Earliest War Photographs
 
Images selected by
Alan Griffiths
 
This reference set brings together some of the widely scattered examples that are referred to when the earliest war photography is mentioned.
 
There is little agreement as to what constitutes the first war photograph - is it the first person in military uniform, the first images of a group parading to war, the first scene of the logistics of war, the first photographs taken in the vicinity of where a war had occurred, the first battlefield scene or the first casualties? The difficulty also arises as to what war is and do civil conflicts, revolts and popular uprisings such as the Hungarian Revolution (1848) of Lajos Kossuth or the barricades in Paris (1848) photographed by M. Thibault qualify?
 
This exhibition has gaps:
 
1. Any surviving images of the Hungarian Revolution (1848).
 
2. The works of Bengal Army Surgeon John McCosh who served with the Bengal Artillery during the Second Sikh War (1848-49) and the Second Burma War (1852-53). Albums of this work are held at the National Army Museum (London, England).
 
3. Battlefield photographs taken by Carol Szathmari in 1854 during the Danubian campaign of the Crimean War. There is a good selection of these held within the Royal Collections (Windsor Castle, England).
 
The intention here is to add missing examples as we proceed and I'd be pleased to hear your suggestions for improvement so we can expand this into a useful resource for the community - alan@luminous-lint.com
 
The section on the Mexican-American War has been updated to include the Daguerreotypes from the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Many thanks (14 July 2010).