Matthew Brady was born to Irish immigrant parents and grew up near this site in Johnsburg off what is today called Pasco Road, and some records suggest he was actually born here. The youngest of three children, he was the son of Andrew Brady and Samantha Julia. He became one of the most celebrated photographers of the nineteenth century and was known as the father of photojournalism. Brady studied under portrait painter William Page and Samuel B. Morse, who was promoting the new innovation of photography, the daguerreotype. In 1844 he opened his own photography studio in NYC and during his career photographed thousands of people, including Generals Grant, Lee, Custer, Burnside, and Jackson, as well as Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, and Mary Todd-Lincoln. He also photographed many presidents of his time, and Lincoln said that public awareness through Brady's photographs of him helped him become President. Several of Brady's portraits of Lincoln were later chosen for the five dollar bill, the Lincoln penny, and a ninety cent postage stamp. Early in the Civil War, President Lincoln gave him permission to enter the battlefield with some two dozen employees to photographically record events and make the pictures public, exposing the gruesome reality of the conflict. Although Matthew Brady gave much to history, he received little in return. In his later years he became severely depressed because of bankruptcy, the death of his wife, Juliette Handy, and loss of eyesight. He died on January 15, 1896, from complications due to a streetcar accident and was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, with burial paid for by veterans of the 7th infantry.