William Bradford Reed

1850s

His eyesight begins to fail

In the 1850s Brady’s eyesight begins to deteriorate; this may in part explain why he later rarely visited the battlefields himself and why many images in his collection are thought to be the work of his assistants.

1861

Lincoln permits him to photograph the war

Taken with the idea of documenting the war itself, Brady first asks his old friend General Winfield Scott, and then President Lincoln, for permission to send his photographers to the battle sites; Lincoln agrees in 1861 on condition that Brady finances the project himself. Despite the dangers, the financial risk and his friends’ discouragement, he said he simply had to go.

1861

Hires photographers with travelling darkrooms

He employs Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, William Pywell, George N. Barnard, Thomas C. Roche and seventeen other men, giving each a travelling darkroom. Brady himself generally resides in Washington, organizing his assistants and rarely visiting the battlefields, so many images in his collection are the work of his assistants.

1861

Under fire at Bull Run

His first popular photographs of the conflict are taken at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he gets so close to the action that he barely avoids capture; later he comes under direct fire at Petersburg and Fredericksburg.

1861

Offers parents portraits of departing soldiers

When the Civil War begins, sales of cartes de visite to departing soldiers rise briskly; in the New-York Daily Tribune Brady runs an advertisement warning parents that it may soon be too late to capture their sons’ likenesses.

1862

Exhibition “The Dead of Antietam”

He opens, in his New York gallery, an exhibition of photographs of the Battle of Antietam; many of the images show corpses, a presentation new to America — the first time many Americans saw the realities of war in photographs rather than in artists’ impressions.