Mathew Brady: Influential Photographer During The Civil War

Mathew Brady is known as the father of photojournalism. He was respected from citizens, because of his extraordinary photos of generals, and his heartbreaking and very real Civil War photo collages. Mathew Brady was an influential photographer during the Civil War, due to his childhood experiences, dedication and determination to photography, and the legacy he left behind.

Mathew Brady was very interested in photography during his childhood, people called him a role model and a well taught student. Today he is best known for his photography during the Civil War, and people think of him as one of the greatest photographers in American history. To begin his life, Irish immigrants, Andrew and Julia Brady moved to Warren County, New York. In 1820

When Brady was old enough to go to school, his parents placed him with a tutor by the name of Samuel F.B. Morse. This specific tutor specialized in photography, Andrew and Julia thought it would be a good fit for Mathew, and it turned out to be just that. Mathew Brady met Samuel F.B. Morse through William Page. Morse was a painter, art professor and designer at the University of New York. He taught Brady with the new and developed daguerreotype(Civil War Trust). As Mathew grew older, he moved to New York City to begin manufacturing. He manufactured cases for jewelry, daguerreotypes, and painted portraits. Later on, he opened his own studio in Washington, DC, he drew portraits of politicians like Henry Clay, Millard Fillmore etc.(Civil War Trust). We don't know much about Brady's family, but we know of Andrew and Julia Brady, and his nephew Levin Handy. It is also known that he had a few

People also know him from his real life and iconic pictures of the American Civil War. As the CIvil War started, Brady decided to create a photo collage of the battles and upsets during the war. He hired staff members to follow the troops around the battlefield, they were called field-photographers. Brady oversaw their photography skills, some of them, including Timothy H. Sullivan, Alexander Gardner, and James F. Gibson. There were many Civil War battles photographed by Brady and his staff, including the battles of Antietam, Gettysburg, and the First Battle of Bull Run(Civil War Trust). Although the war was continuing, Brady returned back to his studio to release the first photographs of the war in 1862. He published them out of his study in New York, he titled the photographs “The Dead Of Antietam.” These images were the first images to show dead bodies, wreckage of the war, and the first to be given out to the public. The images received so much attention, that they were viewed more than any other series of images during the rest of the Civil War. An article from the New York Times, distributed in October, 1862, stated that “Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of the war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets, he has done something very like it…”(Civil War Trust). The war was finally