The Influence Of Photography On The American Civil War

Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of Sources

This investigation will be analyzing the question “how was the development of photography influenced by the American Civil War?” This investigation will include photography in the years leading up to the American Civil War and how the war years, 1861-1865, changed photography as an industry and as a medium of expression. One resource that will be used in this investigation is the book The Story of American Photography by Martin W. Sandler. Sandler is an accredited historian who graduated from the University of Massachusetts and went on to become a writer and producer of television. He has won five Emmy awards for his television work and nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize. The Story of
Tens of thousands of photographs were produced by over 1500 photographers, changing American culture and war as we knew it (Davis 133). The Civil War had a great impact on the development of photography as an industry as well as its use as an art form. Many technological innovations involving the camera were also born out of the Civil War, which allowed photography to become more widespread in its aftermath. Photography was first discovered in the early 19th century and although its origins are difficult to trace, it can generally be said that Joseph Nicephore Niepce of France was the inventor of the camera and the photographic process. Niepce began photographing images as early as the year 1826, but his pictures were not very sharp or focused (Cameron 36). Another pioneer of photography was William Henry Fox Talbot, an Englishman who took many early photographs (Sandler 4). However, the first person to take credit for the invention of photography and make its knowledge widely known to the public was Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, a Frenchman. The daguerreotype was named in his honor (Sandler
The war also produced a new generation of photographers who had been trained to work under extremely difficult conditions and were able to take and develop photos in the field (Sandler 59). Together, these factors helped create a new age of photography in the United States: photographing the West. Many photographers who had documented the Civil War signed on with railroad companies or geological survey teams sponsored by the federal government (Sandler 60). The photographers of the Civil War expanded the use of the camera in post-war America and showed how it could be used as a tool in almost any