Original Civil War Photographs
Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner, who worked for Mathew Brady, photographed the Antietam battlefield capturing gory graphic details of the Civil War two days after the historic conflict. The American Civil War between Union soldiers upholding the United States constitution and Confederate soldiers who advocated for states' rights erupted in April 1861 when confederates attacked Fort Sumter just after President Lincoln's inauguration. Digitally enhanced images of Alexander Gardner's photos of the national historic battlefields, portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, Washington, D. C., and the execution of John Wilkes Booth are all available from the Library of Congress.
What is the "Photographic Sketchbook of the War"
Photographer Alexander Gardner released his "Photographic Sketchbook of the War", a collection of photographs of the tragic Battle of Gettysburg, in 1865. One of his most famous photos, "Sharpshooter's Denî" includes a portrait of a posed corpse of a Confederate soldier to create controversy and stir emotions. Photography, newly invented at the time of the Civil War was a painstakingly laboriously slow process of taking and developing photographs.
What famous photographs of Abraham Lincoln are available?
Photographs of President Lincoln delivering his Gettysburg Address on Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, after the Union Army defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg are available for purchase. Multiple photographers contributed the images.
What Civil War portraits are available for purchase?
The U. S. Library of Congress (LOC) Prints and Photographs Division maintains an extensive collection of Civil War portraits and images taken by hundreds of photographers including:
- Union and Confederate Officers: Portraits of officers captured when they were commissioned before the start of the war are maintained in armed forces archives.
- Enlisted Union Soldiers: This is an extensive collection of portraits of named and unidentified individual privates, corporals, and sergeants in the Union Army.
- Enlisted Confederate Soldiers: The LOC also maintains extensive collections of portraits of individual Confederate enlisted men.
- African American Military: The Gladstone Collection of African American Military History contains portraits taken by numerous photographers during the American Civil War.
- Regiments of the Civil War: Regimental photographs of infantry men taken before entering a battlefield are proudly archived in the LOC in Washington, D. C.
Who appreciates photographic portrait collections of Civil War history?
Anyone who researches his or her ancestry, or family tree, is delighted with digital images of their forefathers. Historians use the collections to advance the body of knowledge associated with the human history of the chronicles of the Civil War. Genealogists researching and publishing local history books benefit from the archival Civil War photo collections.