[media-credit name=”Matthew Brady” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]

The stories we tell through historical images. This a series of photographs that tell the story of people and events that shaped America and continue to provide insight and knowledge to students today. 

Matthew Brady was a Civil War photographer that showed the effects of the Civil War and  has been credited as the father of photojournalism (Matthew Brady bio).

Brady photographed 18 out of 19 presidents from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley. Brady’s portrait photos were highly sought after during the Civil War Era. He photographed most of the Union and Confederate officers that fought in the war.

Brady started his photojournalism career by selling pictures of young soldiers to parents saying,

“You cannot tell how soon it may be too late.”

A controversy arose after he passed away. This controversy was over the movement of dead soldiers bodies to make the photograph more dramatic and interesting.

Most of Brady’s pictures were never seen due to not paying rent and moving office buildings. The pictures were put in storage and never seen again. Photos were also lost due to natural elements that destroyed the original negatives.

Ken Burns in his 1990 documentary on the Civil War explains. According to Burns, the glass plate negatives were often sold to gardeners, not for their pictures, but for the raw glass itself to be used in greenhouses. The sun slowly burned away the film images and they were lost forever. (Restoring Film)

For more Feather photos, visit media, photos 2015-16.