THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR

New York: Review of Review Co, 1911. Third issue. Very good.. First edition of this towering landmark of Civil War history, "the grandfather of pictorial histories" (Eicher) with nearly 3400 photographs of battlefields, artillery, enlisted personnel and officers, prisons, hospitals, camps, and maps, with text by veterans. While images from the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and the Crimean War (1853-56) exist, no conflict prior to the American Civil War was so extensively captured via the new medium of photography. Photographers in both the North and the South - including Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, George S. Cook, McPherson & Oliver - distilled for public audiences the brutality of battle and its shattering aftereffects in ways little seen before: "If [they have] not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along streets, [they have] done something very like it[.]"

Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the War's beginning, PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR gathered thousands of images - many published here for the first time - from historical societies, universities, various state and federal governmental departments, and the general public itself. Each of the ten volumes groups material thematically: (1) The Opening Battles, (2) Two Years of Grim War, (3) The Decisive Battles, (4) The Cavalry, (5) Forts and Artillery, (6) The Navies, (7) Prisons and Hospitals, (8) Soldier Life / Secret Service, (9) Poetry and Eloquence, and (10) Armies and Leaders.

The bedrock of any Civil War collection. Increasingly scarce in such collectible condition. 10 volumes, 11'' x 8.5''. Original blue "silk" cloth with blind-stamped military regalia to front board and gilt-lettered spine. Top edges gilt. Patterned endpapers with vignette portraits of Grant & Lee (front) and Lincoln & Davis (rear). Volume 10 with third issue index. Pages ranging from about 320-370 each. Light wear to spine ends, minor rubbing to boards with a few spots of soil, light scattered foxing to fore-edges and some front matter. Volume 9 with abrasion to lower corner of rear board. Bright overall.