Antietam. Manassas. Gettysburg. These are battles that are forever etched in America’s memories. The man who captured some of the most horrific images during the War Between the States was Alexander Gardner, an intrepid Scotsman, a jeweler’s apprentice of Calvinist upbringing, a newspaper publisher, entrepreneur and photographer.

Gardner’s historically significant compilation of images, his Photographic Sketch Book of the War, is one of the most acclaimed photographic books ever published, and yet little known. Published in 1866 in two stunning volumes and with an original price tag of $150, only 200 copies were ever printed, with fewer than 14 remaining intact to this day.

This iPad app is a faithful reproduction of an original version of this 1866 manuscript.