Ute Chief Ouray & Wife Chipeta

Ute Chief Ouray & Wife Chipeta

INFORMATION ON COLOURISATION

Colou­ri­sa­ti­on [Inter­na­tio­nal Bri­tish Eng­lish] or colo­riza­ti­on [North Ame­ri­can Eng­lish], is any pro­cess that adds colour to black-and-white, sepia (brown tone), or other mono­chro­me pho­to­gra­phic images. It is also cal­led hand-colou­ring or colour trans­forming of pho­to­graphs and it refers to any method of manu­al­ly adding colour to a mono­chro­me pho­to­graph, gene­ral­ly eit­her to heigh­ten the rea­lism of the image or for artis­tic pur­po­ses. The first examp­les date from the late 19th cen­tu­ry, but colou­ri­sa­ti­on has beco­me com­mon with the advent of digi­tal image processing.

Typi­cal­ly, water­co­lours, oils, cray­ons or pas­tels, and other paints or dyes are appli­ed to the image sur­face using brushes, fin­gers, cot­ton swabs or air­brushes. Hand-colou­red pho­to­graphs were most popu­lar in the mid- to late-19th cen­tu­ry befo­re the inven­ti­on of colour pho­to­gra­phy and some firms spe­cia­li­sed in pro­du­cing hand-colou­red pho­to­graphs. An ear­ly form of colou­ri­sa­ti­on mass pro­duc­tion is known as Pho­to­chrom (Foto­chrom, Pho­to­chro­me) which is a pro­cess for pro­du­cing colou­ri­sed images from a sin­gle black-and-white pho­to­gra­phic nega­ti­ve via the direct pho­to­gra­phic trans­fer of the nega­ti­ve onto litho­gra­phic prin­ting pla­tes. The pro­cess is a pho­to­gra­phic vari­ant of chro­mo­li­tho­gra­phy (colour litho­gra­phy). Becau­se no colour infor­ma­ti­on was pre­ser­ved in the pho­to­gra­phic pro­cess, the pho­to­grapher would make detail­ed notes on the colours within the sce­ne and use the notes to hand paint the nega­ti­ve befo­re trans­fer­ring the image through colou­red gels onto the prin­ting plates.

Mono­chro­me (black and white) pho­to­gra­phy was first exem­pli­fied by the daguer­reo­ty­pe in 1839 and later impro­ved by other methods inclu­ding: calo­ty­pe, ambro­ty­pe, tin­ty­pe, albu­men print and gela­tin sil­ver print. The majo­ri­ty of pho­to­gra­phy remain­ed mono­chro­me until the mid-20th century.

The so-cal­led gol­den age of hand-colou­red pho­to­gra­phy in the wes­tern hemi­sphe­re occur­red bet­ween 1900 and 1940. The increased demand for hand-colou­red land­scape pho­to­gra­phy at the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tu­ry is attri­bu­ted to the work of Wal­lace Nut­ting. Nut­ting, a New Eng­land minis­ter, pur­sued hand-colou­red land­scape pho­to­gra­phy as a hob­by until 1904, when he ope­ned a pro­fes­sio­nal stu­dio. He spent the next 35 years crea­ting hand-colou­red pho­to­graphs, and beca­me the best-sel­ling hand-colou­red pho­to­grapher of all time.

By the 1950s, the avai­la­bi­li­ty of colour film all but stop­ped the pro­duc­tion of hand-colou­red pho­to­graphs. In spi­te of the avai­la­bi­li­ty of high-qua­li­ty colour pro­ces­ses, hand-colou­red pho­to­graphs (often com­bi­ned with sepia ton­ing) are still popu­lar for aes­the­tic reasons and becau­se the pig­ments used have gre­at per­ma­nence. In many count­ries whe­re colour film was rare or expen­si­ve, or whe­re colour pro­ces­sing was unavailable, hand-colou­ring con­tin­ued to be used and some­ti­mes pre­fer­red into the 1980s. More recent­ly, digi­tal image pro­ces­sing has been used – par­ti­cu­lar­ly in adver­ti­sing – to recrea­te the appearance and effects of hand-colou­ring. Colou­ri­sa­ti­on is now available to the pho­to­grapher using image mani­pu­la­ti­on soft­ware such as Ado­be Pho­to­shop, Corel Draw or Gimp.

Digi­tal pho­to­graph restoration

The con­ser­va­ti­on and res­to­ra­ti­on of pho­to­graphs is a new branch of pho­to­gra­phy in which the phy­si­cal care and tre­at­ment of pho­to­gra­phic mate­ri­als beco­mes signi­fi­cant to his­to­ri­ans. It covers both efforts under­ta­ken by pho­to­graph con­ser­va­tors, libra­ri­ans, archi­vists, and muse­um cura­tors who mana­ge pho­to­graph coll­ec­tions at a varie­ty of cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ge insti­tu­ti­ons, as well as steps taken to pre­ser­ve coll­ec­tions of per­so­nal and fami­ly photographs.

