James F. Gibson, like Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O'Sullivan, was a Civil War field photographer. The photo on the left is one of his that depicts sailors on the deck of the U.S.S. Monitor.
While attempting to research his life, I discovered that Gibson is also the Civil War photographer that we know the least about. It is known that he was born in New York City and learned photography while studying under Matthew Brady. I found it very interesting, and sad, that this was the only information I could find about the life of James F. Gibson. Still, he will be remembered by his photographs.
(I hate to use Wikipedia, but it was the ONLY website I could find with any information about his life.)
"Civil War Photos." Old West Reenactors at Teddy Blue's Bunkhouse. Web. 10 June 2010.
"Photography and Photographers of the American Civil War." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web.
10 June 2010.
I think it is very strange there isn't more information about Gibson out there. I wonder why that is.
ReplyDeletewiki is wrong Gibson was born in Scotland and learned photography from Gardner.
ReplyDeleteJames Fisher Gibson was born in 1827, in Hanock County, Tennessee (Union sympathisers). Gibson was likely an artist like Brady, Barnard, Russell and so many others, before the learning wet-plate process. After Gibson swindled Mathew Brady 1868, he left for Kansas with the reciepts from Brady's Washington studio, and was never heard from again. We don't know when he died. This is probably James Gibson >> http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/item/cwp2003005152/PP/
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