Guide to Finding Civil War Naval Photographs

By
Gary McQuarrie, Managing Editor
Charles Williams, Editor & Publisher

The Center for Civil War Photography (https://www.civilwarphotography.org) first published a “Guide to Finding Civil War Photographs” in the April 2012 issue of its journal (Zeller B. Battlefield Photographer. 2012; 10(1):8-10) to assist members of the Center and others searching for such photographs. The Center has continued to update this guide and the latest version may be found on its website. The Editors of Civil War Navy—The Magazine are pleased to offer the following “Guide to Finding Civil War Naval Photographs” to assist our subscribers and other naval enthusiasts in searching for naval-related photographs of the conflict. With the acquiescence of Mr. Zeller and the Center, we have compiled this guide in the same format and, with regard to some sources listed in its guide, have modified the Center’s description to specifically describe finding the naval-related photographs. In addition to publishing this naval-related guide, both guides will be updated as needed and will be available on both the Center’s website and on the magazine’s website (www.civilwarnavy.com).

At the start of the Civil War, there were approximately 1,200 officers of all ranks and 7,600 enlisted men in the Union navy.^1,2 These numbers grew continually and by early 1865 reached a maximum of approximately 6,700 officers and 51,000 enlisted men,¹ although an estimated total of 84,415 officers and sailors served during the course of the conflict.³ In contrast, the Confederacy had planned a somewhat small navy of approximately 3,000 officers and enlisted men and this number was only rarely exceeded, peaking in the spring of 1864 with approximately 750 officers of all ranks and just over 4,400 enlisted men.⁴ In both navies, these were a small fraction of the total number of soldiers who served on both sides. When the war began, the Union navy had approximately 90 ships, while the Confederate navy was almost nonexistent, with only about a dozen small vessels.⁴ The Union navy expanded considerably, with construction of more than 200 vessels undertaken and over 400 vessels purchased.⁵ It is estimated that the Confederacy converted, contracted for, or initiated construction of at least 150 vessels, but only about half of these were completed and commissioned into service.⁴ Vessels on both sides included armored vessels (ironclads), unarmored steam vessels, acquired combatant vessels, service vessels, sailing ships, torpedo boats, and river gunboats.^1,4-6 Photographs are available for only a relatively small proportion of the total vessels that served during the Civil War naval action.

The overwhelming proportion of Civil War naval-related photographs accessible online are held in the collections of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, the Naval History and Heritage Command (formerly the Naval Historical Center), and the Library of Congress. The collections of the American Civil War Museum and the University of Wisconsin La Crosse Murphy Library contain respectable numbers of naval photographs. The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes has a large number of naval-related photographs and can viewed online for free or purchased on a flash drive from Civil War Digital, which also has a collection of naval-related photographs available for purchase. Other sources and collections accessible online which are identified in this guide contain smaller numbers of naval-related photographs, albeit occasionally unique images, and/or specialized topic and subject photographs. Some photographs held by museums, libraries, various historical societies, or by private individuals are not accessible online and are not included in this guide; searching these holdings would require far greater research efforts.

The largest proportion of Civil War naval-related photographs are available online for free or for purchase or a user fee determined by the source. All Civil War photographs are now in the public domain, and reproductions can be used in any fashion by anyone. However, users are strongly encouraged to properly credit sources of the photographs and to adhere to the rules and requirements of institutions that are providing images.

In many cases, Civil War images that are sold online by stock photo companies, often at very high prices, are available for free from the Naval History and Heritage Command, Library of Congress, the National Archives, or other sites. These should be checked before spending significant sums to acquire reproduction and use rights to an image that is available elsewhere at no cost. In some cases, however, a rare Civil War naval-related image may be available only from a single institution or source, and it is customary for those institutions and sources to charge a fee for a reproduction of the image, as well as a separate use fee for publication or broadcast. Users should abide by the institution rules and regulations, and include proper credit to the original source when using Civil War naval-related photographs. 

