Great photos in History

     Considering that our capacity to capture and save images of our everyday life has only been around for roughly about 190 years, and the ability to make those images move and speak just 118 years it's hard to rationalize just how much they have affected the course of mankind.   Previous to the invention of the camera the world relied on the sketch artist or painter to record moments in time. This always left things open to what is referred to as "artist's interpretation", which literally means that you have to accept what the artist wants you to believe whether it is 100% true or not.  The camera on the other hand spawned such phrases as, one picture is worth a thousand words, and "the camera doesn't lie."  Today with the advent of Photoshop and other image editors those phrases might not be quite as relevant as they once were, but there is little doubt that still and moving images have now progressed to the point that they influence every waking hour of our day.  Try and imagine if you would what the world would be like without photos, movies, televisions, monitors and the latest phenomenon cell phones and tablets, all bringing you photographs and videos in nearly real time from around the world.
     We have become a society of visual junkies, we rely on our visual senses for our news, education, entertainment, and sometimes even mental health advice.  Man has existed in one stage or another for about seven million years, but it is generally accepted that he only attained what scientists call "behavioral modernity" or more simply put the ability to reason and problem solve for about fifty-thousand years.  I think I can safely say though that perhaps no other discovery short of fire has brought about more change to man's evolution than the ability to capture, preserve, and broadcast still and moving pictures.  With that in mind I thought it would be fun to explore some of the great images that have either shaped or changed history.
     I don't think there is anywhere better to start than with the first actual photo image, and for once unlike so many other events in history it can be traced directly to where, when, and who invented it.  The time was 1826-1827 in the Burgundy region of France by a man named Joseph Nicephore Niepce and it was titled "View from the window at Le Gras".  Of course the image quality leaves a lot to be desired but considering that it took according to researchers it probably took several days of exposure to create the image it really isn't bad.  After being exposed to modern photographic enhancement software you can actually make out the building and their roofs.  For the next thirty or so years photographic equipment and processing continued to advance but the subject matter that photographers concentrated on seemed to remain stagnant.  Most of the photos produced were either a personal portrait, or architectural in nature, but a few intrepid innovators began to move out into the world in search of fresh subject matter.

     Then something happened that transformed the photograph from a curiosity to a force that would help change the world, in April of 1861 the United States erupted into Civil War and a man named Mathew Brady embarked on a mission to document it photographically.  Immediately following the Battle of Antietam which occurred on September 17, 1862 Mathew Brady dispatched photographers Alexander Gardner and James Gibson to the battlefield to record the battle's aftermath.  The photographs taken by Gardner and Gibson were the first ever graphic images of what death on the battlefield looked like, and when Brady opened his exhibition entitled "The Dead of Antietam" at his New York City studio the general public was horrified.  Perhaps the two most disturbing images in the exhibition were bodies laying in the "Sunken Road" and along the "Hagerstown Pike" near "The Cornfield."  To the general public the images brought out the true nature of battle and the horrific consequences that modern weaponry could inflict upon the human body.

     Following the end of the Civil War America rededicated itself to expanding its control of the immense area west of the Mississippi River all the way to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.  A great many post civil war photographs were of locomotives which was a clear indicator of the nations determination to settle the entire country from shore to shore.  When listing the great photographs in history the meeting of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869 has to occupy a spot somewhere near the most iconic.  A ceremonial gold spike was driven in signifying completion of the first American transcontinental rail line, incidentally if you intend to go looking for the gold spike, don't bother, it was quickly removed right after the ceremony and replace with an ordinary iron one.

    Prior to and after completion of the transcontinental rail line thousands of American pioneers began to stream out of eastern states on foot, horseback and in wagons seeking a new life in the western lands that lay just waiting to be occupied.  There was just one problem, someone else had laid a previous claim to the land in question, namely the Native American Indian tribes.  Trouble started almost immediately after the start of westward expansion.  The Native Americans saw the movement as a pure and simple invasion of their property and a threat to their way of life.  Almost immediately the pioneers began building settlements and hunting the game that the Indian relied of for his existence.  At first treaties were signed but these negotiations always seemed to end with the Indians giving up their freedom and land in exchange for promises that were nearly always broken.  This left the American Indian only one recourse and that was to fight, as viewed in the expressions on the faces of two of the most iconic warriors of the old west, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse.

     Without a doubt the will and tenacity of the Pioneers that attempted the trek across the western territories of the United States is unequaled in the history of our nation.  These brave men women and children trudged their way over hostile Indian territory, through snow covered mountains and scorching hot deserts on their way to what they hoped would be a better life.  For all too many of the estimated 500,000 people who made the trip it was a fatal attraction.  Nearly one in ten died from disease, malnutrition, dehydration, accidents, Indian attacks, (which accounted for a small percentage of death toll) and weather calamities.  The rough figure you end up with is in excess of 50,000 deaths, a figure five times the number of men killed at Gettysburg, and Antietam combined.  The contribution that these incredibly tough men women and children made to the expansion of our country can never be minimized.

 My next post starts off dealing with people who took things for a living rather than working for them, "The Outlaws."