Photography

Sam Cooley, a Photographer

Photography was one of the methods of communication during the Civil War. Photography allowed people to see what was going on the battlefield without being there at the time. Though, the process was very long and tedious. Photographers had to carry all of their equipment onto the battlefield by wagon.

The process to take a photograph was very complicated. First, the photographer had to make a chemical mixture for the camera called collodion by hand, and collodion contained many harmful acids. Then, the mixture was applied to the glass plate, put in a darkroom and covered with silver nitrate, and then the plate was put onto the camera and then the photographer uncovered the plate for 2-3 seconds, which imprinted the picture onto the glass.