Pho­to­graph pre­ser­va­ti­on is distin­gu­is­hed from digi­tal or opti­cal res­to­ra­ti­on, which is con­cer­ned with crea­ting and editing a digi­tal copy of the ori­gi­nal image rather than trea­ting the ori­gi­nal pho­to­gra­phic mate­ri­al. Digi­tal pho­to­graph res­to­ra­ti­on is the prac­ti­ce of res­to­ring the appearance of a digi­tal copy of a phy­si­cal pho­to­graph which has been dama­ged by natu­ral, man-made, or envi­ron­men­tal cau­ses or sim­ply affec­ted by age or neglect.

Digi­tal pho­to­graph res­to­ra­ti­on uses a varie­ty of image editing tech­ni­ques to remo­ve visi­ble dama­ge and aging effects from digi­tal copies of phy­si­cal pho­to­graphs. Ras­ter gra­phics edi­tors are typi­cal­ly used to repair the appearance of the digi­tal images and add to the digi­tal copy to replace torn or miss­ing pie­ces of the phy­si­cal pho­to­graph. Evi­dence of dirt, and scrat­ches, and other signs of pho­to­gra­phic age are remo­ved from the digi­tal image manu­al­ly, by pain­ting over them meti­cu­lous­ly. Unwan­ted colour casts are remo­ved and the image’s con­trast or shar­pe­ning may be alte­red in an attempt to res­to­re some of the con­trast ran­ge or detail that is belie­ved to have been in the ori­gi­nal phy­si­cal image. Image pro­ces­sing tech­ni­ques such as image enhance­ment and image res­to­ra­ti­on are also appli­ca­ble for the pur­po­se of digi­tal pho­to­graph restoration.

Histo­ry was never just grey, as mono­chro­me pho­to­graphs may sug­gest, but colourful and vivid. As black-and-white pho­to­graphs dis­play only a limi­t­ed ran­ge of three-dimen­sio­nal depth by lack of colour, added infor­ma­ti­on by colou­ri­sa­ti­on can con­tri­bu­te to edu­ca­ti­on of histo­ry. This infor­ma­ti­on is usual­ly retrie­ved from writ­ten phy­si­cal descrip­ti­ons, from pain­tings, from dis­plays of items and clo­thes in muse­ums, and to some ext­ent from the grey tones of the pho­to­graph its­elf. Alt­hough the colou­ri­sa­ti­on of pho­to­graphs and films is the­r­e­fo­re an expres­si­on of art, it can bring a bygo­ne age clo­ser to the spec­ta­tor than just rea­ding about it ever could do.

Hen­field and Photography

Due to his stu­dies of archaeo­lo­gi­cal and his­to­ri­cal docu­ments, Hen­field work­ed as pho­to­grapher and in a pho­to lab as well. During this time, he found out how to turn mono­chro­me pho­to­graphs into colour pho­to­graphs. Lord Henfield’s colou­ri­sed pho­to­graphs imi­ta­te the che­mi­cal struc­tures of colour nega­ti­ves on Cel­lu­loid film in an elec­tro­nic way. Hen­field has cho­sen the mate­ri­al of Mathew Bra­dy for the simp­le reason that the qua­li­ty of Brady’s pho­to­graphs is so crisp, sharp, and clear that it has sur­pas­sed the pho­to qua­li­ty of any other pho­to­grapher for almost 100 years.

MATHEW B. BRADY

Mathew Ben­ja­min Bra­dy (c. 1822 – 1824 – Janu­ary 15, 1896) was one of the ear­liest pho­to­graph­ers in Ame­ri­can histo­ry. Best known for his sce­nes of the Civil War, he stu­di­ed under inven­tor Samu­el F. B. Mor­se, who pio­nee­red the daguer­reo­ty­pe tech­ni­que in Ame­ri­ca. Bra­dy ope­ned his own stu­dio in New York City in 1844, and pho­to­gra­phed Andrew Jack­son, John Quin­cy Adams, and Abra­ham Lin­coln, among other public figures.

When the Civil War star­ted, his use of a mobi­le stu­dio and dark­room enab­led vivid batt­le­field pho­to­graphs that brought home the rea­li­ty of war to the public. Thou­sands of war sce­nes were cap­tu­red, as well as por­traits of gene­rals and poli­ti­ci­ans on both sides of the con­flict, though many of the­se were taken by his assistants, rather than by Bra­dy hims­elf. After the war, the­se pic­tures went out of fashion, and the govern­ment did not purcha­se the mas­ter-copies as he had anti­ci­pa­ted. Brady’s for­tu­nes decli­ned shar­ply, and he died in debt.

