2017 ECW Symposium Admission
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Tag Archives: Photography
Civil War Photography Books—A Question
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words are in a book about pictures? We’ll let you mull that one over a little bit, but our real purpose for posting this afternoon is to pass along a … Continue reading
Modern Photography: No Monuments on the Ocean
There are no monuments on the ocean, no crossroads in the great waters, no places echoing in heart and mind—Gettysburg, Shiloh, Chickamauga. But our Civil War ancestors were out there too and some of them still are. Names that resonate … Continue reading
Modern Photography: Shiloh
We were rummaging around in the ECW archives and found this excellent photography essay by Lee White.
Tonight’s Sunset from Charleston
In Rob Wilson’s guest post this morning, Army of the Potomac Private George Augustus Marden asked to be delivered “from anymore Southern winters.” And with that in mind, I present this evening’s sunset from the Battery in Charleston, South Carolina—one of … Continue reading
Photographic History in Full Color
Colorizing vintage photographs is an intriguing practice among Civil War buffs—but it’s also a war of worth, where digital artists weigh potential historical inaccuracies against heightened storytelling. For many colorization experts and historians, ineffective practice can jeopardize the representation of well-known … Continue reading
Elmer Ellsworth was NOT a Derp!!! (Well, maybe a little bit of a Derp . . . but he’s my Derp!)
As I grind through sourcing First Fallen this summer, which is insanely frustrating at times, I had to decide just what I could go dig into myself and what I might–yes–here it comes . . . need to hire a … Continue reading
Posted in Armies, Civil War in Pop Culture, Common Soldier, Memory
Tagged Brown University, Elmer Ellsworth, Eric Wittenberg, John Hay Library, Memory, Photography
6 Comments
“Little Photography in Jeffdom:” The Decline of Photography in the Civil War South
In 1862 Humphrey’s Journal of the Daguerreotype and Photographic Arts boasted that “The Photographic Art down South has completely died out in consequence of the war.”[i] Though an obvious overstatement, considering that southern photographers operated throughout the war, the journal … Continue reading
Posted in Antebellum South, Civil War Events, Civilian, Common Soldier, Economics, Leadership--Confederate, Lincoln, Material Culture, Memory, Newspapers, Personalities, Photography, Politics
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Antebellum, art, Charleston, Civil War, common soldiers, George S. Cook, Illustrated News, North, Photography, presidential election, Richmond, South
5 Comments
Question of the Week: 3/21-3/27/16
This week’s Question of the Week comes from Phill Greenwalt, who asks, “Is photography one of the chief reasons the Civil War is more studied and familiar than the American Revolution?”
A View and A Memory
On a recent park training held in Harper’s Ferry, I had the chance, after class, to drive over to Antietam National Battlefield and walk the grounds as the sun set on a crisp autumn day. In fact, the training was … Continue reading
Thomas Nast’s Divided Christmas
On this day in 1863 Thomas Nast’s Christmas Eve forced the readers of Harper’s Weekly to confront the hardships of a war-torn wintry season. Though drawn in 1862, the image occupied a double-page spread in the January 3, 1863 edition … Continue reading
