James E. Taylor Collection

This collection consists of 3 disbound scrapbooks of American Civil War photographs, clippings, and original artwork compiled by illustrator James E. Taylor. The combined 246 pages of the three 15 x 12-inch scrapbooks hold over 1,530 items including images (often uncredited) from noted Civil War photographers such as Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, George N. Barnard, Andrew J. Russell, J. D. Edwards, and others. 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. Along with photographs, Taylor included handwritten annotations as well as supplementary ephemera material and clippings from newspapers and magazines. Taylor compiled each page deliberately, and the photographs assembled on a page tend to relate to one another, specifically or loosely, though the pages themselves do not follow a strict chronological, geographical, or thematic progression. In some cases, Taylor grouped the images in terms of specific events, but also in categories like military prisons or feats of military engineering. Additionally, there are several loose pencil and pen-and-ink sketches by Taylor located at the end of volume 2. A couple of the sketches appear to be in a finished state, while others are possibly preparatory sketches.

While most of the images are contemporary to the Civil War, the scrapbooks are undated. Annotations and clippings suggest that Taylor began collecting materials after the Civil War, but primarily compiled and annotated the scrapbooks in the early 1880s, with additions being made through the end of the 19th century.