His Life

Bra­dy left litt­le record of his life befo­re pho­to­gra­phy. Spea­king to the press in the last years of his life, he sta­ted that he was born bet­ween 1822 and 1824 in War­ren Coun­ty, New York, near Lake Geor­ge. He was the youn­gest of three child­ren to Irish immi­grant par­ents, Andrew and Saman­tha Julia Bra­dy. In offi­ci­al docu­ments befo­re and during the war, howe­ver, he clai­med to have been born hims­elf in Ire​land​.At age 16, Bra­dy moved to Sara­to­ga, New York, whe­re he met por­trait pain­ter Wil­liam Page and beca­me Page’s stu­dent. In 1839, the two tra­ve­led to Alba­ny, New York, and then to New York City, whe­re Bra­dy con­tin­ued to stu­dy pain­ting with Page, and also with Page’s for­mer tea­cher, Samu­el F. B. Mor­se. Mor­se had met Lou­is Jac­ques Daguer­re in France in 1839, and retur­ned to the US to enthu­si­a­sti­cal­ly push the new daguer­reo­ty­pe inven­ti­on of cap­tu­ring images. At first, Brady’s invol­vement was limi­t­ed to manu­fac­tu­ring lea­ther cases that held daguer­reo­ty­pes. But soon he beca­me the cent­re of the New York artis­tic colo­ny that wis­hed to stu­dy pho­to­gra­phy. Mor­se ope­ned a stu­dio and offe­red clas­ses; Bra­dy was one of the first students.

In 1844, Bra­dy ope­ned his own pho­to­gra­phy stu­dio at the cor­ner of Broad­way and Ful­ton Street in New York, and by 1845, he began to exhi­bit his por­traits of famous Ame­ri­cans, inclu­ding the likes of Sena­tor Dani­el Webs­ter and poet Edgar Allan Poe. In 1849, he ope­ned a stu­dio at 625 Penn­syl­va­nia Ave­nue in Washing­ton, D.C., whe­re he met Juliet Han­dy (often just cal­led ‘Julia’), whom he mar­ried in 1850 and lived with on Sta­ten Island. Brady’s ear­ly images were daguer­reo­ty­pes, and he won many awards for his work; in the 1850s ambro­ty­pe pho­to­gra­phy beca­me popu­lar, which gave way to the albu­men print, a paper pho­to­graph pro­du­ced from lar­ge glass nega­ti­ves most com­mon­ly used in the Ame­ri­can Civil War photography.

In 1850, Bra­dy pro­du­ced The Gal­lery of Illus­trious Ame­ri­cans, a por­trait coll­ec­tion of pro­mi­nent con­tem­po­ra­ry figu­res. The album, which fea­tured note­wor­t­hy images inclu­ding the elder­ly Andrew Jack­son at the Her­mi­ta­ge, was not finan­ci­al­ly rewar­ding but invi­ted increased atten­ti­on to Brady’s work and arti­stry. In 1854, Pari­si­an pho­to­grapher André-Adol­phe-Eugè­ne Dis­dé­ri popu­la­ri­sed the car­te de visi­te and the­se small pic­tures (the size of a visi­ting card) rapidly beca­me a popu­lar novel­ty; thou­sands were crea­ted and sold in the United Sta­tes and Europe.

In 1856, Bra­dy pla­ced an ad in the New York Herald offe­ring to pro­du­ce “pho­to­graphs, ambro­ty­pes and daguer­reo­ty­pes.” This inven­ti­ve ad pio­nee­red, in the US, the use of type­face and fonts that were distinct from the text of the publi­ca­ti­on and from that of other advertisements.

Civil War documentation

At first, the effect of the Civil War on Brady’s busi­ness was a brisk increase in sales of car­tes de visi­te to depar­ting sol­diers. Bra­dy rea­di­ly mar­ke­ted to par­ents the idea of cap­tu­ring their young sol­diers’ images befo­re they might be lost to war by run­ning an ad in The New York Dai­ly Tri­bu­ne that war­ned, “You can­not tell how soon it may be too late.” Howe­ver, he was soon taken with the idea of docu­men­ting the war its­elf. He first appli­ed to an old fri­end, Gene­ral Win­field Scott, for per­mis­si­on to have his pho­to­graph­ers tra­vel to the batt­le sites, and even­tual­ly, he made his appli­ca­ti­on to Pre­si­dent Lin­coln hims­elf. Lin­coln gran­ted per­mis­si­on in 1861, with the pro­vi­so that Bra­dy finan­ce the pro­ject himself.

His efforts to docu­ment the Ame­ri­can Civil War on a grand sca­le by brin­ging his pho­to­gra­phic stu­dio onto the batt­le­fields ear­ned Bra­dy his place in histo­ry. Despi­te the dan­gers, finan­cial risk, and dis­cou­ra­ge­ment by his fri­ends, Bra­dy was later quo­ted as say­ing “I had to go. A spi­rit in my feet said ‘Go,’ and I went.” His first popu­lar pho­to­graphs of the con­flict were at the First Batt­le of Bull Run, in which he got so clo­se to the action that he bare­ly avo­ided cap­tu­re. While most of the time the batt­le had cea­sed befo­re pic­tures were taken, Bra­dy came under direct fire at the First Batt­le of Bull Run, Peters­burg, and Fredericksburg.

