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Artist
Alexander Gardner, 17 Oct 1821 - 10 Dec 1882
Copy after
Mathew Brady Studio, active 1844 - 1894
Sitter
Alexander Gardner, 17 Oct 1821 - 10 Dec 1882
Date
c. 1861
Type
Photograph
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Image/Sheet: 8.7 x 5.4cm (3 7/16 x 2 1/8")
Mount: 10 x 6.1cm (3 15/16 x 2 3/8")
Mat: 35.6 × 27.9cm (14 × 11")
Topic
Costume\Headgear\Hat
Weapon\Bow and Arrow
Home Furnishings\Blanket
Photographic format\Carte-de-visite
Self-portrait
Interior\Studio\Photography
Alexander Gardner: Male
Alexander Gardner: Visual Arts\Artist\Photographer
Alexander Gardner: Visual Arts\Artist\Photographer\War photographer
Portrait
Place
United States\District of Columbia
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.2002.86
Exhibition Label
In this self-portrait taken at Mathew Brady’s Washington studio, Alexander Gardner presents himself wearing the garb of a mountain man or trapper, sporting buckskins and a fur hat; Gardner’s trademark full, ungroomed beard only adds to the frontiersman image. Gardner holds a bow and arrow while standing on Indian rugs. The image captures America’s enduring fascination with the West and adopting the garb of Native peoples. It also shows Gardner, a man about whom we know little, in disguise, hiding himself in a fictional frontier persona. Although he is acting a role, Gardner, whose family had bought land in Iowa in the antebellum period, was genuinely interested in the western lands and the fate of the Indians. In the 1860s he began his project of photographing the western tribal delegations when they came to Washington. After the Civil War he went west to photograph Indians on their native grounds.
