Talk:Mathew Brady

Best photograph?

Can anyone suggest and give a link to his best photograph? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.35.10.19 (talk) 17:53, 29 May 2006

I don't think he has a single best-known photo; it's even a little fuzzy which ones were his and which were taken by people he employed, under his direction. The 'Dead of Antietam' exhibit is mentioned in most descriptions of his work, but I think that's more to do with its historical value, signalling a change from idealized paintings of war to stark photos of actual corpses. grendel|khan 15:59, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

There are many famous photographs that he personally took. His MOST famous is the cooper union photograph of President Abraham Lincoln which Lincoln claimed made him president.--Octavian history (talk) 07:38, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Banners on this page

matthew brady is american photographer that was distrod by the civil war the photogrphs made him go in to bank rupcy and he died penniless and anprdictible...

made by mariah rae massengill (i love youhh nick!♥) lol=)*

Studio in AT Stewart's Store?

It's my understanding that Brady had a "studio" in Alexander T Stewart's store at some point. Anyone know when? DEddy (talk) 19:57, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Matthew B. Brady

What does the B. stand for? Has this information been lost to history? Robert K S (talk) 06:51, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

He claimed that it stood for nothing. ref
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 20:24, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Film?

According to Youtube, he was the inventor of an early film-projector, and made a short movie of Abraham Lincoln! (Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl3bW_wsUa8&feature=related)

Is there any fact behind that story?

Completely false. Film came about in the late 1880s. While Lincoln was still alive, photographic techniques required large glass plates used as the negatives. There isn't really a method for feeding long strings of glass plates into a camera. torq (talk) 16:52, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Date of birth

What is source? It is my understanding that no birth certificate or other documentation has ever been found. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.60.251.44 (talk) 08:15, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

I have placed a request for citation on the birthdate. While searching, I didn't find a source with that date but found sources with dates that were all over the place from 1822 to 1824. As for birth certificate...you wouldn't find one as they came into existence in the US in 1915 and didn't become popular until Social Security required that you have one (or other ample proof...a vouching parent or family bible) in the 1930s. Maybe another editor can shed some light on his birthdate.
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 20:33, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

I changed it to ca. 1823 - the date on the gravestone and in the Library of Congress catalog. --Jarekt (talk) 21:39, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

New documents from the National Archives related to this topic

This message is to inform editors interested in the topic of this article that there are new documents from the US National Archives related to the topic now available on Commons. The Commons category "Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War-Era Personalities and Scenes, compiled 1921 - 1940, documenting the period 1860 - 1865" currently contains 6061 files. Please browse the category for images which could be used in this or related articles. These files represent the best quality images of the documents that have been made, and if they duplicate any images already being used, please update the article with the higher-resolution images from the National Archives.

These were uploaded as a result of a cooperation between the National Archives and Wikimedia. Please visit our project page at WP:NARA to learn how help with our collaboration with the National Archives. In addition, any textual documents in the series may be transcribed on Wikisource; please see WS:NARA to get involved in transcribing documents. Dominic·t 18:57, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Death year?

Hi all. Brady's grave at the Congressional Cemetery seems to specify a death year of 1895, whereas other gravestones and this article say that he died in 1896. Is there a reason for this discrepancy? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 20:58, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Ah, I think I missed the explanation when I was touring the cemetery, since his other grave (photograph at File:Mathew Brady's grave 1.jpg) shows his death year of 1896.... Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 21:07, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

First Modern Ad?

When I saw the wording "In 1856 Brady created the first modern advertisement", I thought – what about all those ads in Illustrated London News and The Times. So I tried the two links, and the second, "Emergence of Advertising in America" was dead, so I replaced it with the correct one (http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa/timeline/#1850s)

On that page it says:

1856: Mathew Brady advertises his services of "photographs, ambrotypes and daguerreotypes" in the New York Herald paper. His inventive use of type in the ad goes against the newspaper industry standard of all-agate and all same-size type used for advertisements in the papers.

It does not say he was the first to create a modern advertisement, "modern" (as the article Wikipedia article suggests) because he used a different font from the rest of the newspaper. If "modern" and "first" can be used in that context, then there are prior ads in England such as this one from 1851 for Smedley's Chillie Paste, which uses fancy fonts. See http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/victorians/health/victorianhealth.html

At best, Brady could be considered one of the pioneers, in the USA, to use different fonts in an ad.

