Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War

by Jennifer Armstrong, Mathew B. Brady

Mathew B. Brady was already a famous photographer by the time the Civil War began. But the war gave Brady something
The chance to make a RECORD OF A WAR -- this war -- in a way that had never been done WITH TRUE-TO-LIFE PICTURES INSTEAD OF JUST WORDS. He hired field photographers to travel with the troops, equipped them with cameras and wagons filled with supplies, and sent them out with the directive to make a visual record of the war and to show people scenes they could have only read about before.
The pictures the field photographers sent back were HAUNTING, BEAUTIFUL, DEVASTATING, AND TOTALLY UNFORGETTABLE. And thousands of them included the notation "Photo by Brady." Though Brady didn't actually take the photographs, he was the genius behind them. His vision and foresight gave the country images that not only touched the people at the time, but have gone on to leave an indelible mark on the collective memory of this country. And the name of Mathew Brady will always be remembered with them.
In Photo By Brady, Jennifer Armstrong tells the story of the Civil War as seen through the lenses of its recorders. It is a moving and elegant look at the brutal and deadly time.

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

160 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2005

About the author

Jennifer Armstrong learned to read and write in Switzerland, in a small school for English speaking children on the shores of Lake Zurich. The school library had no librarian and no catalog – just shelves of interesting books. She selected books on her own, read what she could, and made up the rest. It was perfect. As a result, she made her career choice – to become an author – in first grade. When she and her family returned to the U.S. she discovered that not all children wrote stories and read books, and that not all teachers thought reading real books was important. Nevertheless, she was undaunted. Within a year of leaving college she was a free-lance ghost writer for a popular juvenile book series, and before long published her first trade novel, Steal Away, which won her a Golden Kite Honor for fiction.

More than fifty additional novels and picture books followed, and before long she also tried her hand at nonfiction, winning an Orbis Pictus Award and a Horn Book Honor for her first nonfiction book, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. In late 2003 she will travel to the South Pole with the National Science Foundation to do research for a book on ice.

Reviews

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer]

If you are looking for a biography of photographer Mathew B. Brady, this is not the book. It is, however, an excellent description of Brady's career during the Civil War. His photographs, for the first time, showed people what war looked like (despite many of the photos having been posed). The book discusses his Civil War career in chronological order, so that, by the end, you feel as if you've been through the war yourself. Particularly palpable was Lincoln's frustration with his military leaders. Written for teens, this book should encourage them to look at larger collections of his Civil War photos and to read more about the man himself. Recommended.

[Sheila Bracken]

In the 1840s, Mathew Brady created a photographic catalogue of America’s most distinguished citizens, including Abraham Lincoln who declared that his photo was instrumental in him winning the presidency. These photos inspired other, more humble, subjects to sit for portraits as well. Those portraits of young soldiers or their loved ones were shared as souvenirs. Once the Civil War began, Brady used photographs to document the war. Showing up often in newspapers, they gave people a vision for where the battles took place. In those days, capturing an image required light and time. Time, in fact, was significant as subjects had to remain still for long seconds lest the photograph appear blurry. As a result, there were no action shots. There were, however, lots of photos of injured men lying on stretchers and dead men lying on battlefields.
Brady brought the war to the people in a way nothing short of being there had done before, but he did not work alone. In the beginning, he joined forces with another photographer–Alexander Gardner–and operators who actually took the photographs, following the army around in What-Is-It-Wagons. Despite the other men’s labor and talent, Brady got credit for most of the images. He even appears in many of them, always sporting a white straw hat.
Though Armstrong focuses on Brady, it is not a biography. She tells the story, of the war in Virginia and the photographers who covered it. She includes information about photography at the time, Lincoln and his frustration with his generals, other details from soldiers’ diaries and letters, and lots of photographs along with explanations about when and where they were taken and if they were staged. 4

[Kari McDowell]

Great YA book on Civil War photography and the military history of the war in general. My favorite part of the book was the A Photo Not Taken part as it helped me to envision the scenes more and more!

