George Barnard

a plate from Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign (New York: Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck, 1866), albumen print, on the two-toned mount, 'Photo from nature by G. N. Barnard' and title in letterpress on the mount, circa 1866

Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Fine Photographs, New York, 1995

William L. Schaeffer Photographs, Chester, Connecticut, 1995

George N. Barnard, Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign (New York, 1977 edition), pl. 48

Grading this albumen print on a scale of 1 to 10 – a 10 being an albumen print that has deep, near-black dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail – this print rates a strong 10. This print has rich, dark eggplant tones and warm, creamy highlights. There is no apparent fading and the level of detail present throughout the print is quite striking: from the lush Spanish moss hanging from the trees to the fallen leaves littering the foreground, everything is rendered with great clarity. When examined closely in raking light, scattered tiny deposits (likely original retouching) and a few small scratches are visible overall. The two-tone mount is age-darkened at the periphery, and there is a slight wave to the central area. This photograph was originally bound into 'Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign,' and there is a linear remnant of linen tape along the left edge of the mount.
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George Barnard’s Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign is a landmark in the history of the Civil War and in the history of the photographically-illustrated book.  Recognized from the first as a monument of its kind, the 61-plate volume was praised by Harper’s Weekly in 1866: ‘. . . [the photographs] surpass any other photographic views which have been produced in this country—whether relating to the war or otherwise.’

Like Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War, to which Barnard contributed several images, Sherman’s Campaign documented sites of important battles, military construction, and the general devastation of parts of the South during the Civil War.   From 1864 to 1865, Barnard, the official photographer of the Military Division of the Mississippi, followed General Sherman’s army on its final campaigns in Atlanta, Tennessee, and the ‘March to the Sea’ through Georgia.  In 1866, Barnard returned to ‘scenes of historical interest,’ such as Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery pictured here, to complete his photographic survey.

As Barnard's large glass negatives were fragile, he often made more than one view in case a plate broke.  An alternate, lesser known view of Buen Ventura appears as plate 48 in the copy of the work in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University.