So, I am challenging the assertion of the first modern ad, and have replaced it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Guyburns (talk • contribs) 01:30, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Invented (or maybe not) stock photography

According to Stockphoto, who got it from The Stock Photography Handbook (ASMP, New York/Pennyfeather Press, 1984), Mathew Brady was either the first stock photographer or one of the first:

"The business of selling stock photography has been around since the American Civil War, when Matthew (sic) Brady sold images he and other photographers made of the war for use in stereo viewers (ASMP, 1984). Various stock photography libraries have been actively conducting business around the world for much of this century, but the real surge in popularity for publishing these existing photographs has only surfaced over the past fifteen years."

1. Who the hell is "ASMP"? Are they a reliable source?
2. The article already mentions that after the war, Brady died bankrupt because no one would buy his photos because they were all trying to forget the war. We also know that stereo viewers remained popular after the war - although they didn't use war photos. One wonders why Brady didn't sell his pre-war photos, or take new photos and sell those. Of course, in less than 3/4 of a century, the business of selling photos made quite a comeback.
3. The fact that Brady sold his photos for use in "stereo viewers" isn't mentioned in the Mathew Brady or stock photography articles. If "ASMP" is a reliable source, shouldn't it be mentioned in one or both? (And if not, it should be mentioned if we can find a reliable source mentioning it). By the way, who were these "other photographers"? Did Brady sell all their images? Did they all die bankrupt?

- Hop on Bananas (talk) 00:32, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

B in Brady

The B in the middle name stands for benjamin. And I think his full name is Mathew Benjamin Brady 111.119.197.120 (talk) 22:09, 15 May 2022 (UTC)

It does not stand for Benjamin; it does not stand for anything at all. See for instance Meredith, "Mr Lincoln's Camera Man" ,P. 1 viewable here: https://books.google.com/books?id=6j2dgf9qursC&pg=PA1&dq=%22mathew+b+brady%22+middle+name&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjoxdCoiKr5AhViATQIHRRdATMQ6AF6BAhOEAI#v=onepage&q=%22mathew%20b%20brady%22%20middle%20name&f=false Pseudonymous Cognonmen (talk) 06:42, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Photos at 1st Bull Run?

I've tagged the claim about His first popular photographs of the conflict were at the First Battle of Bull Run as a dubious claim - see William A. Frassanito, Antietam, p. 30 [...] indicates strongly that neither Brady nor any other photographer had an opportunity to record scenes depicting the havoc and confusion at Bull Run. Certainly no such scenes were ever made available to the public. Frassanito then goes on to convincingly demonstrate why the "Confederate dead at Mathews Hill" photograph is actually of living troops playing dead. It certainly looks like our article's claim of Brady taking photographs at 1st Bull Run is highly questionable, and the claim that these were His first popular photographs of the conflict is false. Hog Farm _Talk 18:00, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

Not perhaps the best source (very short and rather juvenile style) but Nardo, Don (2009). Mathew Brady: The Camera is the Eye of History. New Jersey: Enslow. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-7660-3023-7.:

Brady had little or nothing to show to show for his efforts at Bull Run. He had taken no photos and much of his equipment had been destroyed during the chaotic retreat. It is significant, and somewhat strange, that some people believed that he had produced photos of the battle. Humphrey's Journal of Photography reported on August 15, 1861, that Brady "has been in Virginia with his camera, and many and spirited are the pictures he has taken". ...Yet no such photos of the First Bull Run battle have ever surfaced.

However, p. 13:

Brady did eventually photograph the Bull Run battlefield. This occurred in March 1862, long after the battle was over. Brady sent his assistants George Bernard and James Gibson to the scene of the conflict. There, they took photos of some Confederate fortifications. They also captured images of the graves of Union soldiers killed in the battle and the ruins of a burned railway station.

Trachtenberg, Alan (1989). Reading American Photographs. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 978-0374522490.

Brady had photographed encampments and troops on his way to Manassas, though whether he made any battlefield pictures at Bull Run, or whether any negatives survived the rout, remains unclear. The pictures referred to by the Times were most likely made elsewhere, and even though Humphrey's Journal noted that "his are the only reliable records at Bull's Run," no specific battlefield image is mentioned.

Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 18:57, 31 January 2023 (UTC)

• I can't help notice that this 2016 worksheet (from Chicago Historical Society) aimed at teens seems to indicate "However, Matthew Brady personally photographed the Battle of Bull Run at Manassas, Virginia, in 1861." The only source provided is "Davis, William C. First Blood: Fort Sumter to Bull Run. Alexandria, Virginia: Time Life Books, 1983." Likely true and documented. Example photos seen at LOC and other popular sites like this never include images taken during the first action at BR. The photos of the battlefield taken in Spring 1862 are important to the first battle IMHO because of the later action on much of the same ground. This 2013 NYT article reviewing the Brady biography by Robert Wilson says "Brady lost his Bull Run images in the tumult and rarely went near a battlefield again." Page 5 of this undergraduate monograph sourced to the contemporary Humphrey's Journal (Page 133, September 1861) concludes "His are the only reliable records of the fight at Bull Run." BusterD (talk) 22:28, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
• This is from Ray, Frederic. “The Photographer's of the War” in Davis, William C. and Bell I. Wiley. The Image of War, 1861 – 1865, Volume I: Shadows of the storm.. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981. ISBN 978-0-385-15466-6. Pages 410-411.

“Then came Brady. “I can only describe the destiny that overruled me by saying that, like Euphorion, I felt I had to go.” So he said, and so he did. Perhaps he was urged to by the example of Edwards and the others - for he and the North knew of their work - but more likely he and they had had the same idea at the same time. In July 1861, excited by the prospect of capturing scenes of the then three-month-old war, he claimed to have accompanied McDowell's army on the road to Bull Run.

“ “I went to the first Battle of Bull Run with two wagons,” he said. His innovative portable darkroom, a wagon hooded in black, was dubbed the 'what-is-it' wagon. Clad in linen duster and straw hat, Brady says he “got as far as Blackburne's Ford.” “We made pictures and expected to be in Richmond next day, but it was not so, and our apparatus was a good deal damaged on the way back to Washington.” So Brady claimed thirty years later. In fact, no verifiable images from the first expedition have survived. Some that Brady later said were taken then, actually date months later, calling into question his entire account of his first trip to the front. Brady was first and foremost a businessman, a promoter, and his stories of many of his war exploits are highly colored by exaggeration.

“Brady's eyesight was failing and he relegated the actual camera work to his assistants. He appears frequently in front of the camera in a number of his war views, but it is probable that he did not expose any images in the field himself. Throughout the war years, he only occasionally ventured to the armies, and instead spent his time in New York and Washington, supervising his flourishing portrait business and amassing the collection of views taken [p. 411] by his assistants and others that he would produce as “Brady's Album Gallery.” “

From “The Contributors”: Frederic E. Ray, a lifelong student of Civil War art and artists, is art director of Civil War Times Illustrated and American History Illustrated, as well as serving as a photographic consultant for The Image of War. His book Alfred R. Waud, Civil War Artist is probably the foremost biography et of one of the legion of battlefield artists who followed the armies.

If Brady and assistants “got as far as Blackburne's Ford”, they did not get close enough to the main Bull Run battlefield to photograph anything there on July 21, 1861. Not only do maps show that Blackburn's Ford is not close to the main Bull Run Battlefield (Henry Hill, etc.), but a visit to the area would show it is two or three miles away. There was some fighting at Blackburn's Ford, not just on July 18, 1861 but some minor action on July 21. Nonetheless, there is no verification that Brady or an assistant photographed anything in an area of combat at the First Battle of Bull Run.

Also as noted by User:Hog Farm quoting photographic historian William A. Frassanito, and backed up by Pickersgill-Cunliffe research, it was almost impossible to take photos during a battle because of the bulkiness of the equipment and length of time needed for exposures and it is unlikely that anyone could have photographed the battle, or even a side action at Blackburn's Ford, while it was occurring.

The bottom line is that there is no verification for Brady's statement, or implication, that he made pictures on the battlefield at the time of the First Battle of Bull Run or even at Blackburn's Ford on July 21, or earlier on July 18, the date of the main skirmish there. Ray and Frassanito support this conclusion. Any extant photos of the battlefield were taken later, long after the battle was over. A picture from 1862 is shown at the article Blackburn's Ford. Donner60 (talk) 04:33, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

I'll give it a couple more days to see if any more sourcing comes in and will then post some ideas for rephrasing here (hopefully over the weekend). Hog Farm _Talk 21:35, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

Paul Morphy

I think including the world chess champion as one of his subjects is worth mentioning. 50.230.251.244 (talk) 07:49, 10 February 2023 (UTC)