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Brady met his future wife, Juliette Handy while in
Washington, where they were married at the E Street
Baptist Church. The exact date of their union is un-
known. However, in 1851 he and his wife traveled
to England, attending the Crystal Palace exhibition
in London, where a group of his portraits of famous
Americans was on display. He received a bronze medal
for overall excellence.
During the daguerreian era, Brady’s most signifi cant
undertaking was the publication of The Gallery of Illus-
trious Americans. This series of twelve lithographs by
French artist Francis D’Avignon from daguerreotypes
by Brady was among the most handsome publications
of its time. Subjects included Daniel Webster, John
C. Fremont, and Henry Clay. Brady’s project differed
from other series of printed portraits of the time, which
were based on portraits in oil, and thus believed not
to convey as truthful a likeness as those made from
daguerreotypes. The publication received many posi-
tive reviews. The 2 March 1850 Living Age reprinted a
review from the Evening Mirror of the fi rst lithograph in
the series, a portrait of General Zachary Taylor. It stated:
“There are so many pompous announcements made of
enterprises which are never carried out, and so many
pledges given of this kind, which are never redeemed,
that we can hardly express our satisfaction, on fi nding
that the fi rst number has more than made good on all
the promises which were given.” It continues: “... the
whole work, surpasses anything that we have ever seen
as a specimen of the art of typography.” Subsequent
prints were praised for their beauty as well as the lively
and concise accompanying text. In spite of the quality
of the publication and the extensive praise it received,
sales were weak. The publication, which had planned to
include twenty-four printed portraits, was discontinued
after twelve.
In the mid-1850s photographic technology changed
and Brady began to use glass plate negatives to produce
multiple salted paper and albumen prints. He specialized
in large “Imperial” portraits which were much easier to
view than the mirrored surface of the small daguerreo-
type plate. (Imperial prints measured up to 22 × 17
inches compared with 6½ × 4¼ inches for a half-plate
daguerreotype.) Later, when the carte de visite format
became fashionable, Brady marketed his portraits of
famous people to the general public who delighted in
collecting these cards and placing them in albums.
Throughout his career, Brady’s photographs were
widely reproduced in the leading journals of the day.
Both Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated
Newspaper used woodcuts based on Brady images to
illustrate articles on politics and the arts. Both of these
periodicals used Brady’s fi rst portrait of presidential can-
didate Abraham Lincoln, made on 27 February 1860, the
day of the latter’s pivotal lecture at New York’s Cooper
Union hall. Brady published this image as a carte de
visite, and after his victory, Lincoln claimed: “Brady
and the Cooper Institute made me President.” The Brady
studio frequently photographed Lincoln’s family and his
political associates during his presidency.
Brady’s most important contribution to American
history was his documentation of the Civil War. In 1861
he began sending photographers into the fi eld. Many of
the best Civil War photographers got their start working
with him. Alexander Gardner and James F. Gibson trans-
ferred their studio skills to working outdoors, making
conventional portraits, scenes in camp, and views of the
aftermath of battlefi elds. Photographers were outfi tted
with portable darkrooms to process their wet-plate nega-
tives in the fi eld. Actual battle scenes were technically
impossible to photograph, but the devastating impact
of the war was nonetheless documented. Photographs
of dead soldiers after the battle at Antietam were dis-
played at Brady’s Broadway gallery where visitors were
shocked to see such graphic depictions of war. After the
war, Brady’s views were displayed at the New-York His-
torical Society. A 30 March 1866 review of the exhibit
in the New York Times reported “The faithful camera ...
has written the true history of the war .... It is not merely
what these representations are to us, but what they will
be to those that come after us.” General Ulysses S. GrantBRADY, MATHEW B.
Brady, Matthew. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection,
Purchase, Joseph M. Cohen Gift, 2005 (2005.100.84) Image ©
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.