Samuel A. Cooley, a resident of Beaufort, South Carolina, was an entrepreneur, photographer, and merchant. The collection consists of views taken by Samuel A. Cooley in the Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina, and in Jacksonville, Florida, during the American Civil War. The photographs depict daily life in the region during Federal occupation of the Sea Islands and the commercial blockade and siege of Charleston and Savannah. Cooley worked with stereographic cameras, but the negatives were later separated and processed as individual prints. Included are views of institutions, churches, residences, landscapes, hospitals, and military personnel and equipment.
