Mathew Brady

Learned photography from Samuel Morse of telegraph and Morse code fame, who had met Louis Daguerre. Opened studios in New York then Washington D.C., took pictures of famous figures and 18 presidents, with assistants doing more common photos; "Photo by Brady" was a brand name rather than the signature of the actual photographer. Photographed the Civil War employing many assistant photographers known as "Brady's Boys". A grandfather of photojournalism, he created the visual record of the war. Went into debt to create the photographic plates of the war, and went broke when the government did not buy them; died poor.