- Term
Alexander Gardner
- Alternate Term
Gardner, Alexander
Gardner, Alexander?
- Occupation/Role
Photographer
- Nationality/Ethnicity
Scottish
- Remarks
Alexander Gardner was born in 1821, in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. In his youth, he was influenced by the work of Robert Owen (1771-1858), Welsh socialist and father of the cooperate movement. In desire to create a cooperative in the United States, Gardner went to United States in 1850. With a group of friends he purchased land near Monona, Iowa and started a cooperative. Gardner never actually lived there, but returned to Scotland in order to raise more funds. In 1851 his chance visit to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, New York and encounter with the photography by Mathew Brady (1822-1896) sparked his interest in photography. In 1856, he emigrated to the United States and started working for Brady, eventually becoming a head of the Brady's gallery in Washington, D.C. His friendship with Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), a head of the intelligence services at the time, secured Gardner a position as a staff photographer with General George B. MClellan (1826-1885), commander of the Army of the Potomac. During that commission, he made his best known photographs of the battlefields of the Civil War, as well as portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, and photograph of the execution of conspirators in Lincoln's assassination. After the war, Gardner was commissioned to photograph Native Americans who come on official visit to Washington. He was also involved during the survey of proposed route of the Kansas Pacific railroad. Many of this photographs were published as stereoviews. He died in 1882 in Washington D.C.