Wednesday, January 19, 2022 – MATTHEW BRADY ALSO PHOTOGRAPHED WOMEN
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2022
The 576th Edition
Storied Women
of the
Civil War Era
from
THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
A SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM
My favorite museums in DC are the National Portrait Gallery, that shares it’s building with the American Art Museum. These are not giant edifices on the Mall, but two gems on G Street a few blocks away. Next trip, save some time and visit. You will not be disappointed.
Judith Berdy
Storied Women of the Civil War Era
| May 24, 2019 – March 20, 2022A number of women rose to national prominence during the Civil War era. Some, such as First Ladies Mary Todd Lincoln and Julia Dent Grant, became public figures when their husbands’ careers thrust them into the spotlight. Others—such as abolitionist Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, actress and theater manager Laura Keene, and Union spy Pauline Cushman—achieved recognition on their own terms. Despite traveling different paths to fame, these women had at least one thing in common: they each visited one of Mathew Brady’s photography studios in New York City or Washington, D.C., and posed for a portrait in the popular, new carte de visite format.Similar in size to a European calling card, the carte de visite originated in France in the mid-1850s and was introduced to the American market in the late summer of 1859. Inexpensive to produce and collect, they fueled the rapid growth of a mass market for affordable photographic portraits. Americans not only collected images of their friends and family members but delighted in filling parlor albums with pictures of men and women of note. When the vogue for collecting such likenesses took hold, Mathew Brady’s studios met the demand by producing thousands of cartes de visite, including portraits of many of those women who captured the public’s imagination during the Civil War era.The exhibited photographs are modern prints made from original Brady carte de visite negatives in the National Portrait Gallery’s Frederick Hill Meserve Collection. |
| ABOVEKate Bateman 1842–1917 Born Baltimore, Maryland Just four years old when she made her acting debut, Kate Bateman enjoyed great success as a child prodigy until she outgrew such roles at the age of fourteen and briefly retired from the stage. She reemerged in 1860 in the title role of Evangeline, a dramatization of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s celebrated poem. She soon confirmed her status as a bona fide adult star with her portrayal of Julia in the 1862 production of The Hunchback. Her most famous role, however, was that of Leah in Leah, the Forsaken—a melodrama adapted specifically for her by playwright Augustin Daly. When Leah opened in New York City in 1863, Bateman’s stirring performance received a wildly enthusiastic reception from the public. Although Bateman would play many parts during her long career, the story of Leah, a Jewish maiden who is cruelly abandoned by her Christian lover, would remain her greatest triumph. Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94) Modern albumen silver print from 1863 wet collodion negative |
Pauline Cushman 1833–1893
Born New Orleans, Louisiana
A brief but harrowing career as a Union spy transformed minor actress Pauline Cushman into a major celebrity. In 1863, while appearing in a play in Unionoccupied Louisville, Kentucky, Cushman gained entrée to Confederate circles by publically feigning Southern sympathies. Hailed as the darling of the rebel troops, she gathered intelligence for the North until her duplicity was discovered. Arrested, tried, and condemned to hang, she was rescued by Union forces before the sentence could be carried out.
In recognition of Cushman’s service to the nation, she received a commendation from President Lincoln and was awarded the honorary rank of major. In June 1864, P.T. Barnum advertised that “MISS MAJOR PAULINE CUSHMAN! THE FAMOUS UNION SPY AND SCOUT,” would recount her “EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOITS and ADVENTURES” during a series of appearances at his American Museum. Barnum also advised patrons that “elegant” carte de visite portraits of Cushman would be offered for sale.
Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1860-1870 wet collodion negative
Mary Todd Lincoln 1818–1882
Born Lexington, Kentucky
When her husband was elected president in 1860, Mary Todd Lincoln welcomed her role as the nation’s First Lady. Yet, her years in the White House proved far from happy. Unjustly suspected by many of harboring Confederate sympathies, she quickly became a target of public criticism for everything from her Southern birth to her extravagant style of entertaining. Hurt and embittered by these attacks, Mrs. Lincoln was shaken further by the death in 1862 of the Lincolns’ beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie. Still suffering from that tragic loss, she was utterly devastated by her husband’s assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth in April 1865. Mrs. Lincoln never fully regained her equilibrium and spent her remaining years plagued by mentalinstability.