He also employ­ed Alex­an­der Gard­ner, James Gard­ner, Timo­thy H. O’Sul­li­van, Wil­liam Pywell, Geor­ge N. Bar­nard, Tho­mas C. Roche, and seven­teen other men, each of whom was given a tra­ve­ling dark­room, to go out and pho­to­graph sce­nes from the Civil War. Bra­dy gene­ral­ly stay­ed in Washing­ton, D.C., orga­ni­zing his assistants and rare­ly visi­ted batt­le­fields per­so­nal­ly. Howe­ver, as aut­hor Roy Mer­edith points out, “He [Bra­dy] was essen­ti­al­ly the direc­tor. The actu­al ope­ra­ti­on of the came­ra though mecha­ni­cal is important, but the sel­ec­tion of the sce­ne to be pho­to­gra­phed is as important, if not more so than just ’snap­ping the shutter.’ ”

This may have been due, at least in part, to the fact that Brady’s eye­sight had begun to dete­rio­ra­te in the 1850s. Many of the images in Brady’s coll­ec­tion are, in rea­li­ty, thought to be the work of his assistants. Bra­dy was cri­ti­cis­ed for fai­ling to docu­ment the work, though it is unclear whe­ther it was inten­tio­nal or due sim­ply to a lack of incli­na­ti­on to docu­ment the pho­to­grapher of a spe­ci­fic image. Becau­se so much of Brady’s pho­to­gra­phy is miss­ing infor­ma­ti­on, it is dif­fi­cult to know not only who took the pic­tu­re, but also exact­ly when or whe­re it was taken.

In Octo­ber 1862 Bra­dy ope­ned an exhi­bi­ti­on of pho­to­graphs from the Batt­le of Antie­tam in his New York gal­lery, titled The Dead of Antie­tam. Many images in this pre­sen­ta­ti­on were gra­phic pho­to­graphs of corp­ses, a pre­sen­ta­ti­on new to Ame­ri­ca. This was the first time that many Ame­ri­cans saw the rea­li­ties of war in pho­to­graphs, as distinct from pre­vious “artists’ impressions”.

Mathew Bra­dy, through his many paid assistants, took thou­sands of pho­tos of Ame­ri­can Civil War sce­nes. Much of the popu­lar under­stan­ding of the Civil War comes from the­se pho­tos. The­re are thou­sands of pho­tos in the US Natio­nal Archi­ves and the Libra­ry of Con­gress taken by Bra­dy and his asso­cia­tes, Alex­an­der Gard­ner, Geor­ge Bar­nard and Timo­thy O’Sul­li­van. The pho­to­graphs include Lin­coln, Grant, and sol­diers in camps and batt­le­fields. The images pro­vi­de a pic­to­ri­al cross refe­rence of Ame­ri­can Civil War histo­ry. Bra­dy was not able to pho­to­graph actu­al batt­le sce­nes, as the pho­to­gra­phic equip­ment in tho­se days was still in the infan­cy of its tech­ni­cal deve­lo­p­ment and requi­red that a sub­ject be still for a clear pho­to to be produced.

Fol­lo­wing the con­flict, a war-wea­ry public lost inte­rest in see­ing pho­tos of the war, and Brady’s popu­la­ri­ty and prac­ti­ce decli­ned drastically.

Later years

During the war, Bra­dy spent over $100,000 (equi­va­lent to $1,691,000 in 2020) to crea­te over 10,000 pla­tes. He expec­ted the US govern­ment to buy the pho­to­graphs when the war ended. When the govern­ment refu­sed to do so he was forced to sell his New York City stu­dio and go into bank­rupt­cy. Con­gress gran­ted Bra­dy $25,000 in 1875, but he remain­ed deep­ly in debt. The public was unwil­ling to dwell on the grue­so­men­ess of the war after it had ended, and so pri­va­te coll­ec­tors were scarce.

Depres­sed by his finan­cial situa­ti­on and loss of eye­sight, and devas­ta­ted by the death of his wife in 1887, he died pen­ni­less in the cha­ri­ty ward of Pres­by­te­ri­an Hos­pi­tal in New York City on Janu­ary 15, 1896, from com­pli­ca­ti­ons fol­lo­wing a street­car acci­dent. Brady’s fun­e­ral was finan­ced by veterans of the 7th New York Inf­an­try. He was buried in the Con­gres­sio­nal Ceme­tery, which is loca­ted in Bar­ney Cir­cle, a neigh­bour­hood in the Sou­the­ast qua­drant of Washing­ton, D.C.

Brady’s Lega­cy

Bra­dy pho­to­gra­phed 18 of the 19 Ame­ri­can pre­si­dents from John Quin­cy Adams to Wil­liam McKin­ley. The excep­ti­on was the 9th Pre­si­dent, Wil­liam Hen­ry Har­ri­son, who died in office three years befo­re Bra­dy star­ted his pho­to­gra­phic coll­ec­tion. Bra­dy pho­to­gra­phed Abra­ham Lin­coln on many occa­si­ons. His Lin­coln pho­to­graphs have been used for the $5 bill, on the Lin­coln pen­ny and on the 90c Lin­coln Post­age stamp issue of 1869.

The thou­sands of pho­to­graphs which Mathew Brady’s pho­to­graph­ers (such as Alex­an­der Gard­ner and Timo­thy O’Sul­li­van) took have beco­me the most important visu­al docu­men­ta­ti­on of the Civil War, and have hel­ped his­to­ri­ans and the public bet­ter under­stand the era. The his­to­ri­an Lord Hen­field has used seve­ral dozen of them for colou­ri­sa­ti­on. Many hundreds of them were used by Ken Burns in his 9‑episode docu­men­ta­ry TV and video series The Civil War. Thou­sands of Brady’s pho­to­graphs are acces­si­ble and now available for down­load as tiff-files from the web­site of the Libra­ray of Congress.

