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BARNARD & GIBSON
George N. Barnard (1819-1902)
It is unfortunate that George N. Barnard has been largely overlooked as an American pioneer in photography. Born in New York State in 1819, he was already experimenting with photography by 1832, only three years after its invention by Louis Daguerre in France. Barnard began his career in Oswego, New York, making the earliest known American spot news photographs there in 1847.
In 1854 Barnard moved to Syracuse, New York, where he began to make ambrotypes and melainotypes. During the 1850s he became increasingly respected and honored by his colleagues. In 1853 he was elected to serve as secretary of the New York State Daguerrean Association. In February, 1861, Barnard joined Mathew Brady's photographic crew in Washington, D.C.
Barnard is one of only a few photographers mentioned in the official records of the Union Army. As an officially sanctioned photographer attached to Sherman's command, he was issued a covered wagon to serve as a field dark room. This Rucker ambulance appears in several of his Nashville views. In 1866 Barnard issued a book, PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS OF SHERMAN'S CAMPAIGN, which contained sixty-one photographic prints.
In the 1870s Barnard worked in Chicago, where, during the Great Fire, he worked briefly in Painesville, Ohio, and in South Carolina, before returning to New York, where he helped George Eastman start a photographic business. Barnard and Eastman were both elected to membership in the Rochester Photographic Association on the same occasion in 1884. Barnard died in 1902.
Hoobler, James A. Cities under the Gun: Images of Occupied Nashville and Chattanooga, photographs by George N. Barnard and Others. Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill Press, 1986: 12-3. Edited to fit space.
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James F. Gibson (1828-1905)
Little is known of James F. Gibson. As a photographer, he was obviously greatly skilled. He was born in Scotland. He was in his early thirties when the Civil War began, and working in Matthew Brady's Washington studio, which was being managed by Alexander Gardner. Gibson began work at Yorktown early in May 1862, assisted by John Wood, who also worked at Brady's studio. In September 1862, he and Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan photographed at Antietam, and he was with Gardner at Gettysburg.
Gibson photographed at Fredericksburg, Brandy Station, and other sites in Virginia during 1863 and 1864. In 1864, Gibson took over the management of Brady's Washington studio, which was having serious financial problems. However, he lacked business ability and was unable to make the studio profitable. He and Brady quarreled and ended up suing each other. Gibson left Washington for Kansas in 1868. It is for the vivid and timely photographs that he produced during the Peninsular Campaign that Gibson is remembered.
Sullivan, Goerge. Civil War Photographers and Their Work: Portraits of War. Brookfield, Conn.: Twenty-First Century Books, 1998: 37-40.
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