Mrs. Lincoln posed for this portrait in one of the elegant silk gowns fashioned for her by the talented African American dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley
Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1862 wet collodion negative
Julia Dent Grant 1826–1902
Born White Haven, near St. Louis, Missouri
Julia Grant served as a stabilizing influence in the life of her husband, Ulysses S. Grant. She remained steadfast in her devotion and her belief in his potential, despite a series of setbacks that plagued the couple during the early years of their marriage. When Grant reentered military service during the Civil War, his need for his wife’s companionship and counsel was such that Julia hastened to join him in the field whenever possible. Throughout the war, no general’s wife spent as much time in army encampments as she did. While traveling to meet her husband in Oxford, Mississippi, in December 1862, Julia narrowly avoided capture by Confederate raiders when they swept into the town of Holly Springs. She later joined Grant at his encampments in Jackson, Memphis, Nashville, Vicksburg, and City Point. At the war’s conclusion, Julia accompanied her husband to Washington, D.C, along with his victorious troops.
Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from c. 1864 wet collodion negative
Queen Emma 1836–1885
Born Honolulu, Hawaii
On May 6, 1865, less than a month after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender marked the end of the Civil War, Hawaii’s recently widowed Queen Emma embarked from Honolulu on a lengthy international tour. After an extended stay in England, where she met with Queen Victoria and raised funds for the construction of an Anglican cathedral in Honolulu, Queen Emma traveled to a host of European cities. In late July 1866, following a second visit to London and brief sojourn in Ireland, she sailed for New York City. As the first queen of any nation to visit the United States, she was welcomed with great fanfare that included a thirteen-gun salute when her ship docked on August 6. Warmly praised by the New York press, Queen Emma generated similar excitement when she traveled to Washington, D.C., where President Andrew Johnson feted her at a grand White House reception.
Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1866 wet collodion negative
Lavina Warren Stratton 1841–1919
Born Middleborough, Plymouth, Massachusetts
One of the most famous women of the Civil War era stood just thirty-two inches tall. Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump was a person with dwarfism who began her professional life at sixteen as a schoolteacher. She later embarked on a career as an entertainer when a cousin invited her to perform on his Mississippi showboat. In 1862, famed impresario P. T. Barnum recruited the “Lilliputian Queen”—now known as Lavinia Warren—to appear at his American Museum in New York City. There, she met Charles Stratton, a little person and Barnum protégé, who enjoyed international celebrity as “Tom Thumb.” When the pair announced their plans to wed, Barnum publicized the engagement and reaped as much as $3,000 per day in admission fees from those who flocked to see the couple. Their lavish “Fairy Wedding” in New York City’s Grace Church on February 10, 1863, provided a much-needed diversion for a war-weary nation.
Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1863 wet collodion negative
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson 1842–1932
Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Acclaimed as “The Girl Orator” by radical reformer William Lloyd Garrison, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was still in her teens when she launched her publicspeaking career. An ardent abolitionist and women’s rights advocate, she first found receptive audiences in Philadelphia, where she spoke before the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society (1860) and later delivered an address titled “The Rights and Wrongs of Women” (1861). On the lecture circuit, Dickinson built a following among listeners captivated by her intensity, youth, and dedication to reform. She campaigned effectively for Republican candidates, and in 1863, she joined Frederick Douglass in promoting African American enlistment in the Union Army. On January 16, 1864, at the invitation of Congressional Republicans, Dickinson became the first woman to speak before the U.S. House of Representatives. In her address, she lauded the contributions of African Americans to the war effort and endorsed the reelection of President Lincoln.
Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Modern albumen silver print from 1863 wet collodion negative
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