[Luke]

Decent pictorial review

[Ewa]

“If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along the streets, he has done something very like it….We would scarce choose to be in the gallery, when one of the women bending over them should recognize a husband, a son, or a brother in the still, lifeless lines of bodies, that lie ready for the gaping trenches”, wrote the New York Times about the the most prestigious and recognized photographer of the 1860’s , Mathew B. Brady. The owner of the famous photo studio in New York who took the portrait photos of the most popular and famous people in the United States, decides to document history in the series of photographs taken directly at the battlefields and the soldier camps during the Civil War in the United States.
Powerful and unforgettable photographs of the Civil War shown in Jennifer Armstrong’s Photo by Brady depict an unimaginable tragedy and awfulness of those times. Brady takes us on the trip through history, revealing its true meaning and its true nature. The history of the Civil War is outstandingly interwoven in the story about Mathew Brady who struggled to “elevate the photography into the dignity and beauty of an art of taste”. We learn about the art of photography which serves the purpose of exposing and preserving the history for the future generations. Variety of thematic pictures taken by his employees as they traveled through the country equipped with cameras and heavy supplies in extremely harsh conditions are backed up by the “photographs not taken”. These narratives depictions that are spread across the chapters give an additional thrill to the story as they present the significant moments that were too mobile to be caught and immortalized with the simple daguerreotype camera device.
Photo by Brady can be incorporated into the thematic unit of the Civil War in the middle school to broaden students’ perspective on the Civil War and their understanding of what tally the war took on real people, hundreds of whom were not much older than them. The book not only incorporate information about the art of photography that was just starting to thrive in 1860’s but most importantly presents historical events in vivid and extraordinary way – through the prism of the photo camera. The pictures can be used as primary source of information and may greatly aid in learning the content especially by struggling readers or those students who do not necessarily take a pleasure in reading the textbook. “Photo by Brady” is an excellent book which should be available in the social studies classroom.

[Traci]

Summary: Jennifer Armstrong uses the photos of Matthew Brady, who was a famous photographer prior to the start of the civil war to tell the story of the war in an imaginative and unique way that is unlike any other story on the subject. The photos depict the troops, their camps, civilians, farms and the battlefields of the war. Armstrong is able to capture the story of the war by using the photographs to tell not only of the war, but of the photographers as well. The details provided in the story are fascinating and detailed, providing a fantastic account of the war.

Genre: Junior Informational

Critique:

(a) The pictures are fantastic representation of the war documenting all aspects, including the soldiers, battlefields, and the civilians and farms that played such a major role in the war. The accuracy of the book is second to none, with the fact that the pictures were taken during the war and preserved in such a fantastic way providing great accuracy and intrigue for the reader.

(b) The strongest elements of the book are without the authentic photos. They are breathtaking and cannot be described in a way that truly captures them. Brady was able to bring an unseen war to people, and Armstrong tells the story of this unseen war through his photographs perfectly.

(c) It is impossible to pick out any particular photo as being better than the others. Each photo tells a unique story and provides its own insight into a war that was so long ago yet so important in our history. Each page of the book is fantastic.

Curriculum Connection:

This book would be a great tool to be used in an interdisciplinary unit about literature, history, and you could even bring science and art into it by discussing the photography and perhaps anthropological elements of the war into the discussion.

[Amy Clinton]

Summary:
Through a collection of pictures from Mathew B. Brady as well as a few other photographers, the civil war is told in it's way in this book. Jennifer Armstrong uses these images to actually show the Civil War as it was instead of just the History book story.

Personal Response:
I really enjoyed this book because it makes the Civil War seem more realistic to me. I am not the best history student, but I believe if I had read this while in school, I would have been able to make more connections.

Curriculum Connection:
Civil War, History, Timeline formation

Visual Appeal:
Great images! The cover is an image that looks very old due to the black marks on it. It is not in color and the men are in a typr of Civil war uniform. It definitely relates well to the story. The pictures throughout the book really help to show the reader what different things (like ambulances on page 36 and 37) looked like.

