Alexander Gardner (photographer)

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Alexander Gardner.

Alexander Gardner (October 17, 1821 – December 10, 1882) was an American photographer. He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War and his portraits of American President Abraham Lincoln. Gardner has often had his work misattributed to Mathew Brady, and despite his considerable output, historians have tended to give Gardner less than full recognition for his documentation of the Civil War.^[1]

Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1821. He became an apprentice silversmith jeweler at the age of fourteen. Gardner had a Calvinist upbringing and was influenced by the work of Robert Owen, Welsh socialist and father of the cooperative movement. By adulthood he desired to create a cooperative in the United States that would incorporate socialist values. In 1850, Gardner and others purchased land near Monona, Iowa, for this purpose, but Gardner never lived there, choosing to return to Scotland to raise more money. He stayed there until 1856, becoming owner and editor of the Glasgow Sentinel in 1851. Visiting The Great Exhibition in 1851 in Hyde Park, London, he saw the photography of American Mathew Brady, and thus began his interest in the subject.

Gardner and his family moved to the United States in 1856. Finding that many friends and family members at the cooperative he had helped to form were dead or dying of tuberculosis, he stayed in New York. He initiated contact with Brady and came to work for him, eventually managing Brady's Washington, D.C., gallery. Gardner later went into business for himself, mass-producing carte de visite photographs.

Abraham Lincoln became American President in the November 1860 election, and along with his appointment came the threat of war. Gardner, being in Washington, was well-positioned for these events, and his popularity rose as a portrait photographer, capturing the visages of soldiers leaving for war.

Brady had had the idea to photograph the Civil War. Gardner's relationship with Allan Pinkerton (who was head of an intelligence operation that would become the Secret Service) was the key to communicating Brady's ideas to Lincoln. Pinkerton recommended Gardner for the position of chief photographer under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Topographical Engineers. Following that short appointment, Gardner became a staff photographer under General George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac. At this point, Gardner's management of Brady's gallery ended. The honorary rank of captain was bestowed upon Gardner, and he photographed the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, developing photos in his traveling darkroom.

Lincoln dismissed McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac in November 1862, and Gardner’s role as chief army photographer diminished. About this time, Gardner ended his working relationship with Brady, probably in part because of Brady's practice of attributing his employees' work as "Photographed by Brady".^[1] That winter, Gardner followed General Ambrose Burnside, photographing the Battle of Fredericksburg. Next, he followed General Joseph Hooker. In May 1863, Gardner and his brother James opened their own studio in Washington, D.C, hiring many of Brady's former staff. Gardner photographed the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863) and the Siege of Petersburg (June 1864–April 1865) during this time.

He published his classic, two-volume work Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War in 1866. Each book contained 100 hand-mounted original prints. Not all photographs were Gardner's; unlike his former employer, he properly attributed photos. The sketchbook contained photos by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, among others. A century later, photographic analysis suggested that Gardner had manipulated the setting of at least one of his Civil War photos by moving a soldier's corpse and weapon into more dramatic positions.^{[citation needed]}

Among his photographs of Abraham Lincoln were the last to be taken of the President, four days before his assassination. He also documented Lincoln's funeral, and photographed the conspirators involved (with John Wilkes Booth) in Lincoln's assassination. Gardner was the only photographer allowed at their execution by hanging, photographs of which would later be translated into woodcuts for publication in Harper's Weekly. Gardner was commissioned to photograph Native Americans who came to Washington to discuss treaties; and he surveyed the proposed route of the Kansas Pacific railroad to the Pacific Ocean. Many of his photos were stereoscopic.

After 1871, Gardner gave up photography and helped to found an insurance company. Gardner stayed in Washington until his death. When asked about his work, he said, "It is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Gallery

1863 portrait of Abraham Lincoln.	Cracked glass portrait of Abraham Lincoln, widely considered to be the last photograph taken of Lincoln before his death. It has been established that the photo was taken at Gardner's studio on February 5th, 1865.	Lincoln and John Alexander McClernand, visiting the Antietam battlefield, 1862.	A sharpshooter's last sleep: Battle of Gettysburg, 1863.
Execution of conspirators to Lincoln's assassination (July 7, 1865).	Lewis Powell, conspirator to assassination, after arrest, 1865.

[edit] Bibliography

Gardner, Alexander. Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War. 1865-1866. Reprint. New York: Dover Publications, 1959.
Katz, Mark D. Witness to an Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner. New York: Viking Studio Books, 1990.

[edit] See also

Photography and photographers of the American Civil War

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b Hagen, Charles. "A Civil War Image Maker's Belated Recognition", The New York Times, July 31, 1992: p. C19.

[edit] References

"BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH" in Collection #P 0420 of the Manuscript and Visual Collections Department, William Henry Smith Memorial Library, Indiana Historical Society. Retrieved August 4, 2006 from link.