A Photographic Sketchbook

Alexander Gardner (1821-1882)
"The Home of a Rebel
Sharpshooter, Gettysburg"
in Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook
of the Civil War
Albumen silver print, 1863
Prints & Photographs Division

In 1863, after successfully managing Mathew Brady's Washington photographic studio, Alexander Gardner opened his own gallery. Gardner published the first collection of photographs documenting the civil War in 1866. His Photographic Sketchbook, a two volume set containing one hundred mounted photographs, documented architectural sites located near battlefields, war damage, soldiers in camp, and the grim aftermath of combat. Gardner photographed the dead body of Private Andrew Hoge from the Fourth Virginia Infantry three days after the bloody battle of Gettysburg.