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Volume 2, Issue 1 - January 2004 |
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The Library of Congress has opened its vast storehouse of Civil War negatives to the general public through its Internet web site, making available thousands of images that were previously difficult or impossible to obtain.
More than 12,000 Civil War photographic negatives from several massive collections owned by the library are now accessible through a few simple keystrokes on the computer. The library provides both low resolution (jpg) and high-resolution (tif) downloads for nearly every image, which gives Civil War authors and enthusiasts a mammoth, free resource for reproduction-quality images.
No longer will customers have to order, pay for and wait for prints through the library’s photoduplication service, which sometimes also meant paying the library’s cost for making a copy negative. And nearly every Civil War photograph the library owns is now available to anyone with a computer and Internet access. Previously, only about 1,000 selected Civil War images were available online.
“I’ve already saved three or four trips to the Library of Congress since I can now simply download the photos right to my computer,” said CCWP Vice President Garry Adelman. “The library has revolutionized the way we can view and use Civil War images. I can’t remember any online collection creating such a stir among Civil War photo buffs.”
The library’s only stipulation for the reproduction and use of these public domain images is that the user gives credit to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division and that he or she include the negative number so others can easily track down the image. The library started its ambitious digitizing project in 2001 to keep up with the times and to make available to everyone the highest-quality reproductions possible, said Carol Johnson, Curator of Photographs. The project was largely finished by the fall of 2003.
“I surveyed all of the Civil War negative series and divided them up into four categories based on importance and research demand,” Johnson said. “Priority one included the B815 negatives—the full stereo plates—and the two portrait series. The B811 series—the cut stereo negatives—were in priority two, along with the two other series.”
One of the goals was to stop having to pull the glass plate negatives for special prints. For instance, the B815 series consists of 670 full stereoscopic glass negatives by Gardner’s Gallery. But the library previously had copy negatives for only one-half of each stereo negative. If anyone requested a print of the full stereo negative, the library had to pull the original glass plate, risking the possibility of breakage.
“It’s amazing to work with them, knowing that these are the actual things that were on the battlefield,” photoduplication specialist Paul Hogroian told me in 1999. “But I’m always deathly afraid when I’m handling them that I’m going to break one. So far I never have.”
Now, virtually all of the full stereo negatives are available online, and Johnson said the library will no longer make prints from the original negatives. The project also included putting all the 815 stereo negatives into new, archival sleeves, although the library took pains to save the existing sleeves, which were more than 100 years old. Many of those sleeves feature original Gardner’s Gallery backmarks.
Some negatives have been broken while in the library’s possession during the past 60 years, but the library has always kept the pieces, giving each an individual sleeve. During the digitizing project, each of these broken negatives was reassembled on the flatbed scanner like a puzzle, and the image was scanned despite the shattered plate.
Among the library’s damaged negatives, a more predominant problem is the negatives that have turned dark. But all of these dark negatives were scanned and made available, too, including some barely-visible images. With the sophisticated photo-restoration programs and techniques available to work with digitized images, photo buffs can largely recover the images from these dark plates, as well as images from cracked and broken plates.
With other negatives on a light table in the background, a Library of Congress photoduplication specialist holds an original Timothy O’Sullivan stereoscopic negative (LCB815- 0523) of the courthouse in Culpeper, Va, in August 1862. (Photo by Paul Hogroian).
