The War Photograph & Exhibition Co.

American, active 1890-1903

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Successors to Taylor & Huntington, The War Photograph & Exhibition Co. was initially also a partnership of William Huntington and John C. Taylor. Both companies specialized in publishing Civil War views. William Huntington was president of The War Photograph & Exhibition Co. from 1891 to 1892, and by 1896, William H. Pond was president. All partners had primary occupations outside of the publishing field. After 1896, the company was listed sporadically in the Hartford directory, and was last found in 1903, at John C. Taylor's residential address. The company produced stereos and single prints from a collection of negatives by Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and others in the possession of Taylor. He had acquired them from Albert G. Ordway and Arnold A. Rand, who had described their collection in 1884 as numbering 4,000 negatives. An 1894 publication by The War Photograph & Exhibition Co. states that they have more than 6,000. The negatives passed to Edward B. Eaton, also of Hartford, who began publishing books from the images in 1907, and continued until at least 1916. Eaton switched from publishing to real estate, and the negatives were put in storage until his death 1942. The Library of Congress purchased them, now numbering 7,500 original glass plate negatives, in 1943.