“THE GRANDFATHER OF CIVIL WAR HISTORIES”: ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER A THOUSAND BRADY PHOTOGRAPHS, IN RARE ORIGINAL DUST JACKETS

MILLER, Francis Trevelyan, editor. The Photographic History of the Civil War. New York: Review of Reviews, 1911-12. Ten volumes. Quarto, publisher's blue cloth, blue pictorial endpapers, top edges gilt, original dust jackets. $6500.

Mixed first and second edition set of Miller’s famous and important 10-volume photographic history of the Civil War, containing “thousands of scenes photographed 1861-65, with text by many special authorities,” in the rare original dust jackets.

"This mammoth work… a necessary part of any civil war library," contains contributions from over 39 eminent individuals, including academicians, President William H. Taft, and veteran officers of both Confederate and Union forces, many of whom wrote from personal experience. A number of the photographs, previously unpublished, are from the collections of private individuals, including the extensive Eldridge Collection of Mathew Brady Civil War photographs, "easily five times larger than that of any contemporary" (Everitt). "Zealous in their work, often regardless of danger, and at all times handicapped by the vexing difficulties of the photographic process of that day," Brady and his assistants "carried their cameras to every scene that promised an interesting picture," capturing "scenes of actual conflict, others of places devastated by gunfire, of troops on the march or in bivouac, and of individual officers and men" (DAB). All volumes are second edition except II, III, VII and VIII, which are first edition; Volume X is the third issue (with index marked "3-Ed." in bottom margin of page 323). Eicher 771. Nicholson, 516.

Books bright and fine, with only a bit of wear to rear board of Volume VII. Volume I dust jacket with light expert restoration, Volume II dust jacket with spine renewed, all others extremely good or near-fine.