GIBSON AND BARNARD

George Barnard, American, 1819-1902

George Barnard was born in New York in 1819. He worked as a news photographer and as Mathew Brady's assistant in New York City prior to the Civil War. In 1862 he became the official photographer for the army of General Sherman. Due to the complex collodion wet-plate process of the time though, Barnard could not photograph the actual battles, so instead he took photographs of the devastation after the combat and of other aspects of the war such as famous battle sites, bridges and railroads. Barnard also documented General Sherman's famous "March to the Sea", which produced a series of prints 10 x 14, sixty-one of which were published in Plates from Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign in 1866. Barnard also created several images of the war with James F. Gibson which were later published in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Today Barnard's images are an important part of American history.