Mathew Brady and the image of history
By: Mary Panzer ; withh an essay by Jeana K. Foley.
Contributors: Foley, Jeana Kae.; National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution); Fogg Art Museum.; International Center of Photography.
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Portrait Gallery
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
Subjects: Brady, Mathew B., 1823 (ca.)-1896 -- Exhibitions; Photographers -- United States -- Biography -- Exhibitions; Portrait photography -- United States -- History -- Exhibitions; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Photography -- Exhibitions
Description: In Mathew Brady and the Image of History, Mary Panzer describes how Brady used the documentary medium of photography to portray a stable, purposeful, patriotic republic during the decades when the national identity was fragmenting. She charts the most productive years of Brady's career, from his emergence in 1844 as a daguerreotypist in New York to his bankruptcy in Washington, D.C., in 1872.

Intent on creating a "national portrait gallery" of famous leaders that would connect such luminaries as Daniel Webster and Henry Clay with the Civil War leaders who succeeded them - and with future generations - Brady assiduously courted his subjects, enhancing their reputations along with his own. Taking advantage of emerging photographic paper printing techniques to create large-format, classically posed portraits, Brady also collaborated with painters such as G.P.A.

Healy and Alonzo Chappel, who used his photographs to complete their own heroically scaled images. Contending that Brady's photographs contribute to an ongoing national interest in the Civil War, Panzer concludes that they continue to function as Brady hoped they would, constructing an idealized history in which fact and memory are intertwined.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
An exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Sept. 26, 1997-Jan. 4, 1998; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Jan. 22-April 15, 1998;; International Center of Photography, Midtown New York City, May 1-July 19, 1998.