The Brady-Handy collection is a historical photo archive of the United States. The collection is a cache of "mostly

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

and post-Civil War portraits, with a small collection of

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

views" purchased by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

in 1954, from descendants of Levin C. Handy, nephew and apprentice of photographer

Mathew Brady Mathew B. Brady ( – January 15, 1896) was an American photographer. Known as one of the earliest and most famous photographers in American history, he is best known for his scenes of the American Civil War, Civil War. He studied under invento ...

. The collection included 10,000 original, duplicate, and copy negatives including about 4,000 original wet collidion plates and 1,300 glass plate negatives. The collection also included 24

daguerreotypes Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photography, photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwid ...

. The credited photographers are chiefly—but by no means entirely—Brady, Brady studio, and Handy. Other photographers represented included

Timothy H. O'Sullivan Timothy H. O'Sullivan ( – January 14, 1882) was an American photographer widely known for his work related to the American Civil War and the Western United States. Biography O'Sullivan was born , either in Ireland, moving to New York City tw ...

, Alexander Gardner, Cruikshank, and various photographers of Confederate generals. There is also a Brady studio register dated 1870 to 1876 that includes notes such as "refunded—Baby would not sit still" and " Capitol Policeman, to be charged half price." There were some restrictions on use of the collection in place until 1964. According to the Library of Congress, all of the images in the Brady-Handy collection have now entered the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

References

{{reflist Photography in the United States Cultural history of the American Civil War Library of Congress Historiography of the American Civil War

See also

References