Photographer Mathew Brady (1822-1896) is mostly remembered today for his Civil War images–wounded soldiers resting under trees, prisoners awaiting transportation, scores of dead combatants lying in bloody fields–and is considered one of the pioneers of photojournalism. Yet Brady had already secured his status as a premier photographer prior to the outbreak of war, having founded a flourishing daguerreotype studio in New York in 1844 where he photographed the best and the brightest of the Antebellum Era, such as Martin Van Buren, former first lady Dolly Madison, and then-presidential hopeful Abraham Lincoln.  Read all about Brady’s Antebellum Portraits on the Fine Books Blog.