Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation

by Robert Wilson

Mathew Brady's attention to detail, flair for composition, and technical mastery helped establish the photograph as a thing of value. In the 1840s and '50s, “Brady of Broadway” photographed such dignitaries as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Dolley Madison, Horace Greeley, the Prince of Wales, and Jenny Lind. But it was during the Civil War that Brady's photography became an epochal part of American history.

The Civil War was the first war in history to leave a detailed photographic record, and Brady knew better than anyone the dual power of the camera to record and excite, to stop a moment in time and preserve it. More than ten thousand war images are attributed to the Brady studio. But as Wilson shows, while Brady himself accompanied the Union army to the first major battle at Bull Run, he was so shaken by the experience that throughout the rest of the war he rarely visited battlefields except well before or after a major battle, instead sending teams of photographers to the front.

Mathew Brady is a gracefully written and beautifully illustrated biography of an American legend-a businessman, a suave promoter, a celebrated portrait artist, and, most important, a historian who chronicled America during the gravest moments of the nineteenth century.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Civil War, Photography, American History, Civil War History

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Robert Wilson has been the editor of Phi Beta Kappa's magazine, The American Scholar, since 2004. Previously, he was the editor of Preservation, the magazine of the Natural Trust for Historic Preservation; literary editor of Civilization ; and the book review editor for USA Today.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to read this, but I just couldn't get into it.

My major issue is with author, Robert Wilson and his style of writing. There were sentences that I often had to reread to understand what he was saying. For example, at the beginning of chapter one, Wilson writes "According to the 1830 census, Andrew and Julia (Mathew Brady's parents) and their six children lived in the county in the town of Johnsburg, west of Lake George ..." In the previous sentence Wilson told the reader that Matthew Brady was born in Warren County, so why was it necessary to include the words "in the county" in this sentence?

For what I read, there were some other sentences like this. The fact that Wilson writes from an academic perspective may explain why he was so verbose.

On a positive note, the pictures included are wonderful.

[David Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had thought of Mathew Brady as America's first photographer. He wasn't really that--there were plenty of other people plying the trade, especially in New York, where he had his main studio--but he was in a sense the first celebrity photographer, especially for politicians (he also had a Washington studio) but for others as well. And he eventually became an important recorder of the Civil War. In this beautifully written biography, Robert Wilson tells the story of Brady and his times. He doesn't inflate the man's importance, but does argue that his photographs presented to this nation a kind of grand portrait of itself.

[Straw · Rating 3 out of 5]

.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have been 5 stars had there been more reproductions of the photos. There are some but not nearly enough.

[John Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brady in essence became a historian by photographing the rich, famous, and politically connected of New York City and Washington, D.C., as no one had before. Brady came along at the right time, at the time of a technological revolution akin to the invention of the internet. For the first time, pictures of what a person looked like could be passed on to survivors. Like the smartphone of today, the availability of photos suddenly changed life for the masses.
Wilson's well-researched, detailed account focuses on Brady's Civil War years, sometimes to the point of minutia. The four-year conflict proved to be a windfall for photographers, as soldiers sat for portraits that could be left with their relatives. Rather than remain in the safe confines of his studio, Brady felt compelled to go to the battlefields. The Civil War proved to be the peak of his fame and influence.
He was the first to initiate celebrity photography; he himself like to be in such shots. Yet Brady proved to be a poor money manager. After the war, the government didn't want to buy his trove of historic images. He owed nearly 100 people and businesses a combined $25,000 in 1873, and had to declare bankruptcy. He never regained his prominence after reopening his Washington studio in 1875. Two decades later, he died in poor health and broke.

[Ira Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prior to reading this book I only knew of Mathew Brady as a pioneer in photography from his Civil War photographs. While there are many unanswered questions about his life, Robert Wilson does an excellent job discussing his entire body of work and how he and those working for him were innovators during the first decades of photography. Where information may be missing about Brady the man, Wilson does an excellent job of painting a picture of the times and subjects of Brady's and his team's photographs. Like one previous reviewer stated I found his sentence structure challenging at times and had to reread certain portions several times to follow the author's train of thought.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book has its interesting moments (especially about the Macbeth class riots in NY about how Shakespeare's work should be portrayed), it was a stilted and dry read. There's not much personal information known about Brady, so much is speculation about what he must have been like from other sources. There is also not a fluid narrative to follow and much focuses on the technicalities of early photography and business.