Bra­dy pho­to­gra­phed and made por­traits of many seni­or Uni­on offi­cers in the war, including:

• Ulys­ses S. Grant• Natha­ni­el Banks• Don Car­los Buell• Ambro­se Burn­si­de• Ben­ja­min But­ler• Joshua Cham­ber­lain• Geor­ge Cus­ter• David Farr­a­gut• John Gib­bon• Win­field Han­cock• Samu­el P. Heint­zel­man• Joseph Hoo­ker• Oli­ver Otis Howard• David Hun­ter• John A. Logan• Irvin McDo­well• Geor­ge McClel­lan• James McPher­son• Geor­ge Mea­de• Mont­go­me­ry C. Meigs• David Dixon Por­ter• Wil­liam Rose­crans• John Schofield• Wil­liam Sher­man• Dani­el Sick­les• Hen­ry War­ner Slo­cum• Geor­ge Stone­man• Edwin V. Sum­ner• Geor­ge Tho­mas• Emo­ry Upt­on• James Wadsworth• Lew Wal­lace­On the Con­fe­de­ra­te side, Bra­dy pho­to­gra­phed:• Jef­fer­son Davis• Robert E. Lee• P. G. T. Beau­re­gard• Stone­wall Jack­son• Albert Pike• James Long­street• James Hen­ry Ham­mond• Hen­ry Hop­kins Sibley

Bra­dy also pho­to­gra­phed thou­sands of other per­ple, from Lord Lyons, the Bri­tish ambassa­dor to Washing­ton during the Civil War, to Pedro II, emper­or of Brazil.

Pho­to­jour­na­lism and honours

Bra­dy is cre­di­ted with being the father of photojournalism.[19] He can also be con­side­red a pio­neer in the orchestra­ti­on of a “cor­po­ra­te cre­dit line.” In this prac­ti­ce, every image pro­du­ced in his gal­lery was labe­led “Pho­to by Bra­dy”; howe­ver, Bra­dy dealt direct­ly with only the most distin­gu­is­hed sub­jects and most por­trait ses­si­ons were car­ri­ed out by others.

As per­haps the best-known US pho­to­grapher in the 19th cen­tu­ry, it was Brady’s name that came to be atta­ched to the era’s hea­vy spe­cia­li­sed end tables which were fac­to­ry-made spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for use by por­trait pho­to­graph­ers. Such a “Bra­dy stand” of the mid-19th cen­tu­ry typi­cal­ly had a weigh­ty cast iron base for sta­bi­li­ty, plus an adjus­ta­ble-height sin­gle-column pipe leg for dual use as eit­her a por­trait model’s arm­rest or (when ful­ly exten­ded and fit­ted with a brace attach­ment rather than the usu­al table­top) as a neck rest. The lat­ter was often nee­ded to keep models ste­ady during the lon­ger expo­sure times of ear­ly pho­to­gra­phy. While Bra­dy stand is a con­ve­ni­ent term for the­se trade-spe­ci­fic artic­les of stu­dio equip­ment, the­re is no pro­ven con­nec­tion bet­ween Bra­dy hims­elf and the Bra­dy stand’s inven­ti­on cir­ca 1855.

In 2013, Bra­dy Street in Tul­sa, Okla­ho­ma, was offi­ci­al­ly ren­a­med “Mathew Bra­dy Street.” The ori­gi­nal name­sa­ke Bra­dy was W. Tate Bra­dy, a pro­mi­nent busi­ness­man in Tulsa’s ear­ly histo­ry, who had con­ne­xi­ons to the Ku Klux Klan and other racist orga­ni­sa­ti­ons. Fol­lo­wing con­sidera­ble con­tro­ver­sy, the City Coun­cil of Tul­sa, OK on August 15, 2013, voted to retain the name Bra­dy for the street, but that it would now refer to and honor Mathew B. Bra­dy ins­tead. Mathew Bra­dy never visi­ted Tul­sa in his lifetime.

Books and documentaries

Bra­dy and his Stu­dio pro­du­ced over 7,000 pic­tures (most­ly two nega­ti­ves of each). One set “after under­go­ing extra­or­di­na­ry vicis­si­tu­des,” came into U.S. govern­ment pos­ses­si­on. His own nega­ti­ves pas­sed in the 1870s to E. & H. T. Antho­ny & Com­pa­ny of New York, in default of pay­ment for pho­to­gra­phic sup­pli­es. They “were kicked about from pil­lar to post” for 10 years, until John C. Tay­lor found them in an attic and bought them; from this they beca­me “the back­bone of the Ord­way – Rand coll­ec­tion; and in 1895 Bra­dy hims­elf had no idea of what had beco­me of them. Many were bro­ken, lost, or des­troy­ed by fire. After pas­sing to various other owners, they were dis­co­ver­ed and app­re­cia­ted by Edward Bai­ley Eaton,” who set in moti­on “events that led to their importance as the nucleus of a coll­ec­tion of Civil War pho­tos published in 1912 as The Pho­to­gra­phic Histo­ry of the Civil War.

