Mathew Brady, short of funds and wanting his Civil War photos preserved, petitioned Congress in 1869 to purchase his collection. congress declined his request, but through efforts of Representatives James Garfield of Ohio and Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts bought part of Brady's archive in 1875. congress acquired additional Brady photos over the next eighty years.
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
Memorial of Matthew [Mathew] Brady regarding the purchase of his collection of photographs, February 17, 1869
Photographing the Civil War
Mathew Brady’s Civil War photographs at the Library of Congress constitute one of the most significant historical resources of the period. Brady, a New York portrait photographer, opened a studio in Washington, D.C., in 1858. Throughout the war, Brady’s staff photographed soldiers, battlefields, and related incidents on glass-plate negatives. The images, sold as prints, reproduced in books, and converted to illustrations for newspapers, were the first to document an American war. Congress acquired the collection between 1875 and 1954 to preserve this visual history for future generations.
Mathew Brady, short of funds and wanting his Civil War photos preserved, petitioned Congress in 1869 to purchase his collection. congress declined his request, but through efforts of Representatives James Garfield of Ohio and Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts bought part of Brady's archive in 1875. congress acquired additional Brady photos over the next eighty years.
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
