Civil war photos

[Hanky]

I have this link to some pretty cool shots. They are glass plate prints.
Original Civil War photographs
Also I would encourage you to check out Mike Lynaugh's home page as he has had great access to D.C. big shots and mil. aircraft.
Washington DC photographer/photojournalist Mike Lynaugh

[rusty_tripod]

Fascinating and intriguing imagery.

[dbphotos]

Great photos. Thanks for the link.

[venchka]

Thanks. There are many other places on the 'net with wet plate work from the Civil War. The photos are fascinating. More fascinating is the number of plates that survived. Imagine how many didn't. By the way, it looks like the optical folks got it right by the 1860s. Sharp lenses are nothing new.

[mmuhlenkamp]

It still amazes me that there are photos like this of the Civil War. The emaciated man at the end of the series is very disturbing...

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by mmuhlenkamp

It still amazes me that there are photos like this of the Civil War. The emaciated man at the end of the series is very disturbing...

Even earlier is Fentosn's work during the Crimean war and the Mexican-American War.

[Bruce M. Morris]

Wayne if you ever take a trip up to Oklahoma, go see the University of Oklahoma's Western History Collections Photographic Archives. They have 11x14 POSITIVES on Glass plates, some of F. Curtis' portraits of Indians. Definitely sharp but when I worked there in 1980 we didnt really have a way to make working negs of the images that maintained the sharpness.

[mmuhlenkamp]

Bruce, are those photos on display (like a gallery) or do you have to set up a time to meet with a librarian to see them. I looked it up quick and it doesn't have a whole lot of detail on how to view the archive. I go up to Moore, Oklahoma regularly and this would be a nice side trip some weekend.

[Bruce M. Morris]

Granted I havent been in the archive in many years, but a lot of it was only in archive files. The most popular photos were in albums for quick reference but that was all in the days of film and chemistry processing. I dont know if they have been trying to digitize them or not. There are a wealth of interesting images there in different collections that document OU, Oklahoma's early days, and right on into the 40's and 50's. When I was there the big project was copying all the original silver nitrate negatives over to "modern" Safety film. For those that are not familiar, Silver nitrate negs have a tendency for spontaneous combustion which ruins their durability...

[mdparthum]

Thank you for posting that link!

[venchka]

Edward Curtis was THE man! To think that he and his daughter broke thousands of his plates during a bitter divorce. Sad.