Some of the lost images are men­tio­ned in the last epi­so­de of Ken Burns’ 1990 docu­men­ta­ry on the Civil War. Burns claims that glass pla­te nega­ti­ves were often sold to gar­den­ers, not for their images, but for the glass its­elf to be used in green­hou­ses and cold frames. In the years that fol­lo­wed the end of the war, the sun slow­ly bur­ned away their fil­my images and they were lost.

Exhi­bi­ti­ons

On Sep­tem­ber 19, 1862, two days after the Batt­le of Antie­tam, the bloo­diest day of com­bat on U.S. soil with more than 23,000 kil­led, woun­ded or miss­ing, Mathew Bra­dy sent pho­to­grapher Alex­an­der Gard­ner and his assistant James Gib­son to pho­to­graph the car­na­ge. In Octo­ber 1862, Bra­dy dis­play­ed the pho­tos by Gard­ner at Brady’s New York gal­lery under the title “The Dead of Antie­tam.” The New York Times published a review. In Octo­ber 2012, the Natio­nal Muse­um of Civil War Medi­ci­ne dis­play­ed 21 ori­gi­nal Mathew Bra­dy pho­to­graphs from 1862 docu­men­ting the Civil War’s Batt­le of Antietam.

ADDITIONAL TEXT BY YALE UNIVERSITY

Mathew B. Bra­dy and Levin Cor­bin Han­dy Pho­to­gra­phic Stu­di­os Coll­ec­tion­Coll­ec­tion Call Num­ber: GEN MSS 580

Over­view

Pho­to­graphs, papers, and arti­facts crea­ted or coll­ec­ted by Mathew B. Bra­dy, Levin Cor­bin han­dy, their stu­di­os, and their fami­ly, 1843 – 1957. The coll­ec­tion includes images crea­ted by Bra­dy during the Ame­ri­can Civil War and docu­ments the con­ti­nu­al use of the­se images into the ear­ly twen­tieth cen­tu­ry by Han­dy and his stu­dio. The coll­ec­tion reflects the ope­ra­ti­ons of the Bra­dy and Han­dy stu­di­os in Washing­ton, D.C., from the midd­le of the nine­te­enth cen­tu­ry through the ear­ly twen­tieth cen­tu­ry. It con­ta­ins work by other pho­to­graph­ers and other stu­di­os coll­ec­ted by Han­dy, as well as came­ra len­ses and other pho­to­gra­phic arti­facts. A small group of papers docu­ment aspects of the exten­ded Han­dy fami­ly history.

Mathew B. Bra­dy (cir­ca 1823 – 1896)

Mathew B. [Ben­ja­min] Bra­dy (cir­ca 1823 – 1896) was an Ame­ri­can pho­to­grapher who achie­ved pro­mi­nence through his por­trait pho­to­graphs and his orga­niza­ti­on of pho­to­graph­ers to docu­ment the Ame­ri­can Civil War from his stu­dio in Washing­ton, D.C.

Born in War­ren Coun­ty, New York, to Irish immi­grant par­ents, Bra­dy lear­ned the daguer­reo­ty­pe pro­cess in Sara­to­ga, New York. By 1844, he ope­ra­ted a daguer­reo­ty­pe stu­dio in New York, New York. The fol­lo­wing year he estab­lished his gal­lery of illus­trious Ame­ri­cans, which con­sis­ted of daguer­reo­ty­pe por­traits of Ame­ri­can cele­bri­ties, he published a por­ti­on as litho­gra­phic repro­duc­tions in 1850.

In 1849, Bra­dy estab­lished a stu­dio in Washing­ton D.C., with the expec­ta­ti­on of crea­ting por­traits of sena­tors and con­gres­sio­nal repre­sen­ta­ti­ves, but he clo­sed it within a year due to high ope­ra­ting expen­ses and local com­pe­ti­ti­on. While in Washing­ton, he met Juli­et­te Han­dy, whom he mar­ried two years later. Around this time, Brady’s eye­sight began to fail and he con­cen­tra­ted on the manage­ment of his stu­di­os, which included posing sit­ters for their por­traits, while employees crea­ted the pho­to­graphs. In 1853, he ope­ned a second stu­dio in New York, New York.

In 1858, Bra­dy re-estab­lished a stu­dio in Washing­ton D.C., with Alex­an­der Gard­ner as his pri­ma­ry pho­to­grapher. With the onset of the Ame­ri­can Civil War, Bra­dy orga­ni­zed a corps of pho­to­graph­ers and assistants to docu­ment the peo­p­le, events, and loca­les of the war. Pho­to­graph­ers in this group included Geor­ge N. Bar­nard, Alex­an­der Gard­ner, James Gard­ner, Timo­thy H. O’Sul­li­van, Wil­liam Pywell, and Tho­mas C. Roche. The pho­to­graph­ers crea­ted con­ven­tio­nal por­traits of indi­vi­du­als and groups, views of mili­ta­ry encamp­ments, and the after­math of batt­les. Images published or adapt­ed as engra­vings in publi­ca­ti­ons had the cre­dit “Pho­to­graph by Brady.

