How do we remember the Civil War? In this final post I would like briefly to consider the visual images that are attached to our memories of the war—and to think about the multiple ways in which memory and history can diverge. Those of us who teach the Civil War from textbooks in our classrooms [...]
Picturing the Civil War 3: African American Soldiers
November 15, 2009 – 11:53 pm
So far we have talked of the ways in which the Civil War disrupted standard assumptions of how war should look; and also have examined a few of the most popular sentimental images of the war, including a sentimental image of Emancipation. In this post I will consider representations of African American soldiers during the [...]
Picturing the Civil War 2: Sentimental Soldiers
November 6, 2009 – 11:21 pm
In this second part of our forum, I’d like us to consider a few widely-circulated popular images during the Civil War that allow us to think about prevailing cultural beliefs at the time. I will be concentrating entirely on the Union here.
The Civil War was, of course, a “home front” war—one in which battle front [...]
Picturing the Civil War 1
October 31, 2009 – 10:20 pm
The Civil War was the first war in American history to be illustrated as it occurred—not just through the extraordinary engraved images in the immensely popular Harper’s Weekly, but through widely-distributed Currier & Ives prints; illustrated envelopes (a fad early in the war); illustrated sheet music; pamphlets; cheap “yellow-backed” literature; novels; children’s books; “souvenir” cards; [...]
