Documentary Photograph as a Work of Art: American Photographs 1860-1876

13 October–12 December 1976

The art and science of photography was utilized during the Civil War and immediately afterwards to report on the progress of military campaigns and westward expansion. Even at this early moment when the purpose of photography was largely reportorial, photographers like Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O’Sullivan, George Bernard, and others whose work is exhibited in this show, were already concerned with making aesthetic choices in these seemingly straightforward documentations of the sufferings of war. After the Civil War, photographers traveled west to record the unfolding landscape with their newly discovered photographic talents.

Curator: The exhibition was conceived by Joel Snyder, Associate Professor in the college, University of Chicago, who also published in the accompanying catalogue along with Doug Munson, Alan Fern, Head of the Department of Research at the Library of Congress, and John Cawelti, Department of English, University of Chicago.

The exhibition was made possible by loans from private collectors, the Boston Public Library, the Chicago Historical Society, the Newberry Library, the Library of Congress, the Department of the Interior and several other institutions. Funding was provided by the Harold T. Martin Fund, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and contributions from Samuel William Sax and the Exchange National Bank of Chicago.

Share this:
The University of Chicago smARTKids