The Photographic History of the Civil War
"The grandfather of pictorial histories, this mammoth work is a necessary part of any Civil War library. The work contains 3,389 images that constitute an important source on the war's appearance—its battlefields, common soldiers, officers, forts, diseases, camp scenes, army movements, and material." -Eicher, The Civil War in Books 771
FIRST EDITIONS OF MILLER’S CELEBRATED PHOTO-DOCUMENTARY OF THE CIVIL WAR. AN EXCEPTIONAL SET IN THE ORIGINAL WOODEN SHIPPING CRATE, DUST JACKETS, AND WITH ORIGINAL PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL.
Miller’s work "still remains the major source for photographs of the Civil War; the greatest single collection of Brady illustrations" (Allan Nevins). The Mathew Brady photographs represent the first instance of a comprehensive photo-documentation of a war. As the New York Times reported, Brady had brought "home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war."
Note: All volumes are 1911 first editions; volume 10 (as often) with the second issue index.
This set is a remarkable survival. Originally sold by Wanamaker’s with the original promotional material – including large loose sheets featuring many of the iconic photographs - from Wanamaker’s and the original wooden shipping crate with “Photographic History of the Civil War” stamped on the side. With the original dust jackets (with significant losses). Although the dust jackets are in rough condition, we do not know of another first edition set in the dust jackets and have not heard mention before of such a shipping crate.
New York: The Review of Reviews, 1911. Quarto, original blue cloth gilt; dust jackets (with significant loses); original shipping crate. Ten volumes. A few scuffs and smudges to cloth; gilt remarkably bright. Vols. II and IX with some dampstaining to extreme margin of pages (not affecting plates or text). Occasional offsetting from dust jackets to endpapers.
A CLASSIC SET IN EXTREMELY RARE ORIGINAL STATE.
Price: $3,900 .