Bra­dy sought to mar­ket images of the Ame­ri­can Civil War with litt­le suc­cess. During the war, he trans­fer­red many ori­gi­nal glass pla­te nega­ti­ves to the pho­to­gra­phic sup­p­ly firm of E. & H. T. Antho­ny & Com­pa­ny to sett­le his debts with the com­pa­ny. In 1942, the Libra­ry of Con­gress purcha­sed much of this mate­ri­al, whe­re it beca­me the Antho­ny-Tay­lor-Rand-Ord­way-Eaton Collection.

Bra­dy spent an esti­ma­ted $100,000 to print ten thousand pho­to­gra­phic prints docu­men­ting the Ame­ri­can Civil War, but a lack of cus­to­mers requi­red him to sell his stu­di­os in New York and Washing­ton and decla­re bank­rupt­cy. In 1875, he final­ly sold a bulk of his pho­to­graphs to the United Sta­tes govern­ment for $25,000. Much of this mate­ri­al beca­me part of the files of the Depart­ment of War even­tual­ly depo­si­ted in the United Sta­tes Natio­nal Archi­ves and Records Admi­nis­tra­ti­on. Nevert­hel­ess, Bra­dy remain­ed deep­ly in debt​.By 1883, Bra­dy for­med a pho­to­gra­phic part­ner­ship with his nephew, Levin Cor­bin Han­dy, and Samu­el C. Ches­ter, to mar­ket images from the Ame­ri­can Civil War and main­tain a pho­to­gra­phic stu­dio in Washing­ton. In 1887, Juli­et­te Han­dy Bra­dy died. Bra­dy con­tin­ued to face finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties through the rema­in­der of his life. On Janu­ary 15, 1896, Bra­dy died in the cha­ri­ty ward of Pres­by­te­ri­an Hos­pi­tal in New York, New York, from com­pli­ca­ti­ons fol­lo­wing a street­car acci­dent. After his death, his remai­ning pho­to­gra­phy files beca­me the pro­per­ty of Levin Cor­bin Handy.

Levin Cor­bin Handy

Levin Cor­bin Han­dy (1855 – 1932), an Ame­ri­can pho­to­grapher, was a nephew and for­mer app­ren­ti­ce of Mathew B. Bra­dy. Born in Washing­ton, D.C., the son of Samu­el S. Han­dy and Mary A. Han­dy, Han­dy began working in the Bra­dy stu­dio as an app­ren­ti­ce in 1867. He soon demons­tra­ted hims­elf as a skil­led came­ra ope­ra­tor, and estab­lished his own pho­to­gra­phic busi­ness in Washing­ton by 1871.

Around 1880, Han­dy ente­red a pho­to­gra­phic part­ner­ship with Samu­el C. Ches­ter. They ope­ra­ted a stu­dio in Cape May, New Jer­sey in 1882. By 1883, Han­dy and Ches­ter part­ne­red with Bra­dy to mar­ket images from the Ame­ri­can Civil War. Ches­ter ulti­m­ate­ly left the part­ner­ship, while Han­dy main­tai­ned the stu­dio at his home and stu­dio loca­ted at 494 Mary­land Ave­nue Sou­thwest, Washing­ton, D.C. When Mathew B. Bra­dy died in 1896, his remai­ning pho­to­gra­phy files beca­me the pro­per­ty of Handy.

In Washing­ton, the L.C. Han­dy Stu­dio offe­red an array of tra­di­tio­nal pho­to­gra­phic ser­vices, in par­ti­cu­lar to the Libra­ry of Con­gress and other govern­men­tal agen­ci­es. He also pro­vi­ded pho­to­graph dupli­ca­ti­on ser­vices to patrons of the Libra­ry of Con­gress and to mem­bers of the United Sta­tes Congress.

Han­dy died at his home on March 23, 1932. He bequea­thed his stu­dio and pho­to­gra­phic files, inclu­ding his coll­ec­tion of Mathew B. Bra­dy, to his daugh­ters, Ali­ce H. Cox and Mary H. Evans. In 1954, the Libra­ry of Con­gress purcha­sed appro­xi­m­ate­ly ten thousand ori­gi­nal, dupli­ca­te, and copy nega­ti­ves from Cox and Evans.

Pro­ces­sing Information

Upon acqui­si­ti­on, the Mathew B. Bra­dy and Levin Cor­bin Han­dy Pho­to­gra­phic Stu­di­os Coll­ec­tion had no dis­cer­ni­ble order and many items had dama­ge or soi­ling. A group of fle­xi­ble pho­to­gra­phic nega­ti­ves were dis­card­ed due to seve­re deterioration.

The pro­ces­sing archi­vist did not distin­gu­ish the rank of mili­ta­ry offi­cers and sol­diers in the pho­to­gra­phic imagery, nor estab­lish indi­vi­du­al pho­to­graph­ers or dates of images.

In April 2015, libra­ry staff revi­sed the fin­ding aid to reflect the sto­rage of pho­to­gra­phic mate­ri­al on bro­ken glass car­ri­ers, as well as cor­rec­ting typo­gra­phi­cal errors.

