1823- Born in Warren County, New York.

1839- He left home for the city of Saratoga and became the student of the already prominent portrait artist, William Page. In late 1839 they both traveled to New York City where Brady was introduced to Samuel F. B. Morse, a professor of painting and design at New York University. Soon Brady was studying painting under Morse's guidance. Morse met Louis Daguerre in Paris in 1839 and was introduced to the French artist's "daguerreotype". Brady began attending Morse's daguerreotype class. Soon Brady was a leading innovator in the artistic techniques of portraiture.

1844- He opened his own "Daguerrean Miniature Gallery" on the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street. Brady's gallery was an instant success.

1845- He was known as "Brady of Broadway" and was catering to the high society of New York City.

1849- Brady went to Washington D.C. where he met and later married Juliet Handy.

1850- He published his first book, Gallery of Illustrious Americans, a collection of "twenty four of the most eminent citizens of the American republic".The book included pictures of Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson and

1851-They traveled to Europe and Brady won a gold medal for "general excellence" in world-class photography competition at the International Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London.

1853- Brady set up a more lavish gallery in New York on the corner of 10th and Broadway.

1858- He opened the National Photographic Art Gallery in Washington D.C., he had failed year's earlier to open a gallery there.

1861- Brady sought and was granted permission to work on a photographic record of the Civil War. He hired camera operators and other technicians and put together thirty_five wagons equipped with cameras, chemicals, and had them all over the geography of the war.

Limitations in photographic technology determined the majority of the type of photographs we are left with from the Civil War. Since an exposure still took a couple of seconds, Brady and the other photographers favored posed shots. Full regiments in formation often held still for the camera. Soldiers were posed to look as if they were going about their everyday routine.

The aftermath of war was the other most common type of images that Brady and his photographers left behind. These are the only photographs of war on United States soil.

Many of Brady's photographers quit because he refused to give them credit for photographs they had set up without him. Brady's war during the war is sometimes described as a curator- he spent most of his time collecting the work of the other close to 300 photographers and securing copyrights to their photographs. Brady considered any photograph to which he owned the rights a part of his body of work.

Brady had a very difficult time trying to sell his photographs although, his war photos were published in Leslie's and Harper's.

Brady invested close to $100,000 in this project. He found himself avoiding creditors long after the war and was forced to declare bankruptcy. He became an alcoholic and failed to keep up with the new innovations in photography.

1875- The government gave Brady $25,000 for the Civil War glass plate emulsions, which covered most of his debt but left little more for new ventures.

For much of his later life Brady lived in cheap boarding houses and worked for other photographers.

1887- Juliet died and left Brady devastated.

1896- After several years of loneliness and disappointment, Brady dies at age 73.