The New rork and Lee:The Virginia Campaigns Times, 20 October 1863, P. 5, 6. 1864-1865. 1983.NY:Charles Scribner's Sons. [ 3]Frassanito,William A. 1975. Gettysburg: A Journey in Time. Frassanito,William A. 1978. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons. Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Days. NY: [4] Davis, William C., ed. 1984.The Charles Scribner's Sons. Image of War: 1862-1865, Vol.1, Shadows of the Storm. Garden City, Frassanito,WilliamA. 1975. NY: Doubleday, 9. Gettysburg: A Journey in Time. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons. [ 51Gardner, Alexander.1959. Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the [12] Davis, William C. ed. 1981-1984. The Civil War. NY: Dover Publications. Image of War.Vols. I-VI.NY: Doubleday. [ 6]Taft, Robert.1938. Photography and the American Scene: A Social [13] Fulton, Marianne. 1988. Eyes of Time: History.NY: Dover Publications, Photojournalism in America. 244. Boston: Little Brown and Co.

[ 7]Davis, William C., ed. 1984. The [14] Burns, Ken. 1990.The Civil War. Image of War: 1862-1865, Vol. 1, Produced and directed by Ken Burns. Shadows of the Storm. Garden City, PBS Video. NY: Doubleday, 10. [15] "What Horrors He Must Have Seen." [ 8]Miller, Fr:Axis Trevelyan, ed. 1912. (March1992). Yankee's Home The Photographic History of the Companion, 62-67. Civil War in Ten Volumes.Vol. 1, The Opening Battles.NY: The [16] Stapp, Will, Curator at the International Review of Reviews Co. Museum of Photography, George Eastman House,Rochester, NY. [ 9]Paintings of Civil War scenes can be Interview by author, (telephone, 27 found in many books including The January). Civil War.1991. NY: Ballantine Books. [17] Burns,Ken. 1991. TheGreat [22] Taft, Robert. 1938.Photography and Arrogance of the Presentisto the American Scene: A Social Forget the Past. Civil War hronicles History, 1839-1889.NY;Dover 1 (Summer) :8. Publications, 246.

[18] Swanson,James L. and Lloyd [23] Wagner, Robert W. 1961. The Image Ostendorf. 1991. Lincoln from Life. of the Civil War.Audio Visual Civil War Chronicles 1 (Summer) : Communication Review 9 (Jan.-Feb.) 55. :6.

[19] Wagner, Robert W. 1961. The Image [24] Wagner, Robert, Professor Emeritus, of the Civil War. Audio Visual OhioStateUniversity. 1993. Communication Review 9 (Jan.-Feb.) Interview by author (Columbus, OH :4, 5. 13 February).

[20] Horan, James D. 1955. Mathew [25] FutureImageInc.andComputer Brady:Historian with a Camera. Pictures. (October4-5,1993). NY: Crown Publishers, Picture No. Photography in the Digital Age: 93. Technology andIssuesSummit. Symposium conducted at the Jacob [21] Horan, James D. 1955. Mathew K. Javits Center in New York City. Brady:Historian with a Camera. NY: CrownPublishers,244. [26] Horan, James D. 1955. Mathew Photographyby Mathew Brady, Brady:Historian With a Camera. November 15, 1963.Picture No. NY: Crown Publishers, 90. 148.