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Brady, one of the best known photographers of the Civil War, was born in 1823, and died in 1896. When he was 16, he arrived in New York. Soon after a job as a department store clerk, he started his own business manufacturing jewelry cases. In Brady's spare time, he studied photography under a number of teachers, including Samuel F.B.Morse, the man who had recently introduced photography to America.
Brady's efforts and talents paid off so well that he didn't have to seek
out clientele. His work and his friendly manner so charmed the members
of New York high society that by 1845 the celebrated "Brady of Broadway"
began to entertain lofty plans in history. Brady went to Washington D.C.
in 1849, where he soon married Juliet Handy. They traveled to Europe in
1851.
By 1844 Brady had his own photography studio in Washington D.C. As
he said to himself "From the first, I regarded myself as under obligation
to my country to preserve the faces of its historic men and mothers."
Brady become one of the first photographers to use photography to chronicle
national history. At the peak of his success as a portrait photographer,
Brady turned his attention to the Civil War. Friends tried to discourage
him because the battlefield dangers and financial risks, but Brady persisted.
In January 1858, he opened a studio on Pennsylvania Avenue, at the center
of Washington's business district which is halfway between the White
House and the Capitol. Alexander Gardner ran the new business while
Brady continued to bring customers and promote the studio.
In 1861, the Civil War began; Brady sent photographers out into the battlefield
to acquire portraits of the military leaders. Both Brady and Gardner
claimed credit for photographing the war. Many photographers followed
the army but most were only interested in the profits that came from maligned
portraits for solders to send home to family and friends.
The Civil War changed everything for Brady and for the nation. His
Civil War ventures are as crucial as the earlier portraiture to Brady's
renown as an historical figure. Brady's visionary understanding of
photography as a tool to serve posterity, and his obsession with self promotion
were not as compatible during the war as they had been during his galleries'
glory years. Brady's role during the war is sometimes, described
as more that of a curator-----he spent much of his energy collecting work
by some of the approximately three hundred other wartime photographers,
and securing copyrights on their photos.
On August 1824, Governor Arthur posted a reward for the capture of Brady
and others of his gang. During one altercation one of the gangs shot
and killed Thomas Renton, who they had accused of being an informer.
Brady was betrayed by an informer named Cowan who joined the gang in 1825,
resulting in a clash with soldiers of Lieutenant Williams' 40th Regiment,
which several gang members and soldiers were killed.
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