Timothy O'Sullivan
American, born Ireland, 1840–1882
Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Gettysburg
INV-1962
Timothy O'Sullivan
American, born Ireland, 1840–1882July 1863
Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Gettysburg
Timothy O'Sullivan American, born Ireland, 1840–1882 →19th centuryphotographalbumen silver print
Date
July 1863
Medium
Albumen print, pl. 37 from the album "Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, vol. 1" (1866)
Dimensions
Image/paper: 17.7 × 22.9 cm (7 × 9 1/16 in.); Album page: 31.1 × 44.6 cm (12 1/4 × 17 9/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Everett Kovler
Along with Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan was one of the primary photographers of the American Civil War. Using wet-plate glass negatives, a cumbersome and labor-intensive technology that did not allow for images of active battle, O'Sullivan concentrated on the war's harrowing aftermath. This photograph depicts a scene following the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the war's bloodiest confrontations, in which thousands of men on both sides lost their lives. The lifeless, exposed bodies of the six soldiers who appear in the photograph had been picked over by survivors searching for shoes and other valuables. This image was among 44 of O'Sullivan's photographs included in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, one of the first published collections of Civil War photographs.
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