The last shot Hugh F. McHugh took before he was killed by a sniper in 1945 is on display at the Signal Museum as well as camera gear similar to what he would have used. Photo by Charmain Z. Brackett The Signal Corps has a history of leading the military’s way into new technologies. Photography was born in the 1820s. This new technology was employed during the Civil War by Matthew Brady whose captured images of the dead in many battles shocked the nation.

Although Brady’s photos were of the military, Brady was not a military photographer. It wasn’t long after the Civil War’s end, however, that the military, under the banner of the Signal Corps began experimenting with photography. The Adolphus Greely scientific expedition to the Arctic included a Signal Corps photographer, Sgt. George Rice, according to Robert Anzuoni, Signal Corps Museum director.

“Rice was one of the 19 who did not return. He died on April 19, 1884,” said Anzuoni.

Rice might not have returned from the expedition, but his photographs survived. Some of them are on display at the Signal Corps Museum. The Signal Corps began experimenting with the use of photography on the battlefield during the Spanish-American War, which began in 1898. Also, the branch began using photography with another new technology – aviation – during World War I.

During World War II, combat photographers found their niche.

One museum exhibit is devoted to a combat photographer who died after being shot by a sniper on Jan. 15, 1945 in Belgium. The last shot he took before he was killed is on display at the museum as well as camera gear similar to what he would have used.

Signal Corps photographs are vital pieces of many exhibits at the museum including current ones featuring the Global War on Terrorism. There is a photograph of Saddam Hussein soon after his capture.