Private Charles Mitchell

Mathew Brady photograph

This photograph was taken by Mathew Brady, one of the major photographers of the Civil War. Private Charles Mitchell of Company D, 107th New York Volunteers, posed for Brady with his crutches. Brady had learned the new art of photography (daguerreotypes) in the 1840s, and opened a studio in New York. He collected portraits of important politicians in the city. In the 1850s, he opened Brady's National Photographic Art Gallery on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. and took photographs of important politicians, including Abraham Lincoln.

By the beginning of the Civil War, a new type of camera, the carte de visite, took multiple pictures on a single negative. These small photographs were mounted on card stock, and were an inexpensive way for soldiers to take pictures of themselves for their families.

Other suggested Web sites:

American Memory: Selected Civil War Photographs (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ cwphtml/cwphome.html)

Mathew B. Brady: Biographical Note (American Memory) (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ cwphtml/cwbrady.html)

National Archives: Pictures of the Civil War (http://www.archives.gov/research_room/ research_topics/civil_war/civil_war_photos.html)

Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: The Civil War as Photographed by Mathew Brady (http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/brady_photographs/ brady_photographs.html)

Citation - Document 44
ca. 1862
Courtesy Library of Congress, Reproduction no. LC-B8184-10681 DLC
www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/civilwar