View of the “Slaughter Pen” at the Battle of Gettysburg, outdoor albumen stereoview. New York: E. & H. T. Anthony, 1863. Photographer’s copyright printed on the recto of the mount. Publisher’s imprint printed on the verso. Series number and identification also printed on the verso. Period inscription on the verso reads: “P. Butler.”

A grim stereoview depicting the scattered corpses of soldiers in an area known as the “Slaughter Pen” in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. This ground lay to the right of the Union line, at the foot of Round Top near Gettysburg. A graphic and haunting scene, the image was taken by Alexander Gardner (1821–1882) and issued as No. 265 in the Photographic Incidents of the War series.

Gardner, one of the pioneering photographers of the Civil War, was long overshadowed by his notoriously self-promoting contemporary, Mathew Brady. In recent years, however, Gardner’s almost unparalleled contributions to photographic history, especially to the photographic history of the United States, have come into sharper focus, earning him the recognition he deserves.

Born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1821, Gardner emigrated to the United States in 1856 and soon entered Brady’s employ. He quickly rose through the ranks and eventually managed Brady’s gallery. When the Civil War began, Gardner documented some of its defining moments, including the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, where he produced some of the first photographs of battlefield dead. These images remain among the most consequential military photographs ever made. His wartime photographs (including those of Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and the execution of Lincoln’s conspirators) have become enduring icons of nineteenth-century American history.

[Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards][Gettysburg, Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, Pickett's Charge, Devil’s Den][Civil War, Union, Confederate]