Design
Photographing Peace Treaties and Railroads in the American West
Alexander Gardner, one of the Civil War's most important photographers, tracked the changes sweeping the western United States during the late 1860s.
After the Civil War, new railroads began moving in and Native Americans began being pushed out. And as the wartime he had photographed gave way to rebuilding, Alexander Gardner was there to document the changes taking shape west of the Mississippi River.
The Scottish-born photographer, best known for his devastating depictions of Civil War battle sites, was sent out West for two separate jobs in 1867 and 1868: to survey the land that would soon change thanks to an expanding Union Pacific Railroad, and to document ongoing Indian peace negotiations. It's a body of work that few, if any, photographers of his time were able to match.