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A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Timothy H. O'Sullivan American, born Ireland
Printer Alexander Gardner American, Scottish
Publisher Alexander Gardner American, Scottish
July 1863
Not on view
This photograph of the rotting dead awaiting burial after the Battle of Gettysburg is perhaps the best-known Civil War landscape. It was published in Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War (1866), the nation’s first anthology of photographs. The Sketch Book features ten photographic plates of Gettysburg—eight by Timothy H. O’Sullivan, who served as a field operator for Alexander Gardner, and two by Gardner himself. The extended caption that accompanies this photograph is among Gardner’s most poetic: "It was, indeed, a ‘harvest of death.’ . . . Such a picture conveys a useful moral: It shows the blank horror and reality of war, in opposition to its pageantry. Here are the dreadful details! Let them aid in preventing such another calamity falling upon the nation."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
  • Artist: Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, born Ireland, 1840–1882)
  • Printer: Alexander Gardner (American, Glasgow, Scotland 1821–1882 Washington, D.C.)
  • Publisher: Alexander Gardner (American, Glasgow, Scotland 1821–1882 Washington, D.C.)
  • Date: July 1863
  • Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
  • Dimensions: Image: 17 13/16 × 22 1/2 in. (45.2 × 57.2 cm)
    Mount: 11 15/16 × 15 5/8 in. (30.4 × 39.7 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
  • Object Number: 2005.100.1201
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

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Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Volume 2, Alexander Gardner American, Scottish, Albumen silver prints from glass negatives
Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Volume 2
Multiple artists/makers
1863
Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Volume 1, Alexander Gardner American, Scottish, Albumen silver prints from glass negatives
Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Volume 1
Multiple artists/makers
1863
U.S. Gunboat "Commodore Perry" on Pamunkey River, Timothy H. O'Sullivan American, born Ireland, Albumen silver print from glass negative
U.S. Gunboat "Commodore Perry" on Pamunkey River
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
Mathew B. Brady
1861–65
U.S. Gunboat "Commodore Perry" on Pamunkey River, Timothy H. O'Sullivan American, born Ireland, Albumen silver print from glass negative
U.S. Gunboat "Commodore Perry" on Pamunkey River
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
Mathew B. Brady
1861–65
Confederate Works at Marye's Heights
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
1864

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