Early Photographers

We can know what the battlefields of yesterday looked like thanks to the work of early photographers. These were the men who followed the armies around and took pictures of the battlefields right after the battles. Thanks to these men, we have a photographic log of what the aftermath of these battles did to the civilians who lived in the area. I'm not just talking about Gettysburg, but I'm talking about just about every battlefield (particularly the later battles in the Civil War).

Two of the many photographers that we can thank are Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. Although, I believe that at one time Gardner worked for Brady, both of these men followed the armies and documented the aftermath of battle after battle (particularly the large battles). Mathew Brady didn't take the pictures himself, but had a staff of men who worked for him that took the pictures.

Here in Gettysburg, we had a few that became quite well known for their photos. Some of those being Levi Mumper, the Tyson Brothers, William Tipton and others. Tipton took pictures of most of the monuments as they were being placed so that today we have early pictures of these monuments. This is a good thing because quite a few of the monument had changes made to them over the course of time, and we get to see just what they looked like at the beginning.

We can also thank men like William Frassanito who took those pictures and found the spots where they were taken and put them into books so that people like you and I can go back and locate the spots.

Where would we be today without these men? I know for a fact that the way the park looks today (Gettysburg) and the way that they are pushing for the park to look relies HEAVILY on these pictures. Would we know that Little Round Top had a few trees on the west side but mostly was bare? Would we know that Munshowers Hill even existed? What about the foliage on Oak Hill? How about the approach of the Alabamians? These are all things that we can see today thanks to the pictures that were left for us.

I often think about the millions and millions of pictures that are taken on the field today. Will we one day depend on those pictures to understand the history of the park? When I took 2000 (no exaggeration) pictures of the Old Visitors Center being torn down, will those pictures come in handy as a documentation of what happened for those couple of weeks in early 2009? I'm having a love affair with my camera, and I can only thank the early pioneers of photography for the seeds they planted in my mind and the minds of many, many others who do the same things!