By 1861, with the start of the war, Gardner had wangled an additional appointment as chief photographer on the staff of the commanding Union general, George B. McClellan, according to Katz’s 1991 study of Gardner and his work.
He held the rank of captain, and could essentially embed with McClellan’s Army.
(Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution) - Alexander Gardner, shown here in an 1863 Albumen silver print, died at age 61 on Dec. 10, 1882 in his home on Virginia Avenue SW. He was buried two days later in Northeast Washington’s Glenwood Cemetery after a large, well-attended funeral that was noted by the press.Mathew B. Brady, his former employer and rival Civil War photographer, outlived him by almost 14 years. But Brady, who was in his early 70s, died penniless in New York City on Jan. 15, 1896.His body was shipped to Washington, where he was buried in Congressional Cemetery in his late wife’s family plot. He was placed in a grave already occupied by two relatives, after a funeral that cost $6.The two photography pioneers, who once had Washington studios blocks from each other, are now at rest just four miles apart.
At some point after Antietam, Gardner and Brady parted ways, and Gardner opened his own gallery in Washington.
In 1865, with the close of hostilities, Gardner produced a compendium of his best pictures. Entitled “Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War,” it remains one of the finest photo records of the conflict.
It was pricey, for its time: $150. But it contained shots of the stone bridge at Bull Run and the Dunker Church at Antietam. There were pictures of the dead at Gettysburg and the young rebel whose body was moved. And there were pictures of the ruins of Richmond.
“As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed,” Gardner wrote in the preface, “it is confidently hoped that . . . [these photos] will possess an enduring interest.”
An almost lost legacy
In 1869, Gardner asked Congress to purchase his photographs, describing them as national treasures, according to Katz’s history. Congress was not interested.
When Gardner died 13 years later, his estate consisted of, among other things, books, and furniture, but, apparently, no photographic material.
Some of his priceless negatives may have been sold as scrap glass, according to Katz’s study. Many were acquired by collectors, and in 1884 again offered for sale to the government. The government still was not interested.
When the 1893 cache was discovered, a Post reporter visited Gardner’s son, Lawrence, a Washington insurance executive, who said the old negatives were probably his father’s.
After that, their fate is uncertain.
In 1942, the Library of Congress acquired a trove of Gardner negatives that had been bought by a Connecticut collector and stored in a vault for a quarter century.
But it’s not clear whether the library acquisition included the 1893 discovery.
“I am completely stumped as to where this collection of negatives fits in the picture,” Zeller, the photo expert, wrote in an e-mail.
The Smithsonian said it has a few photos — apparently Gardner’s — for which there is no provenance.
And William Stapp, former curator of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, said some Gardner negatives have “just vanished.”
Meanwhile, as Gardner hoped, the nation has rediscovered an “enduring interest” in his work.
The Library of Congress has digitized many of his Civil War photographs. They can be viewed online in “magical” clarity, said Helena Zinkham, head of the library’s prints and photographs division.
And Zeller said a single Gardner photo of Washington, taken from the roof of the photographer’s gallery looking toward the Capitol, went up for auction late last year.
It sold for $35,000.
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