NF Photography Books: Need Help!

[TallTallMan]

I am collecting books on CW photography. My goal is to have only the books with UNPUBLISHED material, not coffeetables and "best-ofs".

I have the Image of War (the entire series was condensed into the book Civil war Album, which omitted nothing but just shrank the photo sizes to fit more than one on each page), and Touched By Fire is very soon. Both series were edited by William C. Davis, and are about 5000 photographs altogether. Davis said that about 30,000 images were donated to the Civil War Times by MOLLUS, meaning 16.666666666667% of them are published in his two series!

Are there any other collections that have UNPUBLISHED images SINCE these two collections (1980s)?

 

[RedRover]

From the late 80s through 90s several volumes of the "Portraits of Conflict" series came out, featuring civil war photography in a few different States.

And for Arkansas:

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

 

[Pollaco]

"Civil War & Revolution on the Rio Grande Frontier" by Jerry D. Thompson may be worth looking at.I am a little puzzled by what is meant by unpublished books though.

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

@TallTallMan I know you said you were only interested in books, but you should also seriously consider Military Images Magazine.

Military Images Magazine

A Civil War Trust interview with Ron Coddington, recent publisher and editor of Military Images magazine.

www.battlefields.org

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

Confederate Faces and More Confederate Faces were not printed on high quality paper. Plus since they were published more information has surfaced showing some photos were misidentified and some unidentified have been identified.

Bar none Ronn Palm has the finest collection of Pennsylvania Bucktails photographs in the United States.

 

[Library Lady]

Since this book is 2 years old, you may have it already. The author spoke at my Round Table's banquet this spring and gave a fascinating lecture.

Port Hudson: The Most Significant Battlefield Photographs of the Civil War by Lawrence Lee Hewett

Civil War Book of the Year: “Port Hudson” from UT Press

Published by UT Press, Port Hudson: The Most Significant Battlefield Photographs of the Civil War named Book of the Year by Civil War Books and Authors.

volumes.lib.utk.edu

Book Review: Port Hudson: The Most Significant Battlefield Photographs of the Civil War - Emerging Civil War

Port Hudson: The Most Significant Battlefield Photographs of the Civil War By Lawrence Lee Hewitt University of Tennessee Press 2021 $49.95 hardcover Reviewed by Stephen Davis Compared to Vicksburg, a hundred-ten miles upriver, Port Hudson, Louisiana has a sparse body of scholarship...

emergingcivilwar.com

 

[Rhea Cole]

By "unpublished" do you mean archives? That is where the images in the books listed up thread came from. Library of Congress, TN Library & Archive, Huntington Library, National Archive, NavSource Photo Index, Virginia, Arkansas & Georgia Historical archives are all sites where there are unpublished Civil War photos, often for good reason.

There are certain Brady studio images that are the wallpaper of the conflict. Not only are they technically excellent, they are also unique. No other photographic images exist. Which begs the question, why just photos?

The Becker Collection is a unique resource. It is the "morgue" from Leslie's Illustrated. The special correspondent artists who were embedded with the armies included Winslow Homer. Given the clumsy nature of floating an image, the artists documented things no photograph could. By definition they were unpublished. In effect, they were the negatives from which the woodblock etchings were made.

 

[TallTallMan]

By "unpublished" do you mean archives? That is where the images in the books listed up thread came from. Library of Congress, TN Library & Archive, Huntington Library, National Archive, NavSource Photo Index, Virginia, Arkansas & Georgia Historical archives are all sites where there are unpublished Civil War photos, often for good reason.

There are certain Brady studio images that are the wallpaper of the conflict. Not only are they technically excellent, they are also unique. No other photographic images exist. Which begs the question, why just photos?

The Becker Collection is a unique resource. It is the "morgue" from Leslie's Illustrated. The special correspondent artists who were embedded with the armies included Winslow Homer. Given the clumsy nature of floating an image, the artists documented things no photograph could. By definition they were unpublished. In effect, they were the negatives from which the woodblock etchings were made.

I meant books that have "new" images in them that were not in previous books, like how a Cozzens will have newer stuff than a McDonough before it, you know?

 

[Rhea Cole]

I meant books that have "new" images in them that were not in previous books, like how a Cozzens will have newer stuff than a McDonough before it, you know?

The images all date from 160 years ago…

 

[TallTallMan]

The images all date from 160 years ago…

I mean like never-before-published.

 

[Rhea Cole]

I mean like never-before-published.

There are, no doubt any number of unarchived images in private hands. I have no idea how many hundreds of images I have seen archived in various museum collections.

Fortunately, it is possible to go online & visit visual archives all over the country. Fair warning, the majority of unpublished, which I assume means hard copies, images are there for a reason. I have gone through hundreds of images seeking out a publishable image.

In my professional life we said that a picture is with a thousand words…. A good photo is worth 10,000 poor ones.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

From the late 80s through 90s several volumes of the "Portraits of Conflict" series came out, featuring civil war photography in a few different States.

The "Portraits of Conflict" series is well worth the price ... if one can even find a new/good edition these days.
Back in the early 2000's, I bought both the Mississippi & Louisiana volumes.

Those books were on the expensive side even back then, but worth the price.

These volumes do have some well known photos, but most images are almost unknown.

 

[RedRover]

The "Portraits of Conflict" series is well worth the price ... if one can even find a new/good edition these days.
Back in the early 2000's, I bought both the Mississippi & Louisiana volumes.

Those books were on the expensive side even back then, but worth the price.

These volumes do have some well known photos, but most images are almost unknown.

I have a couple of them too. Also bought Albaugh's "Confederate Faces" books, etc. A little while back I realized that collecting books and magazines of Civil war photographs was sort of like stamp collecting. I started downsizing about 10 years ago.
But I still enjoy seeing new images here on the forum.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

collecting books and magazines of Civil war photographs was sort of like stamp collecting.

Very true !

It's impossible to collect all.

 

[TallTallMan]

The "Portraits of Conflict" series is well worth the price ... if one can even find a new/good edition these days.
Back in the early 2000's, I bought both the Mississippi & Louisiana volumes.

Those books were on the expensive side even back then, but worth the price.

These volumes do have some well known photos, but most images are almost unknown.

I have a couple of them too. Also bought Albaugh's "Confederate Faces" books, etc. A little while back I realized that collecting books and magazines of Civil war photographs was sort of like stamp collecting. I started downsizing about 10 years ago.
But I still enjoy seeing new images here on the forum.

Very true !

It's impossible to collect all.

Does Portraits of Conflict have "never-before-seen" photos? In other words not in Davis's serieses?

 

[RedRover]

Does Portraits of Conflict have "never-before-seen" photos? In other words not in Davis's serieses?

Not all of them are previously unpublished. But, the books are filled with information about the period photography and photographers in each State, and the State's wartime experiences, etc.

Here's a preview of the Alabama volume:

Portraits of Conflict: Alabama...Preview... google books

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Does Portraits of Conflict have "never-before-seen" photos? In other words not in Davis's serieses?

Well, in the Mississippi & Louisiana volumes I would say yes.

I'm not suggesting the photos have never been published, but most have never been viewed by the general public.

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

While thousands of Civil War portraits have been published, there are thousands more which haven't.

83rd Ohio Volunteer infantry Photos | Regimental Histories

Last year, in an attempt to get into civil war reenacting, I started researching a little known unit known as the 83rd OVI, also known as the 'greyhound regiment'. A small overview of the regiment is as follows: Raised at camp dennison Ohio, a few regiments formed in Campbell county kentucky in...

civilwartalk.com

 

[Sowbelly and Hardtack]

100th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in Photos | Regimental Histories

civilwartalk.com