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A credible reference source publishing additional reporting authored by Snopes.com Senior Reporter Jordan Liles.

George Bradford Brainerd: A Special New York Tribute Project

A then and now set of photos compares George Bradford Brainerd's 19th-century picture to that of Jordan Liles' 21st-century photo.

The year was 2013. At the time, I, Jordan Liles, was living in New York. I stumbled upon several articles around the web showing New York photographs comparing the 1960s to 2013. So, I asked myself: “Instead of going back 50 years, what if we could compare today to the earliest surviving photos?” This thought eventually led me to the work of George Bradford Brainerd (1845-1887). Brainerd was a very accomplished professional in early photography and other fields.

The George Bradford Brainerd project consists of a trailer, photos, several videos and a 30-minute documentary.

Trailer


The Video

A previous version of the video also received over 3.3 million views. It featured dissolves between photos. The video embedded above is the much-preferred side-by-side version.


Documentary


15 Facts About George Bradford Brainerd

1. Brainerd was born in 1845 in Haddam Neck, Connecticut. In 1846 his family moved to Brooklyn, New York.

2. Beginning at age 13 in 1858, Brainerd experimented with building crude cameras from lenses of opera glasses and cigar boxes.

George Bradford Brainerd (left) having lunch with a friend in 1875 on the shore in Great Neck, Long Island. You might notice that there's some blurriness on their faces. The exposure time of the camera was likely less than a second, much better than the older wet collodion process that would take several minutes to capture one shot, though not quite fast enough yet to capture motion. (Photo Credit: George Bradford Brainerd)
George Bradford Brainerd (left) having lunch with a friend in 1875 on the shore in Great Neck, Long Island. You might notice that there’s some blurriness on their faces. The exposure time of the camera was likely less than a second, much better than the older wet collodion process that would take several minutes to capture one shot, though not quite fast enough yet to capture motion. (Photo Credit: George Bradford Brainerd)

3. Brainerd was regarded as a pioneer of amateur photography.

4. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper referred to Brainerd as the “father of instantaneous photography”. As early as 1876, he succeeded in creating his own handheld or “slide box” camera. This replaced the “wet plate” camera. “Wet plate” cameras took several minutes to capture one photograph.

Here are two of the remaining drawings showing George Bradford Brainerd's creations, including a "detective camera" that was disguised as a book. The name "Levison" on the spine of the book was his friend and colleague, Wallace Goold Levison.
Here are two of the remaining drawings showing George Bradford Brainerd’s creations, including a “detective camera” that was disguised as a book. The name “Levison” on the spine of the book was his friend and colleague, Wallace Goold Levison.

5. Brainerd lived at 23 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn, likely in a different building than the one there today. Across the street today is the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From 1874-1876, he worked at 219 Montague Street in a building that no longer exists. And in 1883, he worked at 37 Municipal Building.

6. Historical records identify his professional titles over the years as “deputy purveyor”, “civil engineer” and “surveyor”.

7. His name is sometimes spelled “Brainard” in historical documents. The correct spelling is “Brainerd”. I verified this fact in a book about the genealogy of the Brainerd family.

8. In addition to photography, Brainerd was skilled in botany, chemistry, mineralogy and taxidermy.

9. Brainerd had a working knowledge of 12 languages.

10. Brainerd took approximately 2,500 photographs in his life. This number did not include the 2,500 other exposures he made while photographing for medical purposes. More on that in #11 below.

11. Brainerd made major contributions to the field of laryngeal photography. He and his doctor (and friend) Thomas Rushmore French made over 2,500 unsuccessful photographs of the human larynx before attaining any real success. “Use of a wide aperature combination to flatten the field and increase the sharpness of the image” helped them get the results they were looking for. To do this, Brainerd built a special camera. In 1883, the American Laryngological Association regarded the special camera as “invaluable and ingenious.”

These drawings are the only known remnants of what George Bradford Brainerd's laryngeal camera looked like.
These drawings are the only known remnants of what George Bradford Brainerd’s laryngeal camera looked like.

12. Brainerd photographed a well-dressed African-American family vacationing at Coney Island. Here’s a quote from Julie C. Moffat’s thesis on George Brainerd’s life:

“Considering Brooklyn’s history of racial acrimony, the mere presence of a black family at Coney Island was a rare event. Although people of their race were known for meticulous cleanliness both personally and at home, they received little respect. Brainerd’s decision to photograph them is unique. His picture documents a well-dressed mother and father enjoying the luxury of a picnic lunch with their three children. Brainerd photographed this family exactly the same way he captured other families.”

Lunch at Coney Island in the 1880s. (Photo Credit: George Bradford Brainerd)
Lunch at Coney Island in the 1880s. (Photo Credit: George Bradford Brainerd)

13. In addition to the city of New York, Brainerd documented rural life throughout towns in Long Island and Connecticut. Many of the images can be viewed on the Brooklyn Museum website.

14. Brainerd’s work in the 1880s can best be understood in the context of three pictorial traditions: depictions of the poor, imagery of “street criers” and urban picturesque street views.

15. George Bradford Brainerd died on April 13, 1887, at 12:00pm in Brooklyn. He is buried in Haddam, Connecticut. He suffered from an acute throat infection in the mid-1880s, and had a brain tumor which led to a stroke and paralysis. Smoking and frequent exposure to toxic photography chemicals may have contributed to his tumor.

Sources for Facts:

  1. Lucy Abigail Brainerd, “The Genealogy of the Brainard-Brainerd Family in America”, 1649-1908 (Hartford: Hartford Press, 1908).
  2. Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 23, 1887).
  3. Henry W.B. Howard, “The History of the City of Brooklyn From Its Settlement to the Present Time”.
  4. Brooklyn Daily Eagle (September 27, 1891).
  5. Brooklyn City Directory.
  6. Brooklyn City Directory.
  7. Lucy Abigail Brainerd, “The Genealogy of the Brainard-Brainerd Family in America”, 1649-1908 (Hartford: Hartford Press, 1908): 95.
  8. Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 23, 1887).
  9. Wallace Goold Levison, “Unpublished Manuscript and Notes For A History of the Brooklyn Institute” (The Brooklyn Museum Archives, c. 1919).
  10. Julie C. Moffat, The City College of New York.
  11. Thomas Rushmore French, “On Photography the Larynx” (1883).
  12. Julie C. Moffat, The City College of New York.
  13. Julie C. Moffat, The City College of New York.
  14. Julie C. Moffat, The City College of New York.
  15. Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 23, 1887).


Why This Project Exists

This was a personal project for me. There are no sponsors and I’m not doing this for a class, organization or anything similar. This project gave me a reason to go out on my bike on weekend mornings in New York for almost a year to shoot photographs, and many times I returned to the same spots over and over to do reshoots if I wasn’t satisfied with previous results. I also frequently visited the Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library to do research.

After spending more than four wonderful years in New York where I met the love of my life, I decided to give something back to the city that gave so much to me.

All of George Bradford Brainerd’s images can be viewed in their full sizes on the Brooklyn Museum website.


Special Thanks

For this George Bradford Brainerd project, I extend special recognition to the Brooklyn Public Library, Tracie Davis and others with the Brooklyn Museum, the New York Public Library, composer Adi Goldstein and Julie C. Moffat for their contributions to this project. Credit for the image at the very top of this page goes to George Bradford Brainerd.