Timothy O'Sullivan

(1840-1882) Documentary, Landscape, Photojounalism

Biography: American photographer best known for his Civil War subjects and for his landscapes of the American West.

O'Sullivan learned photography at Mathew Brady's gallery in New York City, and during the Civil War he photographed on many fronts as one of the team sent out by Brady. One of his best-known pictures, "Harvest of Death," showing Confederate dead at Gettysburg, was taken in the early morning of July 4, 1863. From 1867 to 1869 he was official photographer on the United States Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel, which began at Virginia City, Nev. (where he photographed the mines), and worked eastward. In 1870 he went to Panama as part of a team to survey for a canal across the isthmus. In 1871, 1873, and 1874 he was associated with a series of surveys in the southwestern United States. On the recommendation of Brady and Alexander Gardner, another Washington, D.C., photographer, he was appointed chief photographer for the Department of the Treasury in 1880.

More on Timothy O'Sullivan:

•Getty Museum - Timothy O'Sullivan
Excellent Site with Several Examples of O'Sullivan's work.