Matthew Brady began life as a photographer in New York city in the days when daguerreotypes were in vogue and soon became known as an excellent workman. He saw the value of his occupation as an adjunct to the historic description of contemporary times and characters. Brady's photographs include all of the most important figures in American history during the mid-19th century. He made daguerreotypes of Webster, Calhoun, Clay, John Quincy Adams, Sam Houston and many other men famous in their day. Coming to Washington in the early fifties, Mr. Brady soon became a leading photographer and in a few years his name was a household word all over the United States.

The illustrated journals during the war added to his celebrity by reproducing many of his pictures of battlefields and his protraits of prominent generals in both armies. He took thousands of important and valuable negatives during the four years from 1861 to 1865, which have served to illustrate that great struggle as no war had previously been pictured. Many of these were of a large size and presented graphic scenes on battlefields, in camp, hospital, during the march and in and about army headquarters. Congress authorized the purchase of a large collection of these pictures.