References

1. McPherson, James M. War on the Waters, The Union & Confederate Navies, 1861—1865 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012).

2. Coddington, Ronald S. Faces of the Civil War Navies: An Album of Union and Confederate Sailors (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).

3. DeBruyne Nese F. and Anne Leland. American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics (CSR Report RL32492) (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2015). https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

4. Luraghi, Raimondo. A History of the Confederate Navy (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press,1996).

5. Silverstone, Paul H. Civil War Navies, 1855—1883 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001).

6. Canney, Donald L. The Confederate Steam Navy 1861—1865 (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2015).

The U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center at Carlisle Barracks (https://ahec.armywarcollege.edu)

This institution provides good resolution jpg scans of public domain photographs for free downloading and use, including those from the MOLLUS-Mass Civil War Photograph Collection and others. It charges a fee for providing reproductions and digitized images from other formats in its collections. More information can be found on the institution’s website or by contacting the institution directly.

The United States Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) is the U.S. Army’s primary historical research facility. It was formed in 1999 and reorganized in 2013 and consists of the U.S. Army Military History Institute (USAMHI), the Army Heritage Museum (AHM), the Historical Services Division, Visitor and Education Services, the U.S. Army War College Library, and the USAHEC Staff. USAHEC has a number of Civil War photograph collections and has undertaken a large-scale digitization project that includes photographs and other collections that are integrated via a new search interface (https://arena.usahec.org/web/arena). In addition to any photograph in a collection, other related linked records are shown in a search result. The MOLLUS-Massachusetts (Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States-Massachusetts chapter) Civil War Photograph Collection is no longer searched as a single file as it was in the previous search interface, only the search object (photograph) name itself is entered into the search interface. If an image is used from the website, the preferred method of citation is “title of work,” date if known, Title of collection, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, PA.

The MOLLUS-Massachusetts Collection of Civil War Photograph Collection is fully digitized on the USAHEC website. The MOLLUS-Massachusetts collection was assembled by former Union officers in the 1880s and put in 117 volumes that contain some 23,000 images. They are available online as good resolution jpg files of the pages of each volume of the collection. This collection has approximately 1,000 naval-related photographs and illustrations, including ships, portraits of officers, groups of officers, crew, deck scenes, and navy yards, almost completely Union related. In addition the availability of the MOLLUS-Mass Civil War Collection images on the USAHEC website, the collection with a finding aid may be purchased for downloading at (http://paperlessarchives.com) or as a DVD-ROM via online commercial websites.

Naval History and Heritage Command (https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography.html)

There is no fee to download and use any photographs from the online collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

The Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC; formerly the Naval Historical Center, redesignated NHHC in December 2008) is responsible for the preservation, analysis, and dissemination of U.S. naval history and heritage and is located at the historic Washington Navy Yard. NHHC includes 42 facilities in 13 geographic locations and includes the Navy Department Library, 10 museums, and a heritage center. Its online photograph collections are related to the U.S. Navy (or other navies when specifically associated with U.S. involvement or historical events) with particular focus on ships, aviation, places, wars/events, activities, and important individuals associated with naval history. Photographs in this collection reflect both official, as well as unofficial, naval viewpoints and are the result of donations and transfers made by the Navy and by the general public. In general, the collection ranges from the Civil War to the 1990s, with particular emphasis on the World War II era.

NHHC has a large collection of Civil War naval-related photographs and many or most of these have been published in print and many, if not most, are accessible online. In addition to Civil War naval-related photographs, the collection also contains many Civil War naval-related illustrations, engravings, and photographic reprints. Under “Browse by Topic/Wars, Conflicts, and Operations/Civil War,” photographs of key high-ranking officers as well as many ships of the Confederate States Navy and other images can be located, but are found by clicking through specific links listed. Under ‘Our Collections/Photography–Main’, using the search function and various Civil War search terms (vessel name, officer name, battle), which is the primary method for researching the collection, >1,000 Civil War naval-related photographs and illustrations can be located, with the option of downloading the images. Searching will help find images throughout the site if they are not highlighted. Photographs may be searched by photograph number or subject matter. Both individual images as well as donated collections are organized in subject boxes. As not all photographs or collections are available via the website, please contact staff if unable to locate imagery related to a specific research topic. The portion of the collection available online is continually expanded, so new content can be periodically sought at this site. All of the photographs found in this collection are believed to be in the public domain and may be downloaded in low, medium, or high resolution and used without permissions or special requirements (those which are not are noted in the copyright section of the image description).