Grade:
6th and up

Genre:
Informational

[Sandybear76]

Surprisingly this is a juvenile nonfiction book. I read it with great interest. I didn't know that Brady had a partner and they employed at least 25 photographers to get the photos of the important people of the times and to get the photos of the Civil War. Brady was more of an artist than the photographer. The book explains that he set up photos and then photograpers, the real mechanics, would take the photos. If you had your photo taken by Brady, you were someone. Lincoln gave Brady credit for his photo after his Cooper Station speech that made Lincoln a name in the 1860 election. Unfortunately, I also learned that many of the Civil War battle photos by Brady and others were staged after the battles due mainly to the time it took to take a photo and also due to the fact that civilians couldn't be on the battlefield during the battles.

[Alicia]

I was disappointed in two ways by this book, first its readability and second by its presentation.

I thought that the writing was disjointed with not a touch of storytelling that could spellbind someone into being back in the Civil War solely based on the goings-on of the photographers and the movement of troops and their generals. The second was the presentation of the photos. The layout of pictures at the beginning of chapters were generally scrapbook-like when each one is valuable. I disliked they were labeled as "figure" and the description was hidden on another page or on an opposite page. Each one merited a half page or full page and should have had a caption on that page with it.

Sadly disliked!

[Amy]

I have read other work by this author and I think she does an excellent job in conveying the feelings, emotions, and stories of the individuals and time periods she writes about. This was an amazing book! It tells the story of photographer Matthew Brady and the body of work he produced during the Civil War. My oldest son is currently studying the Civil War in school right now and this has been a powerful visual reinforcement of what he is learning and studying. Plus it was ground breaking work in the field of photography, photojournalism, and documenting war on American soil. Highly recommend this!

[David]

This is a non-fiction book about the American Civil War. The unique thing about it is that the story is told through contemporary photographs, and the story of the photographers during the war. Much of the book is filled with these photos, and provides a great insight into the Civil War. I liked seeing the actual people and battlesights that made up the war, as they actually were. This book is a good resourse for a quick summary of the Civil War, and also a history of photography. Warnings: Images of death.

[Anna]

I am in the process of learning everything I can about the Civil War. This book is a good collection of photos taken by Matthew Brady, who was credited with many of the famous pictures of the Civil War. He took photographs of soldiers, celebrities, and battlefields. The book is a great introduction to his work. There were odd little stories about "Photos Not Taken," which threw me until I realized this book was technically "young adult." Oops. I liked it anyway, and except for those weird snippets it was informative and made me want to learn more.

[Kelly]

This book, written for young adults, is a perfect snapshot (pardon the pun) of the obstacles Brady faces (mainly finacial) in documenting the Civil War era. Each chapter included what I thought was a clever device--a feature called "A Photo Not Taken", describing how the war affected ordinary citizens and what it would have been like/looked like from their perspective, had photography beyond portraiture been optional.

[Denise]

Very good young adult non-fiction. Brady was a pioneer in early photography. His photos were gritty, graphic and sometimes posted to show the harsh realities of war. For the first time, regular citizens could see what their loved ones were experiencing on the front lines. He held exhibitions in towns to share his work. Good details about the Civil War.

[Christine]

Informational Book Bibliography: Civil War- This book is written by the same author of Shipwreck at the bottom of the world. It follows the experiences of the field photographers who were hired to make visual records of the troops during the war.

[Trinity]

Note: Had marked as 5 stars in 2015. Changed to 4 stars in 2023 to reflect current feelings about novel while preserving initial feelings. I don't think I truly loved this book, upon reflection, but I'm willing to believe that I enjoyed it.

[Naomi]

This book was just cool. A collection of Civil War photos by a photographer during that period of time with the story behind the stories. As an adult, I was immersed in this book. I simply found it fascinating.

[Katrinka]

Just how hard the war was, unlike the Hollywood version, that romanticized everything.

[Cami]

Amazing photographs of the civil war, soldiers, Lincoln, the dead littering the battlefield.
Important historical documentation here.

[Brenda Kahn]

The narrative chronicles an overview of the Civil War with the story of Matthew Brady's financial speculation. Profusely illustrated with Brady photos, this will enhance in any collection.

[Madison]

Read about him in the paper then saw this book. I really enjoyed the pictured and the story that went along with it.