1471
Conclusion
While many battles from the larger wars were more
frequently photographed, photographs also evidence
the colonization by Europeans and Americans around
the globe. In many countries, photos of famous cultural
sights and exotic locales were taken once an area was
conquered. Many of these images were used to lure
westerners to become settlers in a certain area and to
romanticize the prowess of western cultures at explora-
tion.
Photography was also utilized as a military tool
throughout the second half of the nineteenth century.
Most military expeditions had a trained photographer as
part of their troops. Some armies maintained an entire
unit of photographers. Photographic technology was
also used to reproduce maps, study military maneuvers
and the terrain, and to train servicemen.
In the majority of battles, photographers were suc-
cessful at performing their role as observers of both
sides. Yet in some cases photographers were taken as
prisoners when suspected of spying for the enemy.
In addition, photographers were frequently warned
against photographing any military details and could be
imprisoned if such images were ever published. Some
soldiers felt uncomfortable with the new technology,
as discussed above during the American Civil War.
Native American warriors, in fact, frequently avoided
the camera for fear that the strange contraption would
somehow capture their soul.
The time needed to set up the equipment, the slow de-
velopment time, and the simple fact that a photographer
had to shoot something before them rather than creat-
ing it in their mind, made photography a challenging
medium to work with in the nineteenth century. Yet, the
camera’s seeming ability to capture reality also made
the desire to take photographs of battlefi elds and sol-
diers simply irresistible. By World War II, photographs
would be the primary source of images for newspapers
informing the public about the war.
Debra Gibney
See also: Half-tone Printing; Daguerreotype;
McCosh, John; Expositions Universelle, Paris
(1854, 1855, 1867, etc.); Fenton, Roger; Agnew,
Thomas; Victoria, Queen and Albert, Prince Consort;
Robertson, James, Beato, Felice; Langlois, Jean
Charles, Brady, Mathew B.; Gardner, Alexander;
Tintype (Ferrotype, Melainotype); and Nicholls,
Horace Walter.
Further Reading
Anderson, Glass Warriors: The Camera at War, London: Harper
Collins, 2005.
Armstrong, Jennifer, Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War,
New York: Atheneum, 2005.
Baldwin, Gordon, Malcolm R. Daniel, and Sarah Greenough, All
the Mighty World: The Photographs of Roger Fenton, New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004.
Burns, Stanley, Civil War Medical Photography, New York:
Stanely Burns, 1983.
Clattenburg, Ellen Fritz, The Photographic Work of F. Holland
Day, Wellesley, Mass.: Wellesley College Museum, 1975
(exhibition catalogue).
Fabian, Rainer, Images of War: 130 Years of War Photography,
Norfolk: Thetford Press Ltd., 1985.
Fenton, Roger, Helmut Gernsheim, and Alison Gernsheim, Roger
Fenton, Photographer of the Crimean War, His Photographs
and Letters from the Crimea, London: Ayer, 1954.
Gardner, Alexander, Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the
American Civil War 1861–1865, New York: Delano Green-
ridge Editions, 2001.
Harris, David, Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato’s Photo-
graphs’s of China, Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Museum
of Art, 1999.
Howe, Peter, Shooting Under Fire: The World of the War Pho-
tographer, New York, NY: Artisan, 2002.
Kagan, Neil, Great Photographs of the Civil War, Birmingham,
Ala.: Oxmoor House, 2003.
Kelbraugh, Ross, Introduction to Civil War Photography, Get-
tysburg, Penn.: Thomas Publications, 1991.
Knightley, Philip, The Eye of War: Words and Photographs
from the Front Line, Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Books,
2003.
Lewinski, Jorge, The Camera at War: A History of War Photog-
raphy from 1848 to the Present Day, New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1978.
Marien, Mary Warner, Photography: A Cultural History, New
York: Prentice Hall, and Harry N. Abrams, 2002.
Moeller, Susan, Shooting War: Photography and the American
Experience of Combat, New York: Basic Books, 1989.
Palmquist, Peter, Photographing the Modoc Indian War: Louis
Heller versus Eadweard Muybridge, London: Taylor and
Francis, 1978.
Pare, Richard, Roger Fenton, New York: Aperture Foundation,
1987.
Russell, Andrew, Russell’s Civil War Photographs, New York:
Dover, 1982.
Sullivan, George, In the Wake of the Battle: The Civil War Images
of Matthew Brady, New York: Prestel Publishing, 2004.
Weber, Eva, Great Photographers of the Civil War, North Digh-
ton, Mass.: JG Press, 2003.
Wilson, Jackie Napoleon, Hidden Witness: African-American
Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War, New
York: St. Martin’s Griffi n, 2002.
Zeller, Bob, The Blue and Gray in Black and White: A History
of Civil War Photography, Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publish-
ers, 2005.WARD, CATHERINE WEED BARNES
(1851–1913)
Born in Albury, New York January 10, 1851, Catherine
Barnes traveled with her parents to Russia in 1872. Intro-
duced to photography in 1886, she built her own studio
in the attic of her home. She was appointed associate
editor of American Amateur Photographer, wrote and
lectured extensively on photography, and became known
as an advocate for women in photography with her talk