Brady, Mathew B.

Brady, Mathew B.
born с 1823, near Lake George, N.Y., U.S.
died Jan. 15, 1896, New York, N.Y.

U.S. photographer.

He learned to make daguerreotypes from Samuel F.B. Morse. In 1844 he opened the first of two studios in New York City and began photographing famous people (including Daniel Webster, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry Clay). In 1847 Brady opened a studio in Washington, D.C., and there created, copied, and collected portraits of U.S. presidents. He achieved international fame with A Gallery of Illustrious Americans (1850). In 1861 he set out to make a complete record of the American Civil War with a staff of more than 20 photographers, including Timothy H. O'Sullivan and Alexander Gardner. He probably photographed the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg himself.

* * *

▪ American photographer
born c. 1823, near Lake George, N.Y., U.S.
died Jan. 15, 1896, New York, N.Y.
 well-known 19th-century American photographer who was celebrated for his portraits of politicians and his photographs of the American Civil War.

      After training with the artist William Page (Page, William) and the artist and inventor Samuel F.B. Morse (Morse, Samuel F.B.), Brady began to make daguerreotype cases and frames and then opened his first daguerreotype studio in New York City in 1844, a second in Washington, D.C., four years later, and a third, larger gallery also in New York, in 1852.

      His first New York portrait studio was highly publicized, and in 1845 Brady began to carry out his plan to photograph as many famous people of his time as he could—including Daniel Webster, Edgar Allan Poe, and James Fenimore Cooper. Brady compiled many of his portraits in A Gallery of Illustrious Americans (1850), an album of lithographs based on his daguerreotypes that gained him and his studios fame at home and abroad. Brady had an extensive personal collection of presidential portraits: except for William Henry Harrison, who died only a month after his inauguration, Brady created, copied, or collected the photographs of every U.S. president from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley.

  At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Brady decided to make a complete record of that conflict. He hired a staff of about 20 photographers, the best known of whom were Alexander Gardner (Gardner, Alexander) and Timothy H. O'Sullivan (O'Sullivan, Timothy), and dispatched them throughout the war zones. Since Brady refused to give individual credit to photographers, a number of them, including Gardner and O'Sullivan, left his employ. Brady's main activities in the endeavour involved organizing and supervising the operation of his employees and studios; he himself probably photographed only occasionally on such battlefields as Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg.

      The Civil War project ruined Brady financially. He had invested $100,000 in it and had bought supplies on credit, confident that the government would buy his photographs after the war ended. The government, however, showed no interest. The financial panic of 1873 forced him to sell his New York studio and declare bankruptcy. He was unable to pay the storage bill for his negatives, which the War Department finally bought at public auction for $2,840. Through the efforts of his friends in government, Brady was finally granted $25,000 by Congress in 1875, but he never regained financial solvency and died alone and virtually forgotten in a hospital charity ward.

Additional Reading
Roy Meredith, Mr. Lincoln's Camera Man, Mathew B. Brady, 2nd rev. ed. (1974), and Mathew Brady: Portrait of an Era (1982).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Brady,Mathew B. — Brady, Mathew B. 1823 1896. Library of Congress American pioneer photographer who was famous for his portraits and was appointed official Union photographer of the Civil War in 1861. * * * …   Universalium

  • Brady, Mathew B. — ( 1823, cerca del lago George, N.Y., EE.UU.–15 ene. 1896, Nueva York, N.Y.). Fotógrafo estadounidense. Aprendió a hacer daguerrotipos con Samuel F.B. Morse. En 1844 abrió los primeros dos estudios en la ciudad de Nueva York, y comenzó a… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Brady, Mathew —  (1823–1896) American Civil War photographer. Note irregular spelling of first name …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

  • Mathew Brady — in 1875 Born ca. 1822 Warren County, New York, US Died January 15, 1896(1896 01 15) New Y …   Wikipedia

  • Mathew Brady — um 1875 Mathew B. Brady (* 1822 in Lake George in Warren County, New York, USA; † 15. Januar 1896 in New York City, New York, USA) war Fotograf und ein wichtiger Chronist des amerikanischen …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mathew Brady — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Brady. Mathew Brady (né vers 1823, Comté de Warren, New York mort en 1896 à New York), est un photographe américain actif pendant la guerre de Sécession …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Mathew B. Brady — Mathew Brady um 1875 Mathew B. Brady (* 1822 in Lake George, Warren County, New York; † 15. Januar 1896 in New York City) war ein US amerikanischer Fotograf, ein wichtiger Chronist des Bürgerkrieges und somit einer der …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mathew — ist der Vorname folgender Personen: Mathew Baker (1530–1613), englischer Mathematiker und königlicher Schiffsbaumeister Mathew B. Brady (1822–1896), US amerikanischer Fotograf und Chronist des amerikanischen Sezessionskriegs Mathew Cronshaw (*… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Brady — bezeichnet als Wortbestandteil von Fremdwörtern aus dem Griechischen: langsam (βραδύς), siehe Liste griechischer Wortstämme in deutschen Fremdwörtern Brady (Schlagzeug), Schlagzeughersteller Brady Corporation, ein internationales Unternehmen im… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Brady —   [ breɪdɪ], Mathew Brady, amerikanischer Porträt und Dokumentarfotograf, * Warren County (New York) 1823, ✝ New York 15. 1. 1896; schuf eine umfangreiche Bilddokumentation des amerikanischen Bürgerkriegs (1861 65) …   Universal-Lexikon

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”