Portrait of unidentified group of officers by River, undated

The Civil War Photograph Collection contains images representing over 70 years of history, from 1861 to 1935. The bulk of the subjects, however are from the Civil War, and primarily date from 1861 to 1865. Since the majority of photographs appear to be the work of Mathew Brady, the type of photographic processes present in the collection are relatively easy to identify. The two main processes present are card photographs, which include carte de visites and cabinet cards, and albumen prints. The carte de visites and cabinet cards are mostly represented in portraits, although there are a few scenes of battlefields and military life. These photographic mounts range in size from 4" x 2 1/2" to 6 ½" x 4 1/4". The albumen prints make up the majority of the collection and range in size from 5" x 7" to 12" x 14".

Identification is both a strength and a weakness in this collection. For those photographs which were already identified on the reverse of the image, or which were able to be identified in the course of processing, there is often ample information. However, many of the photographs remain unidentified and largely undated, and so it is difficult to gauge what portion of the War is covered most comprehensively. It is possible, however, that with time and considerable knowledge, a greater number of the images can be identified, leading to a better understanding of the strength of representation present in this collection.

The general subjects for which there is the most material is clear, however. There are the greatest number of images of people, more specifically military personnel and government officials. This is most likely related to the presence of photographs from Mathew Brady’s album of distinguished Americans. In addition, there are a large number of images of military life, represented primarily by photographs of soldiers in camp. Virginia is heavily represented in the collection, especially Fredericksburg and various points along the James River.

While it is unclear how the Boyd Family is related to the Civil War photographs, there are several images present within that series that should not be overlooked, including some graphic images of Gettysburg. Additionally, the Boyds appear to have toured several Civil War sites in Virginia, well after the end of the war, and these photographs are a chronological representation of the landscape.

It should be noted that the series and subseries headings are based on the Library of Congress’s Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms. The exception is Maritime Images, for which there was no equivalent in the TGMI, but is an institutionally accepted term.

Box 12 contains photographs that were added to collection in 2013, because of their similarities to the items in the collection. They are generally prints of photographs taken by Mathew Brady of Civil War scenes, and are grouped based on Library of Congress’s Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms as with rest of the collection.