MATTHEW BRADY

Matthew Brady had a group of 23 photographers who traveled with the Union troops, photographing scenes and making pictures in their portable darkrooms as they went. They were, in effect, the first embedded journalists covering a war. Brady’s corps made 10,000 photographs, many of which are famous to this day. Brady expected the government to buy his photos after the war but Congress would not do so. Brady had to sell his New York studio and go into bankruptcy. In 1875 Congress finally voted him $25,000 but by then his photography business was destroyed and Brady had become an alcoholic a condition from which he died.