Edward Bailey Eaton

American, 1870-1942

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Edward Bailey Eaton was a journalist and publisher in Hartford, CT. In 1907, Eaton acquired thousands of negatives by Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and others from John C. Taylor of Hartford, CT. From these, he published six books between 1907 and 1913, most notably the ten volume The Photographic History of the Civil War. On the 1910 census, Eaton was listed as "Publisher- Patriot Publishing Co.", though an article from April 22, 1909 in the National Tribune stated that Eaton was to sell both the collection and the company to settle debts. It noted that the collection, "weighing about three tons," was stored in "fireproof vaults in Hartford". The company seems to have relocated to Springfield, MA and retained Eaton as manager from 1910 to as late as 1918. Springfield directories indicate that he still lived in Hartford. By 1920, he had given up publishing and spent the rest of his life as a real estate agent. It seems that Eaton never sold the Brady collection, and it remained in the "fireproof vaults" where, according to the Library of Congress, "it suffered its worst damage and destruction." After Eaton's death in 1942, the Library of Congress acquired the collection for the cost of the unpaid storage.