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| With other negatives on a light table in the background, a Library of Congress photoduplication specialist holds an original Timothy O’Sullivan stereoscopic negative (LCB815- 0523) of the courthouse in Culpeper, Va, in August 1862. (Photo by Paul Hogroian). |
While there are apparently no great “finds,” among all the negatives scanned for the digitizing projects, such as an unknown image of Lincoln, there are no doubt some previously unpublished images now available online. And for the 3-D buff, there is a vast new treasure trove of previously unavailable images. The library’s B811 series includes some 1,500 images by Gardner’s Gallery and the E. & H. T. Anthony Co. on stereoscopic negatives that have been cut. For the majority of these images—more than 1,000—the library owns both halves of the original stereo negative. But in the past, only a 2-D image was available because the library had made only a single copy negative from one of the halves. Now the library has digitized virtually all of their cut stereo negatives, and if they have both halves of an image, they’ve posted both halves on line. And in a remarkably prescient move, the library has posted thumbnail images for each half of all of the B811 stereo images and properly positioned them side by side on each image’s main page for easy stereo viewing, either with a hand-held stereo viewer or by free viewing. By keeping the cursor on the “Next Page” feature, an online patron can literally see a 3-D Civil War photo show online, clicking from one image to the next. Perhaps the easiest place to begin exploring the library’s Civil War photographic negatives is to visit: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/cwphtml/cwpabt.html
Click on “search tip” to see a summary of the various collections. Visit www.civilwarphotography.org for a more complete listing of collections and their links. Or if you’d just like to starting searching the collections, click on: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/cwpquery.html
~ Bob Zeller
C. J. Tyson stereo view No. 579: Battlefield of Gettysburg—Stratton Street, through which the Union forces retreated. The rail fence marks the spot where Serg’t Humiston fell. (From the collection of John Richter).
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| C. J. Tyson stereo view No. 579: Battlefield of Gettysburg—Stratton Street, through which the Union forces retreated. The rail fence marks the spot where Serg’t Humiston fell.(From the collection of John Richter). |
The evening of August30, 2003 was one of thehighlights of my stereo collecting career. That night, a Tyson Gettysburg stereo view from my collection surprised photo historian William A. Frassanito.
Very few historical Gettysburg photographs exist that Frassanito has not seen, as I’d learned during 20 years of collecting Gettysburg stereo views. But on August 30, when Bob Zeller projected my copy of Tyson No. 579 during the Gettysburg in 3-D slide show, Frassanito saw a Gettysburg street scene he’d never laid eyes on.
It gives me great pleasure to again present this rare view to the membership, and to publish it for the first time. C. J. Tyson view No. 579 is labeled “Battle-field of Gettysburg - Stratton street, through which the Union forces retreated. The rail fence marks the spot where Serg’t Humiston fell.” The image is as historic as it is compelling. Because of the scene depicted in the photograph and the information written on the backmark, Frassanito has confirmed that the image shows the previously unknown site of where the body of Sgt. Amos Humiston of the 154th New York was found.
Humiston would have been just another of the hundreds of dead soldiers on the battlefield whose remains were never identified, except he was found clutching an ambrotype of his three children. The ambrotype was widely reproduced in cartes de visite and distributed throughout the north. Within a few months, his family was found and eventually they became the first residents of the short-lived National Soldiers’ Orphans’ Homestead in Gettysburg.
I came across the view, which is in remarkably good condition, in 1998 as part of a group of post-war Gettysburg views I purchased from a New England dealer. I never even thought of sending Bill this Tyson view or any other because he’d told me that he owned all 80 views in the series, which was issued by C. J. Tyson in 1867.
I first met Bill at a book signing in my hometown of Hanover, Pa., on Dec. 16, 1995, and began corresponding with him. From time to time, when I found a view that I thought was rare or I didn’t recognize, I would send him a copy. He would usually say that, yes, he had seen it before. And then he’d give me all the information about it.
Frassanito’s collection of the Tyson series had one anomaly. The view that he classified as No. 579 had no label on the reverse. He figured it was 579 because that was the only number that remained unaccounted for in his set.
Early last year, Zeller selected some of my views to include in his new all-Gettysburg show. One of those views was Tyson No. 579. I considered it a nice view but didn’t attach any special significance to it. So after the show on August 30, I was surprised when Bill questioned me about the view. He said that he had never seen it before. He could hardly believe it was a Tyson view. I promised to mail him a copy of the card—front and back.
I was floored when he wrote back: “Unbelievable!” It amazed both of us that during almost 40 years of searching for and examining Gettysburg views; this scene had somehow eluded him.
