In contrast to Timothy O'Sullivan's self-portrait, is this
portrait of Mathew Brady. Brady started in New York as a jewel
case manufacturer in 1843 but by the time the Civil War erupted
he was the most-talked about photographer in the country. With
glamorous and popular portrait studios in New York and
Washington D.C., he was as much a businessman as a photographer,
ironically emphasized by his failing eye sight. While Brady was
not the first to come up with the idea of documenting the war
photographically, he was the one with the fervor and influence
to make the idea a reality. After returning from photographing
the First Battle of Bull Run, "Brady insisted that his
assistants take his picture," as he had just taken his pictures
at Bull Run, "for history."1 But what did this phrase really
mean, and how was a documentation of the war for history to be
made? By taking into account these conceptual questions and
practical considerations involved in Civil War field
photography, we are better able to appreciate t