Photography at Antietam
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Introduction Alexander Gardner at Antietam Photography at Antietam The ability to capture a moment in time has When war threatened the nation in the spring of During both of his trips, Gardner moved across fascinated us ever since an image was first produced 1861, thousands of soldiers flocked to Washington, the battlefield taking advantage of another new A Battlefield Tour in 1839. First a novelty, then a powerful medium D.C., to defend the capital. Photographers photographic technique that increased the impact of information and emotion, photography and followed in their footsteps capturing camp scenes of war images - stereograph. Two lenses capture photojournalism came of age during the American and portraits of untested, jubilant greenhorns in two simultaneous photographs, and when seen "...Broken hearts cannot he photographed." Civil War. No other conflict had ever been recorded their new uniforms. It so happened that Alexander through a viewer, the mind creates a three- in such detail. Nowhere else is this truer than at Gardner had just opened a new studio in the capital dimensional image. Parlors were filled with cards Antietam, the first battlefield photographed before for the most notable photographer of his era - and viewers as stereo views became the rage in the dead were buried. Mathew Brady. Gardner also took advantage of America. Of the approximately ninety images the coming storm to increase his business. All of Gardner took at Antietam, about seventy were in It started with just a few, but by 1865 dozens of the early war photographs were taken in studios or stereo, adding a new, horrific view of the American photographers were hauling glass plates and volatile tents. No one had produced images in the field. landscape to home collections. chemicals across the war-torn countryside. Today, because of their work, we can still look into the It wasn't until September of 1862 that the first true Newspapers could not reproduce photographs, faces of soldiers and visit the locations of tragic images of war were produced. Antietam but woodcuts from the Antietam images spread events. was the first battle to depict the grim across the country. Gardner's original images and bloody truth of civil war through were put on display in New York City at the lens of photographer Alexander Brady's gallery. New Yorkers were shocked Gardner and his assistant James and appalled. The New York Times stated Gibson. Gardner made two trips to that Brady was able to "bring home to us Antietam. The first was just the terrible reality and two days after the battle, the earnestness of war. second, two weeks later If he has not brought when President Abraham bodies and laid them Lincoln visited the in our door-yards battlefield. and along streets, he has done something very like it..." Back Cover: A solitary Confederate soldier killed and a battlefield grave at Antietam. Published by the Western Maryland Interpretive Association (WMIA), the nonoaaiij of Antietam National Battlefield, in cooperation with the National Park Sen images courtesy of the Library of Congress. Written and designed by Park F Snyder. To learn more visit www.nps.gov/anti and www.virtualantietam.cor Burial Crew at Antietam and Alexander Gardner Burnside Bridge and Alexander Gardner's traveling darkroom Gardner image courtesy of PictureHistory.com Photography comes to America Antietam Stereo Image and the Published Woodcut Types of Photographic Images Conclusion Louis Daguerre produced the first nitrate where it received its light- The following five forms of This new ability to mass-produce prints Many photographers would provide us Today, the stark black and white images known image on polished silver plates sensitive coating. The plates had to be photographic technology were used from a collodion negative fascinated the with an unbelievably rich photographic of the Civil War are as eloquent and as in his studio in France. His invention sensitized just minutes prior to making during the Civil War to make the miracle nation, both North and South. history of America's most costly wrenching as they were 140 years ago quickly captivated the Europeans. the exposure and then developed before of photographic images possible: war. Interest in the War has endured when the New York Times described Other inventors looked for new ways the coating dried - thus the name "wet 5. Stereograph, Stereoview or because of men like Timothy O'Sullivan, Gardner's Antietam photographs and to produce their photographs. After plate" photography. After exposing 1. Daguerreotype - This was the earliest Stereocard - Many of the greatest Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner and stated that "...broken hearts cannot be a decade of silver plates and paper the plate - "taking the picture" - the form of photography, invented in 1839 Civil War