But that’s the nature of Civil War photography. Views taken by local photographers were usually printed in relatively small numbers. The Tyson series is a good example. Tyson was a small town photographer selling views of the battlefield to the tourist trade. Whichever views weren’t good sellers are particularly hard to find today. The Tyson series was probably mostly photographed by Tyson’s two assistants, William H. Tipton and Robert A. Myers. The next year, 1868, they would buy the business from Tyson, rename it Tipton and Myers, and add to the original Tyson series with views under their own label. From time to time, they even added replacement views to update some of the original numbers in the Tyson series.
Not only does Tyson No. 579 reveal the precise location related to one of the great human interest stories of the battle, it also gives us a look at the location of one of Gettysburg’s local merchants—the grocery warehouse of William E. Biddle.
Biddle was prosperous enough after the war to own the two-story warehouse and even his own railroad cars. In fact, that might be one of his boxcars behind the building. In the damage claim Biddle filed with the government after the battle, he reported having had two railroad cars burned by the Rebels—an 8-wheeled car burned in Gettysburg on the evening of June 26, 1863, and a 4-wheeled car burned at Hanover Junction on June 27, 1863.
By 1867, when this image was made, Biddle appeared to have recovered from his battle-related losses. Yet just five years later, in August 1872, he listed his town property for sale, with the intention of moving west. The lesson in this story is that Civil War photographic discoveries can surface in the most unlikely of ways. So if you’ve got an unidentified view, by all means share it with the memberships. Everyone benefits from this kind of exchange, and who knows what other discoveries we can make!
Thanks to William Frassanito for allowing me to quote him from our correspondence and for supplying all of the background information on William Biddle.
~ John Richter
Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War historian Dr. James M. McPherson has withdrawn his endorsement of the discredited Gettysburg Battlefield: A Definitive Illustrated History, by David J. Eicher (Chronicle Books, 2003) and has requested that the publisher remove his name and the Foreword that he wrote from any future printings.
In a Nov. 13, 2003 note to me, McPherson said he sent a letter to Chronicle Books Editor Bill LeBlond “requesting the withdrawal of my name from endorsements of the book and the removal of my Foreword from any future printings or editions.”
McPherson, whose name is prominently featured on the cover of Gettysburg Battlefield, said he took this action after reviewing information provided to him by the Center for Civil War Photography that shows how Eicher copied historical photographs out of books by William A. Frassanito and reproduced them in Gettysburg Battlefield, falsely asserting that they came from other sources.
“Yours and Garry Adelman’s statements confirming those of Bill Frassanito have convinced me of the problems with this book,” McPherson wrote in the Nov. 13 note to me.
McPherson’s action is the latest in a string of repudiations of Eicher’s book. Most Civil War bookstores in Gettysburg refuse to handle it, including the National Park Service bookstores and Greystone’s American History store. The Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg, which had been offering the book, is no longer doing so and has returned their remaining copies to the publisher, according to Frassanito. And at least one of the guest essayists in the book, Wayne Motts, also wrote Chronicle requesting that his work be removed from any future printings.
In addition, the Adams County (Pa.) Historical Society protested Eicher’s misuse of one of its photos, which he published without obtaining an ACHS copy print, without obtaining permission, and without paying its user fee. Eicher disingenuously tried to patch things up after the fact not by asking for permission, but by sending a “donation” that equaled the user fee; it was rejected. Moreover, the ACHS flatly notified Eicher of their own finding that the photo in question had been scanned from a Frassanito book. Eicher never responded.
The 296-page, coffee table-sized book was billed as one of the major Civil War books of 2003. But months before the book’s release in the spring, Frassanito, the nation’s leading Civil War photohistorian, examined an advance copy. He realized instantly that many historical photos in Eicher’s book looked too familiar. After a meticulous forensic investigation, Frassanito found proof that Eicher scanned at least 42 of the 164 historical photographs in Gettysburg Battlefield directly from the pages of his two Gettysburg books and miscredited them to other sources, such as the Library of Congress and National Archives.
