Series I. War Scenes and Sites contains views of battlefields, forts, and other places associated with war battles or events. About half of the images also show soldiers or other people; the rest are desolate empty scenes. The series includes three composite panorama photographs: a view of Gettysburg from Seminary Ridge; the Army of the Potomac at Cumberland Landing, Pamunkey, VA, May 1862; and a view of the Camp of the 40th Massachusetts Infantry at Miners Hill, VA.

Several photographs by New Hampshire photographer Henry P. Moore (1835-1911) can be found filed with views of South Carolina and Georgia. Moore took pictures of the locations where New Hampshire regiments were stationed in the 1862-1863 period. Moore's prints have a blue paper label affixed to the lower right of their mounts, though Moore's name has been cut from the label itself. Other photographs by Moore include views of the USS Wabash, marked and unmarked.

There are two sets (seven of nine numbered images) of card-mounted photographs taken at Fort Pulaski, Georgia, which are signed in the negative "Lt. P. Haas." Philip Haas was a second lieutenant in the 1st New York Engineers regiment who had worked as a daguerreotypist in New York City before enlisting. Lt. Haas appears to have taken on a partner at some point, and produced prints on mounts marked "Photo by Haas & Peale Morris Island & Hilton Head S.C.," and signed in the negative, "Haas & Peale." This collection holds five images (nos. 8, 12, 13, 17, and 32) from a series of photographs taken by the partners on the islands off South Carolina. The "South Carolina Morris Island" folder contains four images by Haas & Peale of buildings and installations, as well as one photograph of the "Swamp Angel."

This series also holds seven out of a set of eight photographs of the prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, Georgia, made in 1864 by Confederate photographer A. J. Riddle. They were issued on letterpress mount with descriptive captions.

The only view of Baltimore is one small photograph of the front gate of Fort McHenry showing a portion of the hospital.

One important set of photographs is thirteen views of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, the work of an unidentified photographer. Each mount is labeled with a full description of the image and features an autographed approval note by the victorious Confederate Brigadier General Pierre T. Beaureguard (1818-1893). The photographs were made on April 15 and 16, 1861, just after the evacuation of the defeated Union forces. Many more images of both of these South Carolina forts can be found in Series V, "Brady's Album Gallery." A second set of three views of Fort Sumter are mammoth plate albumen prints mounted on letterpress sheets. Issued as commemoratives to be presented by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to Major General John A. Dix (1798-1879) as a guest at the ceremonies of restoring the national flag on the fort on April 14, 1865, all three mounts are inscribed by Brigadier General Richard Delafield (1798-1873) who was then Chief Engineer of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The "Tennessee" folder holds an image labeled the "Rebel Saltpeter Source, the Nicojack Cave" in Marion County near Chattanooga, by Morse, a Nashville photographer. Saltpeter was a major component of gunpowder and Tennessee was a major supplier of this important resource.

Photographs of dead soldiers can be found filed in Sharpsburg, Petersburg, Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, Richmond, Manassas, Gettysburg, Antietam, and Cold Harbor.

Images are filed alphabetically by state.

Series II is arranged in three subseries: Composites, Groups, and Individuals. Thereunder, they are divided by portraits made in photographers' studios and those taken in the field. They are alphabetically arranged within those categories. There are many more portraits of Civil War participants in the Department's PR 011 Carte de Visite File, both filed alphabetically under the sitter's surname, and at the end of the collection in unidentified military portraits.

Series III holds prints donated to the New-York Historical Society by Henry Osborne Havemeyer (1876-1965) in September 1961. Havemeyer gave "78 photographs of the Civil War 1861-1864 in two canvas covers" which were mounted on taupe paperboards by the Society at a later date. The photographs are arranged in two subseries, Scenes and Portraits. Many of the images in this series also appear in Series I.

Scenes are filed alphabetically by state. Portraits are filed by type and thereunder alphabetically by General.

Series IV holds albumen prints by various photographers that were mounted on letterpress sheets for sale to the public. Published in series and distributed during the war, these prints are a good source for attribution as both the negative and photograph maker are credited. Many of the photographs are dated as well.

At the end of the series is a single and odd image by W. Morris Smith of Washington, DC, a photograph of a composite photograph to which Smith had added a rather crudely painted foreground (signed and dated by him on a rock at the lower left).

The series is arranged in four subseries by photographer-publisher: Brady; Gardner; Gardner Published by Philp and Solomons; and Smith. Thereunder they are filed alphabetically by image title.

Series V contains two types of small format photographs published by the Mathew Brady Studio. The albumen prints were mounted on card stock letterpress printed with copyright data, and with a paper label on the verso giving the image number and a description of the scene shown. The images were issued both in carte de visite (2-1/2 x 4 inches) and album (4-1/2 x 6 inches) size, as well as in stereograph format; they were meant for purchase by soldiers and the general public. The series holds comparable examples of some of the images, including both sizes of number 427, "Prof. Lowe reconnoitering at Battle of Fair Oaks and telegraphing to McClellan's headquarters." A comparison of the two sizes clearly shows how a cropped version of the album card image was used on the carte de visite, but the same size paper text label used on both.

Series VI holds random plates from that two-volume, 100-image album of views published after the war by Philp & Solomons (Washington: 1866). The publication consisted of albumen prints taken by Alexander Gardner during the war, which were mounted within a lithographed border on sheets with letterpress captions. The plates found here came from a variety of sources, and many have been cropped to various dimensions, possibly having to do with their exhibition history. The Society does hold a complete copy of the Sketch Book, located in the library collections, but does not have a complete set of loose plates. There are duplicates of many of the plates, and many of the images appear in Series I and III.

Images are filed by plate number taken from the published volumes. This plate set is not complete.

Series VII includes a mammoth plate photograph of the U.S. Iron Clad Ram, Dictator, which was designed by John Ericcson and built at the Delamater Iron Works in New York. The monitor-class boat was 320 feet long with two guns and a ram at both ends. Sent to the assault on Fort Fisher, the boat had mechanical problems and returned to port. Eventually decommissioned, the Dictator was sold for scrap in 1883.

Series VIII includes a view of a field tent of the Christian Commission, as well as two images of the New York Women's Central Relief Organization, in which well-dressed women sort relief supplies in a storefront near Cooper Union

Series IX holds photographs printed after the war; generally these were printed in the 1880s.