photographs, including James Gibson. More recently Ken Burns photographed." experiments, Englishman Frederick photographer had to quickly fix and by Frenchman Louis Daguerre. It used the majority taken at Antietam, were in his profound PBS documentary relied Archer started working with glass plates. wash the plate thoroughly. Then the polished silver plates as the base for the actually produced as a stereo negatives. heavily on the work of America's first This critical breakthrough, the glass finished image was dried over an alcohol image. Few Daguerreotypes were taken The camera had two lenses about the great photojournalists to inspire and negative, allowed positive copies to be lamp and coated with a varnish for during the Civil War. same distance apart as human eyes. Two educate us. transferred or created on light sensitized protection. images were taken at the same time, paper. 2. Ambrotype - Invented in the early reproduced on a rectangular card, and Samuel Morse, inventor of the 1850s, the ambrotype resembled a when seen through a special viewer a The initial problem with glass plates was telegraph, was in Europe and he helped Gardner stereo image entitled "A Contrast: daguerreotype except glass, instead of three dimensional effect was produced. keeping the light-sensitive chemicals on bring the magic of photography to the Federal buried, Confederate unburied, where a silver plate, was used for the base of the glass. Archer overcame this problem United States. One of his students they fell on the Battlefield of Antietam." the image. The ambrotype was a thin by using a sticky transparent liquid was Mathew Brady. Brady opened or light collodion negative on a glass called "collodion." For this new process his photographic studio in New York plate. When backed with black varnish, a puddle of collodion was poured onto City in 1844 where he became almost paper or cloth the negative turned into a glass or iron plate. Then the plate was as famous as the notables who sat for a positive photograph. This technique tilted so that the collodion flowed over their portraits. Brady's gallery was still was popular until the 1860s. the entire plate leaving an even coating. using the Daguerre silver plate process. When the coating began to set, the plate In 1856, glass plate photography made 3. Ferrotypes or "Tin-Types" - This Burnside Bridge looking north on the east The Mumma family farm was burned to was then taken into the "darkroom" it to the States and no one perfected its process was invented soon after the bank where Union soldiers from the Ninth the ground by Confederates so that Union and then lowered into a bath of silver process, or used it more effectively, than ambrotype. These photographs became Stereo Card Viewer Corps made many of their attacks. soldiers would not use the house for cover. Brady's employee Alexander Gardner. Woodcut created from the Gardner the most common form for inexpensive photograph that was reproduced in the images made during the Civil War. Take the Battlefield Photography Tour newspapers. The tintype was very similar to the Ambrotype, except a blackened piece of In the center of the brochure are eight location of Gardner's camera when sheet iron was used, instead of glass, as of Alexander Gardner's greatest the photograph was taken, and a small the base of the photograph. Antietam photographs. The location photograph showing what the view of each pair of images can be walked looks like today. Stand where Alexander 4. Carte de Visite - The carte de visite to from battlefield auto tour stops, Gardner and his assistant James Gibson (French for "visiting card) was a small starting at the visitor center. At most set up their camera with the traveling Mathew Brady and his New paper print made from a glass negative. you will have to walk a couple of a darkroom close by. Take a photo today York Gallery. This is where hundred yards. Accompanying each and create your own "then and now" Alexander Gardner's Antietam image is a map showing the approximate history at Antietam. images were first displayed. Stop 1 - The Visitor Center A B The first two images on your tour were taken on the high ground where the park visitor center sits of war with a backdrop of a house of worship for the pacifist German Baptist Brethren. artillery battalion on this ridge where it suffered intense infantry and artillery fire from numerous today. Just across the Hagerstown Turnpike sits the Dunker Church. Image A looks northwest and is In image B, Gardner moved his camera to face north along the Hagerstown Turnpike Union attacks. The destroyed artillery limbers and unburied dead are possibly from his command. considered one of Gardner's greatest photographs, capturing the incredible irony of the devastation towards the Cornfield. During the battle, Colonel S. D. Lee placed his Confederate Stop 2 - The Cornfield C D Drive to Stop 4, The Cornfield, on the auto tour route.