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After Frassanito complained, Eicher (whose day job is editor of Astronomy magazine) admitted that he had scanned many photographs from Frassanito’s two landmark works, Gettysburg, A Journey in Time (Scribners, 1975) and Early Photography at Gettysburg (Thomas Publications, 1995) for use in his own field work. Eicher said he “could have inadvertently placed the wrong digital images” on the disk he sent to Chronicle.
Eicher claimed to have legitimate negatives and prints for all the historical photos in his book, but after LeBlond demanded an accounting from him, he conceded to Chronicle that for some images, he had no source other than Frassanito’s books. Still, Chronicle released the book, asserting that Eicher had done nothing illegal. And then, in the December 2003 issue of Civil War Times Illustrated, Eicher changed his tune and adopted a stance of denial, stating, “. . .no admission by this author of duplication of prior works has ever occurred.”
That prompted The Center to mail photographic presentations of Eicher’s copying to McPherson and other prominent historians whom Eicher has continued to use in efforts to legitimize his book.
You can view the three case studies of Eicher’s copying that CCWP provided to McPherson and other historians on the Education/Exhibits page at www.civilwarphotography.org.
~ Bob Zeller
President, Center for Civil War Photography
A drenching rain forced a retreat from Devil’s Den, but it did not stop William A. Frassanito, dean of Civil War photohistorians, from giving another compelling lecture about the historic photography at Gettysburg during the CCWP’s third annual Image of War seminar on August 29-31, 2003.
Frassanito returned to the battlefield on Aug. 30 to give a rare, personal tour of Devil’s Den, only to be interrupted by a downpour that forced the seminar to retreat to headquarters at Days Inn Gettysburg. There, Frassanito picked up his lecture, describing his discoveries with the photographs that Alexander Gardner took at Devil’s Den and the Slaughter Pen in the days after the battle of Gettysburg.
Frassanito’s appearance was a highlight of the seminar as about 60 CCWP members gathered at the Days Inn Gettysburg for another detailed exploration of the historic photographs taken after the Civil War’s biggest battle.
The weekend got underway on Friday night with slide presentations by CCWP Vice President Garry Adelman and advisory board member Timothy Smith. Adelman and Smith, both Licensed Battlefield Guides at Gettysburg, prepared the group for the next day’s tours by discussing Civil War photography and how to learn from 19th century images. Adelman also challenged the group with a Civil War photographic quiz; the winners receiving free raffle tickets for the Saturday night drawing.
After Saturday breakfast, Adelman and Smith conducted a three-hour tour of one of Gettysburg most fiercely contested and most photographed sites—Culp’s Hill. Using the Center’s newly published Culp’s Hill book (see related story) they captivated the crowd at significant Culp’s Hill sites, including burial trenches and Rock Creek.
Boulders that are just normal rocks for most visitors came alive at the seminar as Adelman and Smith used them to pinpoint camera positions of compelling and historic 19th century battlefield photographs.
Following a “lunch on your own” in town, the group proceeded to Devil’s Den for William Frassanito’s tour—his first public presentation in two years. Frassanito discussed how his intensive research on Gardner’s images and others have shed new light on the battle and battlefield. Frassanito located most of the original camera positions of the Gettysburg wartime photographs and revealed them in his classic Gettysburg, A Journey in Time, first published in 1975 by Scribners.
The annual Saturday night banquet featured an all-Gettysburg 3-D Civil War photography slide lecture by Center president Bob Zeller. The all-new show featured the wartime stereo photographs taken on the battlefield by Alexander Gardner and Mathew Brady, as well as many stunning post-war stereo images and a selection of then-and-now shots, including a remarkable sequence of four images showing the sharpshooter’s nest at Devil’s Den in 3-D as it evolved over 140 years.
Before the rain arrives in the Slaughter Pen on the Gettysburg battlefield during the 2003 Image of War seminar, William A. Frassanito talks about his early days as a licensed battlefield guide as William Gladstone, James O. Phelps and Keith Brady (from left) look on. (Photo by Garry Adelman).
