Wonderful Collection of Civil War Views by Famed Photographer Alexander Gardner

Along with Mathew Brady, Scotsman Alexander Gardner was one of the premier photographers of the Civil War. After witnessing the first Battle of Bull Run, Brady decided to photograph the conflict and sent more than twenty photographers into the field, including Gardner. In November 1861, Gardner received the honorary rank of Captain on the staff of General George B. McClellan. He photographed various areas of Virginia and the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam in Maryland and the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia. Late in 1862, Gardner separated from Brady and opened his own studio in Washington in the spring of 1863, hiring many of Brady’s former staff. Gardner later photographed scenes after the Battle of Gettysburg and the siege of Petersburg. His photographers also captured images of Confederate fortifications on the North Carolina coast after the Battles for Fort Fisher.

Gardner’s photographs of the dead on the battlefield at Antietam were exhibited at Brady’s studio in New York City. Although Brady, rather than Gardner, received the public credit, the effect was electric. On October 20, 1862, the New York Times observed, “Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our dooryards and along the streets, he has done something very like it.... By the aid of the magnifying glass, the very features of the slain may be distinguished.”

[CIVIL WAR.] Archive of 13 photographs (1 duplicate), each approximately 7.75ʺ x 9.75ʺ. Some edge tears or small losses; some staining; some paper repairs on versos; overall good.

This remarkable collection of images includes the following Civil War scenes, all of which appeared in Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, published in 1866:
1.Battery No. 1, near Yorktown, Virginia, May 1862
2.Ruins of the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, August 1862
3.Marshall House, Alexandria, Virginia, August 1862
4.Fredericksburg, Virginia, February 1863
5.Fairfax Court-House, Virginia, June 1863
6.Group of Confederate Prisoners at Fairfax Court-House, Virginia, June 1863
7.Dutch Gap Canal, James River, Virginia, March 1864
8.Dutch Gap Canal, James River, Virginia, March 1864
9.Battery Lamb, Fort Fisher, North Carolina, January 1865
10.Battery Buchanan, North Carolina, January 1865
11.Aiken House on the Weldon Railroad, Virginia, February 1865
12.Appomattox Station, Virginia, April 1865
13.Mechanicsville, Virginia, April 1865

Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) was born in Scotland and was apprenticed to a jeweler. He raised money to begin a socialist cooperative in Iowa but never lived there. He became owner and editor of the Glasgow Sentinel in 1851. His interest in photography began when he saw images by Mathew Brady at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1856 and began working with Brady as a photographer. In 1858, Brady placed Gardner in charge of his gallery in Washington, D.C. He made many portrait photographs in the first year of the Civil War, including several of President Abraham Lincoln. He served as a staff photographer under General George B. McClellan until McClellan’s dismissal late in 1862. He later followed General Ambrose E. Burnside and General Joseph Hooker and photographed several Civil War battles. He and his brother opened their own studio in Washington, D.C., in May 1863. In 1866, he published the two-volume Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War with one hundred hand-mounted original prints, but the book did not sell well. He also documented Lincoln’s funeral and the assassination of the Lincoln conspirators. He also photographed Native American leaders who came to Washington but gave up photography after 1871 and founded an insurance company.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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