Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady born in 1823 to Irish immagrents in the state of New York. By age sixteen soon after taking a job as a department store clerk, he started his own small business manufacturing jewelry cases. In his spare time, Brady studied photography under a number of teachers, including Samuel F. B. Morse, the man who had recently introduced photography to America. Brady quickly cought on to this new hobby. By 1844, he had his own photography studio in New York.

Brady at Bull Run

At the peak of his success as a portrait photographer, Brady turned his attention to the Civil War. Planning to document the war on a grand scale, he organized a corps of photographers to follow the troops in the field. Friends tried to discourage him, citing battlefield dangers and financial risks, but Brady persisted. He later said, "I had to go. A spirit in my feet said 'Go,' and I went."

When photographs from his collection were published, taken by him or one of his employees, they were credited "Photograph by Brady," although they were actually the work of many people.

Brady and Family

Brady brought the first gory images of the war to the people of American. Many of the Civil War pictures attributed to Brady were not shot by Brady. More of a project manager, he spent most of his time supervising his corps of traveling photographers, preserving their negatives and buying others from private photographers freshly returned from the battlefield, so that his collection would be great in all aspects.

After the Civil War, Brady found that war weary Americans were no longer interested in purchasing photographs of the recent bloody conflict. Having risked his fortune on his Civil War enterprise, Brady lost the gamble and fell into bankruptcy. His negatives were neglected until 1875, when Congress purchased the entire archive for $25,000. Brady's debts swallowed the entire sum. He died in 1896, penniless and unappreciated. In his final years, Brady said, "No one will ever know what I went through to secure those negatives. The world can never appreciate it. It changed the whole course of my life."

Mathew's day book

Although he struggled with finances, Mathew Brady has,for ever effected,the art of photography.

To see work by Mathew Brady -- Click Here BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Biographical Note"  Mathew Brady. Updated Sep.-22-97. <http://rsb.loc.gov/ammem/cwbrady.html > Last visited (10-17-2000)

"Mathew Brady Time Line" <http://www.sltrib.com/krt/brady/html/brady2.htm> Last visited (Sep.-20-2000)

Garrett Larson