Portrait of George Barnard by Mathew Brady (cropped)

George Norman Barnard (December 23, 1819 – February 4, 1902) was an American photographer most well known for his photographs from the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

era. He is often noted as G. N. Barnard.

Early life

Barnard was born into a farming family in Coventry, Connecticut on December 23, 1819. His father died in 1826 and he grew up with relatives in a nearby town, apprenticing at various jobs in the family owned businesses. He married in 1843 and moved to Oswego, New York, where he briefly got into the hotel business before turning to photography.

Career

Starting his business in New York State in 1843, Barnard was one of the first to use daguerreotype, the first commercially available form of photography, in the United States. A fire in 1853 destroyed the grain elevators in Oswego, New York, an event Barnard photographed. Historians consider these some of the first "news" photographs. Barnard also photographed

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

's 1861 inauguration.

Civil War

Barnard is best known for

era photos. He was the official army photographer for the Military Division of the Mississippi, which mostly involved photographing and documenting fortifications, bridges, and documents. His 1866 book, ''Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign'', showed the devastation of the war. The book includes 61 albumen prints in Nashville, the Chattanooga Valley, Atlanta, and Savannah. He took the photos while operating under General Sherman's command. The book also includes a studio portrait of Sherman and his generals.

Post-war

After the war, Barnard ran photography studios in Ohio, Charleston, South Carolina and Chicago. His Chicago studio burned down in the 1871 city fire. In Rochester, New York, he briefly worked with

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He was a major philanthropist, establishing the Eastman ...

, the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company.

Collections

Barnard's work is included in the American Memory collection, Selected Civil War Photographs from the Library of Congress, 1861–1865. The

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

has one of his works and the MoMA also has his work in their collection.

References