September 2025 Header Image: “How the Dead Were Laid Out”

This month’s header image is a variation on a photo that’s probably familiar to most students of the Civil War. It comes from Alexander Gardner’s “The Dead of Antietam” series, originally exhibited at Matthew Brady’s studio in New York. It’s titled “Dunkers (i.e. Dunker) Church, battle field of Antietam. After battle, how dead were laid out.”

This version, available at the Library of Congress, is a hand-colored stereoscopic view published circa 1862. Hand-written on the back side is the name “William Pinkerton.” It’s one of a series of hand-colored stereoscopic views that you can view when you access this page at the LOC (scroll to the bottom).