Burnside Bridge, Across Antietam Creek, Maryland, from Gardner's Sketchbook of the Civil War
1862, published 1865
Medium
Photography-Photoprint
Classification
Photography-Photoprint
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Accession Number
1994.91.54
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step onto the weathered stones of Burnside Bridge, immortalized in Alexander Gardner's stark 1862 photograph from his *Sketchbook of the Civil War*, published in 1865 Captured amid the chaos of the Battle of Antam—the bloodiest single day in American history, claiming over 22,000 lives—this image depicts the narrow span across Antietam Creek in Maryland, where Union troops under General Ambrose Burnside fought a brutal, hours-long struggle against Confederate defenders to secure a vital crossing on September 17, 1862. Gardner, a pioneering Scottish-born photographer who broke from Mathew Brady...
About the Artist
Alexander Gardner
Alexander Gardner was born on 17 October 1821 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and came of age in a culture shaped by radical social thought. Influenced by the cooperative ideals of Robert Owen, Gardner initially apprenticed as a jeweler and harbored dreams of founding a utopian community in America. His encounter with photography changed the course of his life. After seeing Mathew Brady's cele...