The donations portions of the website are not listed as individual photographs, but rather by collection. For each collection, a description is provided which outlines what subject matter can be found within the donation. A single representative photograph has been selected for each donation and is listed as the Collection Photo. Some donations consist of one photograph, while others may have hundreds. To request the images in the collection, please contact the photo archive staff.

When possible and appropriate, photographs should be cited with a prefix of “NH” and the image number using the following format: NH 1234 courtesy of the Naval History & Heritage Command. Other photograph numbers included on the website should be credited to the organization noted on the copyright portion of the image (e.g., the National Archives).

The Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov)

There is no fee to download and use most photographs from the online collections of the Library of Congress, but users must review rights and access information relating to use or distribution of specific images.

The U.S. Library of Congress, which holds documentary photographic negatives produced by Alexander Gardner, Mathew Brady, and the E. & H.T. Anthony & Co., is single-best source for Civil War photographs. The library has more than 7,000 original glass plate negatives and several thousand more original prints that are available online and are free to download. Most are available at different resolution levels, including high resolution.  While this library has thousands of Civil War photographs, only about 5% of them are naval-related.

More than 2,000 of the images were photographed stereoscopically for viewing in 3-D. Most are still available in their stereo format, either by downloading a single, uncut stereo negative or by downloading two separate half-stereo negatives. Many of the home pages for individual images show 2, 3, or even more separate negatives. In many cases, pages with 2 negatives are showing both halves, separated, of a stereo negative. But many pages with multiple negatives also show copy glass negatives, which are of lesser quality than the originals. Copy negatives are always displayed below original negatives. The available download links are shown below the thumbnails of each image. When publishing or using these images, The Library of Congress should be credited. By providing the call number as well, you will allow others to easily track down the image.

Below is the link to the search engine for the library’s “Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints” photograph collection. A search using the term ‘navy’ locates approximately 200 photographs of high-ranking naval officers, ships, ironclads, navy yards, and coastal forts; these are also included in the “Prints & Photographs Online Catalog” searches:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/

A single comprehensive search of the full “Prints & Photographs Online Catalog” of the Library’s “Prints and Photographs Reading Room,” which includes prints and engravings, can be performed under the “Civil War” tab, then clicking on the ‘Civil War’ link. This portion of the catalog combines the Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints, the Gladstone Collection (photographs relating to the Civil War), the Liljenquist Family Collection, Drawings (Documentary) [eyewitness drawings from the Civil War], Stereograph Cards relating to the Civil War, and selected illustrations from pictorial newspapers such as Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and allows a search across the many collections in a single search. A search using the term “navy” yields 340+ photographs and illustrations (identifying the Library of Congress collection source identified), including images of high-ranking naval officers, ships, gunboats, ironclads, navy yards, coastal forts and batteries:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

Under the comprehensive “Prints & Photographs Online Catalog/Civil War” tab is the “Brady-Handy Collection,” a largely post-war collection of some 5,000 images, nearly all of them portrait negatives by Mathew Brady that include many prominent Civil War personalities. Most of the “Brady-Handy Collection” is not covered in a search of Civil War photographs. The “Brady-Handy Collection” is, of course, included in the full “Prints & Photographs Online Catalog” search. A search of this specific collection using the term ‘navy’ locates approximately 30 photographs of U.S. governmental navy administrators, some of which are stereo images. Here is a separate link to search the “Brady-Handy Collection:”

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/brhc

The Library of Congress generally does not own rights to material in its collections and therefore does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material. Thus, it is the user’s obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when needed before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library’s collections. Each image has detailed descriptive information, including the Library of Congress Control Number, on the image page as well as detailed information on Rights & Access and Citing the Item that should be reviewed before use and citation. In citing an item, the Library of Congress Control Number should be included.

