Mathew Brady's portraits: a window on America.

Mathew Brady, the most famous American photographer of the 19th century, is best known for his project to document the Civil War. Years earlier, though, he had established his reputation through his studio's portraits of the nation's most famous individuals.

For the first time in more than a century, an exhibition of Brady's pictures will place the full range of his work before the public. "Mathew Brady's Portraits: Images as History, Photography as Art" covers the height of his career, from his early days in New York through the Civil War. It includes more than 130 images and objects, including artifacts from Brady's studio, such as original glassplate negatives and a studio register signed by his customers, as well as cameras, furniture, and posing stands.

Brady himself rarely used a camera. Instead, he was an entrepreneur and impresario who arranged and directed the photo sessions, publicized the collection, which he called The National Portrait Gallery, and established himself as the nation's historian. He collaborated with artists and printmakers to create oil paintings, lithographs, and wood engravings based on the photographs.

In Brady's studios in New York and...