Edward emerson barnard was born on 16 December, 1857, in Nashville, Tennessee. Edward was the second child of Reuben and Elizabeth Jane (Haywood) Barnard. Tragically, his father passed away three months before Edward was born. Edward had an older brother, Charles, born in 1854, but not much is known of Charles.

Their mother moved to Nashville shortly after Reuben died and she tried to provide for her children by fashioning wax flowers. Soon after arriving in Nashville, the Civil War broke out and the small town in central Tennessee became the hub of battles between the North and the South. Edward had only two months of formal schooling and, just prior to his ninth birthday, he took a job at a portrait studio to augment the family income. The studio was owned by John H. Van Stravoren and the first duties of young Edward were to assist with portrait enlargements using a machine named “Jupiter.” The Jupiter enlargement machine required the aperture end to be kept in alignment with the Sun, so as to provide natural sunlight projected onto the portrait frame. Tedious work for a young lad, but it set the stage for Barnard's later work in astrophotography; that is, patience and diligence. Barnard continued to work at the portrait studio for over 16 years. The Van Stavoren studio was sold to Rodney Poole in 1871 and the Jupiter enlargement machine was dismantled. Barnard's duties became that of “sign painter” and later of taking photographs and developing the glass plates.