Andrew Lytle photographed many facets of life in Baton Rouge between the 1860s and 1910, including the city’s occupation by Union forces during the Civil War. Special Collections’ own Mark E. Martin has edited a collection of Lytle’s photos, released this month by LSU Press. Andrew D. Lytle’s Baton Rouge begins with Martin’s overview of the life and work of the photographer and contains 120 of Lytle’s photographs. Many of Lytle’s photographs were lost when his heirs tossed the glass negatives down a well after his death. Prints of each of the photos had to be created for publication, and this task was undertaken by Sissy Albertine who made use of the surviving glass plate negatives as well as duplicate negatives to make the prints. Sissy and Mark then worked together on the sequencing of the images for publication.

You can read more about the book in <a href=”the LSU Press Catalog and 225 Magazine’s review.

Mark Martin will be on hand to sign copies of his book on April 12, 2008 at 1:00 pm at the Barnes and Noble store at Perkins Rowe on Bluebonnet Blvd.

An exhibition at Hill Memorial Library showcasing the work of Andrew D. Lytle is also in the works. Watch this blog for more details.