Brady, Mathew B (c. 1823–1896)

US photographer. Famed for his skill in photographic portraiture, he published The Gallery of Illustrious Americans 1850. With the outbreak of the US Civil War 1861, Brady and his staff became the foremost photographers of battle scenes and military life. Although his war photos were widely reproduced, Brady later suffered a series of financial reverses and died in poverty.

Born in Warren County, New York, Brady served as an apprentice to a portrait painter. Learning the rudiments of photography from Samuel Morse, Brady established his own daguerreotype studio in New York 1844.