Center for Civil War Photography Assistance at The Library of Congress

For the past few years, The Center for Civil War Photography has provided assistance to The Library of Congress in two critical areas: 1) direct financial assistance to make possible the scanning and online cataloging of unscanned Civil War photographs in the library’s collections; and 2) facilitating the library’s acquisition of the Robin Stanford Collection of more than 550 vintage Civil War stereo views, including the largest collection of Confederate war views known to exist. These photographs include numerous images of a number of coastal forts and defenses, some portraits and images of naval officers and groups of officers and sailors, and some gunboats and warships, including ironclads.

The Center has been involved, one way or another in the preservation and accessibility of more than 750 Civil War photographic prints and stereo views now online at the library. These may be reviewed at:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Center+for+Civil+War+Photography&sp=3&st=gallery

American Civil War Museum (https://https://www.acwm.org)

Photographs and photographic prints may be viewed online but cannot be copied or downloaded.

The American Civil War Museum consists of 3 museum sites, two located in Richmond, VA and one in Appomattox, VA. Its mission is to be the preeminent center for the exploration of the American Civil War and its legacies from multiple perspectives: Union and Confederate, enslaved and free African Americans, soldiers, and civilians. In its still functional online collections database, there are over 7,000 photographs and photographic prints that are searchable. Searches using the terms “Navy” or “Navy ships” locate several hundred photographs and photographic prints, mainly portraits and cartes de visites of Confederate States Navy officers and sailors, but also images of a number of Confederate States Navy ships. The images can be scrolled and clicked on to enlarge the image and provide details about the image:

https://moconfederacy.pastperfectonline.com/

Requests to use photographs or photographic prints for publication, exhibition, or a public project should be sent to:

The American Civil War Museum
ATTN: Photographic Services
1201 East Clay Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Email: collect@acwm.org

Production and permission use fees are based on specific requirements involved and intended use, as well as for profit or non-profit entities. Official written permission for use, along with credit line information, will be sent by the Museum pending project approval and payment of required fees; digital images are transferred via DropBox.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScekSPqTwqpt5JR_jgVkO6c3TEA1IUpItfqoCMGokTdq63Wkw/viewform

The National Archives (https://www.archives.gov)

Generally, there is no fee to download and use any photographs from the online collections of the National Archives, but some images may be copyrighted and require written permission from the copyright owners.

The National Archives and Records Administration’s College Park, Maryland, headquarters, known as Archives II, is the home of some 9,000 original Civil War photographic negatives and prints, mostly negatives. This assemblage includes a collection of almost 6,000 Civil War negatives, mostly of portraits, that Mathew B. Brady sold to the United States for $25,000 in 1875. It also includes negatives shot for the U.S. Army by various contract photographers during the war. This includes images taken for the government during Sherman’s campaign in Tennessee and Georgia by contract photographer George B. Barnard, as well as images taken by Capt. Andrew J. Russell for the U.S. Military Railroad and many other images taken by unidentified contract photographers. The National Archives also has more than 100 original stereo view cards produced by Samuel Cooley. (Not all of these have been digitized.)

Under “Research Our Records/Military Records/Civil War/Pictures-Civil War/Pictures of the Civil War,” a select group of still photographs are organized by topic at the following link at several resolution levels:

https://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war

Under the topic ‘Navies,’ there are about a dozen naval-related photographs of mainly ships, a few deck scenes of officers and sailors, and the Norfolk, VA navy yard. Under “Ordnance,” there are a few photographs of coastal batteries and naval-related weapons. Under “Federal Navy Officers,” there are 4 portraits of famous Union admirals. Under “Pictures-Civil War Photos/Pictures of United States Navy Ships,” there are about 10 photos of Union Navy ships. In addition, under “Pictures-Civil War Photos/Matthew Brady Photos,” this large group of photographs may be searched. This group contains numerous naval-related photographs.

