Description
Dead soldiers litter the ground in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, which took place from July 1 to 3, 1863. Timothy OSullivan took this photograph, titled A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,and it became one of the most iconic images of the Civil War. This albumen print was made by Alexander Gardner from OSullivans glass-plate negative and used in Gardners Photographic Sketch Book of the War (1866), a two-volume work that included 100 mounted photographs of the conflict. Gardner, a Scottish-born photographer, worked for the renowned Mathew Brady photographic studio in Washington, D.C., from 1856 to 1862, until he opened a rival studio. Gardner poached a number of Bradys best photographers for his own studio, including Timothy OSullivan, and after the war produced his illustrated Sketch Book.
