Question

1. The Civil War was the first war that was photographed really. In fact, a photographer named Gardner took pictures of the battlefields before the dead had been buried at Antietam for the first time. Show how much you've learned about sourcing as you take this assessment of what kind of questions a historian would have about this new primary source (photos of the dead on a a battlefield) from this time period.

2. As yourself, is a photo 100% true and reliable?

3. Can a photo show bias?

Answer 1

1) A photo is not always 100% reliable and true as war photographers might only want us to see what they want us to see.

2) photographs can be biased in the sense that war photographers might put in picture more of the losses on the enemy side than is true and less of the losses on their own side than is true in order to boost morale on thier own side and propagate a notion of them winning the war.