Richard Lowry - The Photographer and the President: Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Gardner, and the Images That Made a Presidency

ALSO BY RICHARD S. LOWRY

Littery Man: Mark Twain and Modern Authorship

First published in hardcover in the United States of America in 2015
by Rizzoli Ex Libris, an imprint of
Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
300 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010
www.rizzoliusa.com

Copyright 2015 by Richard S. Lowry

This ebook edition 2015 Richard S. Lowry

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior consent of the publishers.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8478-4547-7
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8478-4547-7

v3.1

For Joyce and Eleanor

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A PORTFOLIO OF PHOTOGRAPHS

BY ALEXANDER GARDNER AND HIS OPERATORS

Abraham Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner, February 24, 1861. From the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Allen County Public Library and Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites.

Alexander Gardner (self-portrait), no date. Albumen print, 3 2 in., Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA. Gift of David L. Hack and by exchange Walter P. Chrysler Jr., 98.32.294.

Alexander Gardner (self-portrait), circa 1864. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Art Resource, New York.

President Lincoln, General McClellan, and Officers, Antietam, by Alexander Gardner, October 3, 1862. President Lincoln on Battle-field of Antietam, plate 23, Gardners Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

President Lincoln, General McClellan in Tent, near Antietam Battlefield, by Alexander Gardner, October 3, 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

A Lone Grave, Antietam Battlefield, by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

A Contrast: Federal Buried, Confederate Unburied, by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

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Field Where General Reynolds Fell, by Timothy OSullivan, July 1863. Plate 37, Gardners Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

A Sharpshooters Last Sleep, by Alexander Gardner, July 1863. Plate 40, Gardners Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, by Alexander Gardner, July 1863. Plate 41, Gardners Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Detail. Walt Whitman, by Alexander Gardner, circa 186364. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Abraham Lincoln Cracked Plate Portrait, by Alexander Gardner, February 5, 1865. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Art Resource, New York.

Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Tad Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner, February 5, 1865. Albumen print on Alexander Gardner mount, 17 13 in. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA. Gift of David L. Hack and by exchange Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 98.32.9.

Ruins of Gallego Flour Mills, Richmond, by Alexander Gardner, April 1865. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, New York.

Ruins of Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, Across the James, by Alexander Gardner, April 1865. Plate 88, Gardners Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Presidents Box, Fords Theater, by Alexander Gardner, April 1865. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

ILLUSTRATIONS

M. B. Brady and Frank Leslies Artists Taking Photographs and Sketches of the Japanese Presents, in the Reception Room of the Embassy at Willards Hotel, Washington, print, 1860. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Abraham Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner, February 24, 1861. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Abraham Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner, February 24, 1861. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

President Lincoln, Harpers Weekly, April 27, 1861, p. 258. HarpWeek.

Abraham Lincoln, by Mathew Brady, February 27, 1860. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Honorable Abraham Lincoln, Born in Kentucky, February 12, 1809, by Mathew Brady, Harpers Weekly, November 10, 1860, p. 795. HarpWeek.

Daniel Webster, by Albert Southworth and Joseph Hawes, daguerreotype, circa 1850. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, New York.

M. B. Bradys New Photographic Gallery, Corner of Broadway and Tenth Street, New York, Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, January 5, 1861, p. 108. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Mathew Brady (self-portrait), M. B. Brady Gallery, circa 1860s. Culver Pictures/ The Art Archive at Art Resource, New York.

Confederate Dead, Antietam Battlefield, by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Confederate Dead along Hagerstown Pike, Antietam Battlefield, by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Single Confederate Dead, Antietam Battlefield, by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Dead in front of Dunker Church, Antietam Battlefield, by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Burial Party, Antietam Battlefield, by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Two Confederate Dead, Antietam Battlefield, by Alexander Gardner, September 1862. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

The Battle of Antietam, Fought September 17, 1862Burnside Holding the Hill, Harpers Weekly, October 4, 1862, pp. 63233. HarpWeek.

Scenes on the Battlefield of Antietamfrom Photographs by Mr. M. B. Brady [Alexander Gardner], Harpers Weekly, October 18, 1862, pp. 66465. HarpWeek.

Detail, Scenes on the Battlefield of Antietam, Harpers Weekly, October 18, 1862, pp. 66465. HarpWeek.

Abraham Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner, November 8, 1863. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Abraham Lincoln with Secretaries John Nicolay and John Hay, by Alexander Gardner, November 8, 1863. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Abraham Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner, November 8, 1863. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Abraham Lincoln, by Sarah Fisher Clampitt Ames. Courtesy of U.S. Senate Collection.

Abraham Lincoln, by Alexander Gardner, November 8, 1863. Copyright Moses P. Rice. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.