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| Before the rain arrives in the Slaughter Pen on the Gettysburg battlefield during the 2003 Image of War seminar, William A. Frassanito talks about his early days as a licensed battlefield guide as William Gladstone, James O. Phelps and Keith Brady (from left) look on. (Photo by Garry Adelman). |
The evening’s festivities also included our annual raffle, which was full of great souvenirs and collectible items, including several original Civil War photographs. The raffle alone raised more than $600 for the Center.
On Sunday, seminar patrons rotated at their leisure among three different programs. To learn how photographers made their images, guests visited board member Rob Gibson’s wet-plate gallery—the only such permanent studio in existence. Each tour included the taking of a group photo, and one lucky patron got to take home the original glass plate.
Brian Kennell, superintendent of Gettysburg’s original cemetery—the Evergreen Cemetery— gave a presentation which included the rare opportunity to go into the cemetery gatehouse— in the footsteps of Civil War photographers and Union Generals. Guests were impressed with Kennell’s knowledge and some called his tour one of the best presentations of the weekend. Kennell also donated several items to the CCWP raffle, including a brick from the original gatehouse. Finally, in the third program, Adelman and Smith returned to the field to conduct a photographic tour of Gettysburg’s High Water Mark. It included rare visits inside the Bryan and Leister Houses, both of which were photographed in July 1863.
The fourth annual Image of War seminar moves to Spotsylvania County and Fredericksburg, Virginia, on August 27, 28 and 29, 2004. Be sure to mark your calendar for another great session on the photography of the Civil War at the locations where the images were made.
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| As the wind picks up and the rain begins to fall, Frassanito and CCWP President Bob Zeller look with concern toward the threatening skies. (Photo by Garry Adelman). |
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In preparation for the 2003 Image of War seminar held in Gettysburg, PA, the CCWP collected over 200 historical photographs of Culp’s Hill, the area where the Union right flank was anchored at Gettysburg and the scene of the most sustained and some of the bloodiest fighting in the battle.
The best and most illustrative images of Culp’s Hill were gathered into the largest collection of Culp’s Hill images ever assembled in one publication— 99 Historic Photographs of Culp’s Hill, Gettysburg, PA. The booklet is the first in a series of planned “99 Historic Photos of” publications. It was compiled and assembled by Garry Adelman, John Richter and Timothy Smith.
The 32-page booklet is a collection of historic images and their original captions. No attempt was made to include modern views of the same location, or a written interpretation of each view. Rather, the focus is on the images themselves and the captions with which they were printed. The next in the series will be 99 Historic Photographs of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, Virginia, which will be assembled for the 4th annual Image of War seminar held in Spotsylvania County, VA, August 27-29, 2004.
All Civil War photographs are in the public domain, which means that no copyrights remain in effect for any of the images. But the canons of original research and the ethics of scholarship demand that authors, photo editors or publishers who intend to publish CW photographs in books, periodicals, newspapers or on the Internet secure their reproductions from a legitimate source, obtain permission from that source if necessary or appropriate, properly credit the actual source for the image and pay any user fees if the institution or collector requires a fee. Authors and photo editors should strive to obtain the best possible reproduction of the original image.
It is generally not appropriate to reproduce Civil War images scanned from other books or magazines. The poor quality of such multi-generation reproductions misrepresents and degrades the superb clarity attained by Civil War photographers with their large glass plate negatives. It is unethical and wholly inappropriate to scan images from a book and falsely credit them to another source, such as the Library of Congress. If the author feels he must use a Civil War photograph scanned from another book, he must credit the book as the source and, if possible, obtain permission from the author or publisher. As an example, authors and publishers have occasionally used obscure and otherwise-unavailable images that appear in the 10-volume Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War, which was published in 1911. While there is no one to obtain permission from and the volumes are now in the public domain, any reproduction should be credited to Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War.
~ Bob Zeller
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