Fairfax Court-House
1863
As one of the earliest plates in Gardner's landmark album, the courthouse image establishes the photographic project's scope in documenting a nation transformed by war.
- Medium
- Albumen print, pl. 3 from the album "Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, vol. 1" (1866)
- Location
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Spotted works by Timothy O'Sullivan
Artists in conversation
Mathew Brady
American · b. 1822
Brady was the foremost American Civil War documentary photographer, producing albumen prints of military sites, personnel, and architecture with the same historical gravitas and monochrome tonal range seen in this courthouse image.
Alexander Gardner
American · b. 1821
Gardner directly published this very album and created companion photographs using identical albumen print techniques, sharing O'Sullivan's focus on documenting war transformed American landscapes and structures with stark documentary clarity.
George Barnard
American · b. 1819
Barnard produced his own landmark Civil War photographic album documenting Southern buildings and battlefields using albumen prints, capturing the same architectural subjects and somber documentary tone present in this courthouse photograph.
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