Civil War Photos – Select Audiovisual Records at the National Archives:

https://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos

Another select Brady collection can be found here – The Civil War as Photographed by Mathew Brady:

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/524418

The U.S. National Archives has digitized over 6,000 images from the series Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War-Era Personalities and Scenes (National Archives’s Local Identifier 111-B) and included them in their online FLICKR catalog.

A search engine on the page allows one to refine searches within the Archives’ photo stream, but may also pull in non-Civil War images. Click the following link to start your search:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/collections/72157622495226723/

Generally, photographic records of the National Archives are part of the public domain and may be published without special permission or additional fees. Some photographs in the holdings are or may be subject to copyright restrictions. The National Archives does not confirm the copyright status of photographs but will provide any information filed with the photograph. Proper credit lines for photographs are encouraged in the interest of good documentation. Multiple credit lines may be used such as:

Courtesy National Archives, photo no. 26-G-3422

National Archives (111-SC-202199)

National Archives photo no. 111-B-4246 (Brady Collection)

Some National Archives images may be copyrighted and where obvious copyright or donor restrictions apply, written permission from the copyright owners may be required before reproductions can be made. The user must obtain all necessary clearances. To determine possible restrictions, the National Archives identifier for the image can be typed into the keyword box and the Use Restrictions heading for the series description for the records reviewed. If any additional questions arise about using National Archives images in a publication, the Still Picture Unit may be called (301-837-0561) or emailed.

Medford Historical Society & Museum’s Lawrence Civil War Photo Collection (http://www.medfordhistorical.org/collections/civil-war/)

Photographs may be downloaded as low-resolution digital files for personal, educational, and research purposes.

Confederate General Samuel Crocker Lawrence’s Civil War Photo Collection is now fully accessible online on Digital Commonwealth. This collection was donated to the Society in 1948, only to be rediscovered in a stored trunk in 1990. The images may be browsed by selecting Topic, Place, Format, and Date. Under Topic, the relevant naval-related photographs may be found under Military Officers, Forts & Fortifications, Rivers, Artillery, Harbors, Ships, and Piers & Wharves. Military Officers includes approximately 130 portrait photographs of high-ranking naval officers, mainly Union Navy officers but some Confederate States Navy officers; this category also contains 11 deck scenes of officers on various vessels. Forts & Fortifications includes many dozen of images of James River and other river Union and Confederate shore batteries, as well as dozens of images of defenses of Charleston Harbor (Fort Moultrie, Fort Sumter) and other land- and water-oriented forts (Fort Pulaski). Rivers contains dozens and dozens of river images from Bermuda Hundred and City Point, Virginia, James River batteries and obstructions, ironclads and other gunboats and vessels on the James, Appomattox, Tennessee, and Pamunkey Rivers. Artillery has dozens of images of naval guns and shore-based batteries. Harbors, Ships, and Piers & Wharves have several dozen images of landings and harbors such as Belle Plain and City Point, Virginia. Many of the browse categories have overlapping sets of images.

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/collections/commonwealth:wd376b356

Any inquiries involving the collection can be sent to:
Email: cwphotos@medfordhistorical.org

U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archives (https://photos.usni.org)

Prints and screen or high-resolution downloaded photographs may be purchased from the U.S. Naval Institute.

The U.S. Naval Institute is a private, nonprofit, professional military association whose aim is to offer independent, nonpartisan forums for debate of national defense and security issues. Its “Photo Archives” online contain several dozen Civil War naval photographs of ships, ironclads, gunboats, deck scenes, and individual and groups of officers and sailors under the category of “Civil War,” as well as some Civil War naval drawings and engravings. Dozens of other Civil War photos of ships, deck scenes, and groups of officers and sailors can also be found under the category of “Vintage,” subcategory of “U.S. Navy Vintage Photographs.” Descriptions of the images are viewed by scrolling the photos.