[Jem Wilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very much into the tin types and ambrotypes that Brady produced - along with the British Roger Fenton, Brady was one of the first to document war with photographic images (even though Brady wasn't always the snapper). This book goes into great detail...

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Americans in the 1840s and 50s embraced the new and growing art of photography. The availability of images from the most distant places on earth made the world a more knowable place, a revolution on human knowledge comparable to the invention of movable type or the internet. But of more immediate personal value was the possibility of having images of yourself and the people you loved fixed forever in a form you could possess and pass on."

"(Brady's) photos (of battlefields deserted) introduce in an explicit way a human consciousness of the violence that had been played out on these now serene fields. We see one or two people contemplating the placid landscape, and we know what must be on their minds--the chaos and death that had filled these scenes only days before. All photographs imply the presence of a human viewer. But more explicitly, perhaps, than had yet been done in this medium, Brady introduced what might be called first-person photography, an assertion that a photograph is not just the doings of a sunbeam, an objective rendering of a scene, but a view created, in effect, by an individual consciousness."

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mathew Brady is the photographer most associated with the Civil War. His iconic photographs of dead soldiers transfixed a nation unused to the realities of war.

Not a great deal is known about Brady and Robert Wilson has managed to pull together the outline of his line. Most interestingly, most of the "famous Brady" photographs were taken by other photographers and sold by the Brady studio. However, it was his genius for commerce that made the images available. He realized the power of photography--average people could see the President, congress, famous people and own the pictures.

Wilson spends a good deal of time detailing specific photographs and who took them which I found a little tedious (especially without a copy of each one), but the difficulty of taking the equipment over the rough terrain is interesting.

If you're interested in the Civil War or photography, this might be for you.

[False · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's amazing how little is known about Mathew Brady, given his rather public life from an early age. Relatively nothing known about his early life in upper New York state. I wasn't aware of the degree he used others to assist with his portraiture of the famous and the Civil War scenes. Very few scenes of battle. The reason? Twofold. It was hard to capture action in the early stages of photography where everything had to be very still. Also, the public's interests with photography was chiefly with people, not war. For someone who strived all of his life to have more, he died with nothing. Life can be cruel. His work lives on.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was far more competition and intrigue among early photographers than I ever would have imagined. This and the stories about portraiture of politicians and high society were quite interesting. Because Brady took so many Civil War photos, much of the book lingered on battlefield descriptions, which often dragged on too long. I saw an interview with the author that made it clear this book is more biography than photos, but sometimes it was disappointing to read several pages about the composition of a photo and then not see it.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title is slightly misleading as this book is not a catalog of Brady Civil War images, it is a biography of Mathew Brady. With that in mind, it is a well-written book that not only tells the story of Brady and the people he photographed, but also gives a good accounting of the early history of photography.

[Bette Bono · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book. It is invaluable for anyone interested in the early years of photography and how Brady, and the men who worked for him, ventured out of the studio to record the momentous events of the Civil War. Wilson's book is full of fascinating details and will keep you engaged in the narrative. Plus there are those amazing photographs! Highly recommend this book!

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without very much original written material from Brady, this book's focus is on his business and competition with other photographers. I found this and the evolution of the photograph to be interesting, but the book lacks a center without much sense of the man.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

History, biography, the art and tech history of photography. It is always interesting to learn more about a figure, such as Brady, who is almost mythologized. One of the interesting aspects was to get knowledge of the business of photography studios, in the early days.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of photography and Matthew Brady he was popular and for most of his life rich but bankrupt at the end.his collection contains people of note . Sometimes the pictures were posed as on the battlefield he was able to make good on portraits of soldiers very interesting

[Booknerd Fraser · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author starts off by saying we know very little about the life of Mathew Brady, and spends 300 pages proving it. Interesting if you're concerned with the minutia of when Civil War portraits were taken, or post-War legal suits, but otherwise, not that engaging.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok, it painted a good picture of who Brady was, but sometimes read a bit like a list. Overall a good read to understand more about his life, oeuvre and connections to historic figures and other photographers.

[Linda]

Review for PW

[Ella Tilthon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent study of an important American; recommended, heartily, for history buffs and photography enthusiasts. Well-written, well-researched, judicious.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history book about photography and the civil war with special focus on an innovator in the art of photography.

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to, learn more about Brady one of the most famous of the Civil War photographers. He was innovative at the early stages of photography, but not the best businessman.

[Shawna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it! Well researched as well as compelling. I would have loved to have met him!

[MR M P ANKCORN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about the birth of photo journalism and the Civil war