Firm
Haas & Peale
The wartime partnership of Philip Haas and Washington Peale, who photographed General Quincy A. Gillmore’s operations against Charleston in 1863 from studios on Morris Island and at Hilton Head. Their glass negatives came to the Library of Congress in 1966.
The Library of Congress describes the pair plainly: Philip Haas of Company A, 1st New York Engineers, and Washington Peale photographed Gillmore’s effort to take Charleston in 1863, and the negatives show Union troops on the islands off the Carolina coast.
Their album Scenes taken on Morris Island, S.C., during the Charleston campaign in the summer of 1863 is at the Library of Congress under LOT 4196, its cover titled — with the spelling as printed — Seige of Charleston Illustrated.
One plate has a claim on photographic history: a view made from Morris Island on the morning of 8 September 1863 showing USS New Ironsides and monitors firing on Fort Moultrie. The claim is contested, and the contest is set out in this section’s account of that morning.
Partners and operators
- Philip Haaspartner · 1862 – 1863
- Washington Pealepartner · 1862 – 1863
Addresses
- Haas & Peale’s Morris Island studioMorris Island
- Haas & Peale’s Hilton Head studioHilton Head
Works
- Scenes taken on Morris Island, S.C., during the Charleston campaign in the summer of 18631863. · Haas & PealeVerifiedLibrary of Congress · LOT 4196 (H) [P&P]
Statement by statement
- VerifiedPhilip Haas of Company A, 1st New York Engineers, and Washington Peale photographed Gillmore’s 1863 operations against Charleston.Library of Congress, Civil War Glass Negatives
- VerifiedThe Library of Congress acquired the partnership’s original glass plate negatives in 1966.Library of Congress, Civil War Glass Negatives
- VerifiedThe pair set up studios on Morris Island and at Hilton Head during 1862–63.Davis & Melton 2020
Sources
- Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/
- “Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints: Background and Scope of the Collection,” Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/background.html
- Stephen Davis and Jack W. Melton Jr., 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War (Charleston: Historical Publications LLC, 2020).