Meserve Collection Highlights: Modern Prints from Mathew Brady’s Portrait Negatives

The National Portrait Gallery presents a focused exhibition drawn from its extensive collection of Civil War–era negatives originally assembled by Frederick Hill Meserve. Featuring nine modern prints made from Mathew Brady’s original glass-plate negatives, the show highlights the breadth of Brady’s portrait work—from political leaders and literary figures to royalty—while also displaying one of the actual negatives and a wooden storage box used by Brady’s studio. The exhibition situates these images within the broader history of photographic portraiture, particularly the rise of the inexpensive _carte de visite_ format that helped democratize portrait photography in mid‑nineteenth‑century America.

Dates: May 23, 2025 – May 14, 2028

Location: National Portrait Gallery, First Floor – East Galleries

Featured Portraits: Modern albumen prints from Brady negatives depict Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ulysses S. Grant, and Emma, Queen of Hawai‘i, among others.

Highlights: One original glass‑plate negative and one of Brady’s wooden storage boxes are also on view, offering a tangible connection to the photographic process of the era.

Background: Mathew Brady (c. 1823–1896) first achieved fame as a portrait photographer before the Civil War. His studios produced thousands of glass‑plate negatives, and the Portrait Gallery’s collection of more than 5,400 negatives—acquired in 1981—forms a remarkable pictorial index of prominent figures of the Civil War period.

Tickets: Price information is not available at this time.

Venue Accessibility: For accessibility details, please contact the National Portrait Gallery directly.