Beschreibung:

two volumes, olbong folio. Washington: Phillips and Solomons , 1865-66. With pictorial title pages after A.R. Ward, containing 100 albumen photographs by Gardner and others, each 6.75 x 8.75" mounted on larger sheets with pre-printed mounting blocks and printed captions. Each plate accompanied by a printed page describing the image. Published pebbled dark green morocco, with gilt title. First edition. Called the "first modern photo-essay" (Stapp 1991:28) Gardner's "sketchbook" is recognized as the first published collections of Civil War photographs. Conceived by Gardner as a post-war memento, the 100 photographs represent selections from the over 3,000 negatives taken during the Civil War by himself and associates. Unlike Brady, Gardner carefully credits each of the original photographers who took the negative: George Barnard Timothy O'Sullivan, William R. Pywell, W. Morris Smith, David Knox and D.B. Woodbury. As Stapp notes, Gardner viewed the text and photographs to function as an extended essay comprising images and explanatory text that worked together organically (ibid:28). The Sketchbook is organized chronologically, and covers the war in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, with the central event the battle of Gettysburg. Seminal photographs from this conflict include "A Harvest of Death", "Field Where General Reynolds Fell"; "Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter"; and "Sharpshooter's Last Sleep". Exhibited in New York shortly after the battle, these images dramatically brought home the carnage of the battle, and shocked American's who previously had an abstract view of the War. Condition: Several plates with scattered foxing, marginal fall-off in tones. Cover of Volume II detached. A CD containing a photograph of each plate available on request.