COLLECTION

Scope and Contents

This coll­ec­tion con­sists pri­ma­ri­ly of pho­to­graphs crea­ted by the stu­di­os of Mathew B. Bra­dy and his nephew and for­mer app­ren­ti­ce, Levin Cor­bin Han­dy, in Washing­ton, D.C.

The coll­ec­tion includes imagery crea­ted by pho­to­graph­ers employ­ed by Bra­dy during the Ame­ri­can Civil War and docu­ments his mar­ke­ting of that imagery, as well as the con­ti­nuing efforts of the Levin C. Han­dy Stu­dio to pro­mo­te and mar­ket this war­ti­me imagery into the ear­ly twen­tieth cen­tu­ry. The coll­ec­tion also docu­ments the func­tio­ning of pho­to­gra­phic stu­di­os in Washing­ton, D.C., from the midd­le of the nine­te­enth cen­tu­ry to the ear­ly twen­tieth cen­tu­ry, and the per­so­nal pho­to­gra­phy and papers of the Han­dy fami­ly. The coll­ec­tion includes the work of other pho­to­graph­ers and pho­to­gra­phic stu­di­os coll­ec­ted by Han­dy, as well as arti­facts rela­ted to photography.

This coll­ec­tion lar­ge­ly repres­ents pho­to­gra­phic mate­ri­al retai­ned by Handy’s daugh­ters. Other pho­to­gra­phic mate­ri­als crea­ted by Bra­dy and his stu­di­os were trans­fer­red to cre­di­tors during the Ame­ri­can Civil War, purcha­sed by the United Sta­tes govern­ment in 1875, or purcha­sed by Libra­ry of Con­gress in 1954. At the time of pro­ces­sing this coll­ec­tion, many of the images crea­ted by the Bra­dy stu­dio were available in digi­tal form from the United Sta­tes Natio­nal Archi­ves and Records Admi­nis­tra­ti­on and the Libra­ry of Con­gress via the Internet.

Each fol­der in the coll­ec­tion con­ta­ins a sin­gle pho­to­gra­phic print, except whe­re two or more pho­to­gra­phic prints are noted, and each slee­ve con­ta­ins a sin­gle pho­to­gra­phic nega­ti­ve, except whe­re two or more film nega­ti­ves are noted.

Dates: 1843 — 1957; Majo­ri­ty of mate­ri­al found within 1860 — 1935

Crea­tor: Bra­dy, Matthew B. [Ben­ja­min], appro­xi­m­ate­ly 1823 – 1896

Con­di­ti­ons Gover­ning Access

The mate­ri­als are open for research.

Con­di­ti­ons Gover­ning Use

The Mathew B. Bra­dy and Levin Cor­bin Han­dy Pho­to­gra­phic Stu­di­os Coll­ec­tion is the phy­si­cal pro­per­ty of the Beine­cke Rare Book and Manu­script Libra­ry, Yale Uni­ver­si­ty. Lite­ra­ry rights, inclu­ding copy­right, belong to the aut­hors or their legal heirs and assigns. For fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on, con­sult the appro­pria­te curator.

Imme­dia­te Source of Acquisition

Purcha­sed from the Wil­liam Ree­se Com­pa­ny on the Edwin J. Beine­cke Book Fund, 2006.

Arran­ge­ment

Orga­ni­zed into four series: I. Mathew B. Bra­dy Stu­dio. II. Levin Cor­bin Han­dy Stu­dio. III. Fami­ly Papers and Pho­to­graphs. IV. Coll­ec­ted Pho­to­graphs and Artifacts.

Within each series, the pho­to­gra­phic mate­ri­als are arran­ged accor­ding to for­mat and presentation.

Ext­ent

28.44 Line­ar Feet (76 boxes)

Lan­guage of Materials

Eng­lish

Cata­log Record

A record for this coll­ec­tion is available in Orbis, the Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Libra­ry catalog

Per­sis­tent URL

https://​archi​ve​.org/​d​e​t​a​i​l​s​/​u​t​e​-​c​h​i​e​f​-​o​u​r​a​y​-​w​i​f​e​-​c​h​i​p​e​t​a​-​w​h​i​t​e​-​h​o​u​s​e​-​w​a​s​h​i​n​g​t​o​n​-​1​8​8​0​-​r​e​s​t​o​r​e​d​-​c​o​l​o​u​r​i​s​e​d​-​b​y​-​l​o​r​d​-​h​e​n​f​i​e​l​d​-​2​007 11.7M

https://​www​.loc​.gov/​p​i​c​t​u​r​e​s​/​c​o​l​l​e​c​t​i​o​n​/​b​r​hc/

http://​hdl​.hand​le​.net/​1​0​0​7​9​/​f​a​/​b​e​i​n​e​c​k​e​.​b​r​a​d​y​h​a​ndy

https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​H​i​s​t​o​r​y​_​o​f​_​p​h​o​t​o​g​r​a​phy

0
The Coming War on China THE GRAND BIBLE — An Encyclopaedic Compilation Of The Original And Complete Contents Of Religious And Affiliated…

Keine Kommentare

No comments yet

Schreibe einen Kommentar

Deine E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht veröffentlicht. Erforderliche Felder sind mit * markiert