By Liana Jacob
ENTHRALLING old-fashioned photographs have emerged that delve into the realities and consequences of war for the American people from the Civil War to World War Two.
The vintage stereo cards show groups of soldiers lying lifelessly in the middle of a field during the Civil War and an American army doctor wounded in France helplessly lying on a bench.
Other images include a heroic medical officer attending to injured American soldiers and impaired US Army Signal Corps waiting at a mobile hospital for evacuation in Australia during WW2.
Another photograph depicts wounded soldiers being treated in an old, war-torn, church in France in 1918.
The Civil War took place between 1861 to 1865, when Abraham Lincoln was serving as 16th American president.
At the start of the Civil War, the demand for portrait photography was high. A Scottish photographer, Alexander Gardner, decided to cover the war.
Gardner took what was thought to be the last photograph of the president, only five days before his assassination.
After the war, Gardner’s employer and fellow photographer, Matthew Brady, established a gallery for Gardner in Washington, D.C.
“It is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest,” Gardner said about his work.
