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 fairs and fairness
June 25, 2009 – 2:10 pm
The historical visual record of the United States is marred by gaps and distortions, especially in representing race and equality. But if we view past images as simply uniform and unchanging, we will fail to catch significant examples that defied the “visual order.” And some of those exceptions appeared in commercial publications, not as you [...]