New-York Historical Society Museum & Library (https://www.nyhistory.org/library/digital-collections/civil-war-treasures-1)

Photographs may be downloaded for free for educational or scholarly purposes.

The New-York Historical Society online collection of Civil War photographs, including naval-related photographs, is in the Civil War Treasures collection. Naval-related photographs and other images are located under the “Photographs of the War of the Rebellion” icon. The collection includes over 2 dozen photographs of ships, deck scenes, groups of naval officers and sailors, naval guns, ironclads, mortar schooners, a naval machine shop, and several coastal forts.

The digital images may be downloaded and used for educational or scholarly purposes without restriction. Commercial and other uses of the item are prohibited without prior written permission from the New-York Historical Society. For more information, please visit the New-York Historical Society’s Rights and Reproductions Department web page:

http://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

SEARCHING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS OF INDIVIDUAL CIVIL WAR OFFICERS AND SAILORS

Photographs of high-ranking or relatively well-known naval officers and groups of naval officers or groups of sailors in deck scenes can be located in the 4 main online collections and in some other collections previously described; in most but not all cases, only the high-ranking and well-known naval officers are identified individually. Some photographs of naval officers and sailors also can be found in various online image sources.  Locating a Civil War photograph of an individual Union or Confederate naval lower-ranking officer or sailor manually or online is challenging, as described in detail in Ronald S. Coddington’s book, Faces of the Civil War Navies: An Album of Union and Confederate Sailors.¹ In this book, a total of 77 portraits were included; most portrait photographs consisted of lower-ranking officers (and a small proportion as enlisted men), and almost all were obtained via access to private individuals’ or the author’s collections. Although nearly every Civil War soldier had his photograph taken, tens of thousands of the images have been lost over the years. And of the tens of thousands of soldier images that survive, the vast majority remains unidentified. Then as today, most people did not write down the name of the soldier and keep it with the image because, after all, they already knew the soldier. Some collecting experts estimate that no more than 10% or 20% of the soldier images are identified. Given the number of photographers during the Civil War, particularly in cities associated with the navies, it is reasonable to assume that many officers and sailors had portrait photographs taken on leave or port visits. Given that the naval personnel on both sides of the Civil War represented 5% or less of the total number of combatants in the conflict, there are likely considerably fewer individual portraits, much less identified, existing of naval personnel.

A potential avenue of research is with other family members, especially those interested in family history and genealogy. The genealogist in the family can often provide other leads. Other public records, especially service records at the National Archives related to an ancestor, can be searched. In very rare instances, actual photographs may be part of these records. But the records themselves often provide fascinating insights into your ancestor’s service and may also provide new leads for a photograph search. Libraries and/or historical societies or re-enactors in or near the community where an ancestor lived may also be helpful.

If searching for a higher-ranking officer, search the various other sources previously listed. The MOLLUS-Massachusetts collection at the Army Heritage and Education Center in particular includes hundreds of images of identified individual officers, and the American Civil War Museum has a large collection of identified images of Confederate States Navy officer and sailors.

References

1. Coddington, Ronald S. Faces of the Civil War Navies: An Album of Union and Confederate Sailors (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press). Some Civil War naval-related portraits may be found at the Military Images Magazine Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/militaryimages/

Others may be found on the original Faces of the Civil War: Ron Coddington Blog:

http://facesofthecivilwar.blogspot.com/?view=snapshot
This site is no longer updated, but contains over 25 photographs of individual naval officers and groups of officers from the author’s collection.

Updates to This Guide

Civil War Navy—The Magazine welcomes feedback and reader suggestions for revising and adding any additional details, tips, or online sites to this Guide for Finding Civil War Naval Photographs. Thank you.