Collection of 3 disbound scrapbooks of Civil War photographs, clippings, and some original artwork compiled by illustrator and Civil War correspondent James E. Taylor (1839-1901), presumably in the mid 1880s. The scrapbooks contain over 1,530 items including images from noted Civil War photographers Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, George N. Barnard, Andrew J. Russell, and others, as well as handwritten annotations by Taylor and supplementary ephemera and clippings from contemporary newspapers and magazines. Some of the photographic prints are possibly one of a kind. The scrapbooks focus on the Eastern Theater of the war, primarily depicting locations and events in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Included in the scrapbooks are views of battlefields, street views of towns, buildings and ruins, military camps, field hospitals, portraits of Civil War generals and soldiers, and images of casualties and battle scenes. There are several loose pencil and pen-and-ink sketches by Taylor located at the end of volume 2.

Illustrator and Civil War correspondent James Edward Taylor (1839-1901) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 12, 1839. Taylor studied drawing at Robert Connor's Academy of Design as a young man, and in 1860, moved to New York City to study art. Following the start of the Civil War, Taylor served two years as a sergeant in the Tenth New York Volunteers (National Zouaves) and began drawing illustrations of the war during his service. In 1863, Taylor was hired by Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper as a "special artist." He drew illustrations for General Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign in August 1864, and later followed the armies of Generals Benjamin Butler and William Tecumseh Sherman. Taylor compiled a manuscript of these war experiences, including hundreds of illustrations, now at the Western Reserve Historical Society. After the war, Taylor created large, heroic paintings for veterans and a public eager to commemorate the historic events. The scrapbooks contain photographs documenting Taylor’s paintings from the 1880s.

246 sheets in 7 boxes

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