Scene in Pleasant Valley, Maryland
October 1862
Medium
Albumen print, pl. 24 from the album "Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, vol. 1" (1866)
Dimensions
Image: 17.7 × 22.9 cm (7 × 9 1/16 in.); Album page: 31.2 × 44.7 cm (12 5/16 × 17 5/8 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
196186
Art Historical Context
Captured in October 1862 amid the American Civil War, *Scene in Pleasant Valley, Maryland* by Alexander Gardner offers a poignant glimpse into the conflict's impact on everyday landscapes. Maryland, a border state torn by loyalties, was a hotspot campaigns like Antietam earlier that year. Gardner, a photographer who broke from Mathew Brady's studio to document the war independently, used this image as plate 24 in his groundbreaking 1866 publication, *Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, Volume 1*. This two-volume album was among the first to compile high-quality war photographs into ...
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...