Recording History: In contrast to those who sought to rival the painter with Camera and lens, there were hundreds who used photography quite simply and directly as a means of recording the world about them. The ability of the medium to render seemingly infinite detail, to record more than the photographer saw at the time of exposure, and to multiply these images in almost limitless number, made available to the public a wealth of pictorial records exceeding everything known before. Photographers the world over were recording history in the making, the look of faraway and often hitherto unexplored places and the people living there, the familiar "sights" worth seeing and remembering by travelers, and man's most recent architectural and engineering accomplishments.
There are various appliances of this kind, ich particularly adapted for the peculiar opera-on which is to be investigated; many depend-K on the action of clockwork mechanism, nidi indicates results on dials, but others, as registering meteorological instruments, hav-g means for recording varying conditions, as ith the anemometer, barograph, etc. The cash gister is a machine for recording money pay-ents. It is of very general use in retail tablishments throughout the world.
How greatly the dangers and difficulties of combat photography had been underestimated was soon found out by Brady, the former daguerreotypist. He already had shown his interest in history in the publication of The Gallery of Illustrious Americans. This sense of photographic documentation impelled him to undertake the recording of the Civil War; his close friendship with influential government leaders enabled him to secure the necessary authorization to enter combat zones; and he had skilled cameramen in his employ.
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Photography
