SUMMER SEMINAR
Seeing the American Civil War: How Visual Culture Recorded, Interpreted, and Remembered the Conflict
June 17-22, 2012
Worcester, Massachusetts
[download application PDF]
Draft Schedule and Readings
Sunday June 17:
4:00-6:00 pm Session I: Welcome and Introductions, Antiquarian Hall, 185 Salisbury Street (AH) Joshua Brown and Georgia Barnhill
6:00 Dinner and reception at the Goddard Daniels House, 190 Salisbury Street (GDH)
Note: During the seminar, some sessions (GDH) will be devoted to presentations and discussions of themes and readings; the Council Room sessions in Antiquarian Hall (AH) will be hands-on sessions with library materials. There will be breaks in the mornings and afternoons between sessions at the Goddard Daniels House. Please read the articles on this syllabus. You will see that some are general background while others more specifically address various themes addressed by the faculty.
General Background Reading
Louis P. Masur, The Civil War: A Concise History (NY, 2011).
James M. McPherson, “What’s the Matter with History,” in Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War (NY, 1997).
James W. Cook, “Seeing the Visual in U.S. History,” Journal of American History 95:2 (September 2008).
Monday June 18:
9:00-9:45 Session II: Orienting the Week—Visualizing the War Josh Brown (GDH)
10:15-11:15 Session III: Photographing the War—Technology and Processes Lauren Hewes (AH)
Reading:
Keith F. Davis, “’A Terrible Distinctness’: Photography of the Civil War Era,” in Photography in Nineteenth Century America, 1839-1900, ed. Martha Sandweiss (NY, 1991).
11:30-1:00 Session IV: Photography of the War—Reception
David Jaffee, Bard Graduate Center (AH)
1:00 – 1:45 Lunch (GDH)
1:45-3:15 Session V: Homefront & Battlefield: Civil War Textiles in Context
Lynne Z. Bassett, curator and textile historian (GDH)
Reading
Madelyn Shaw & Lynne Bassett, Homefront & Battlefield: Civil War Quilts in Context (Lowell, MA: American Textile History Museum, 2012)
3:30-5:00 Session VI: Introduction to AAS Online Resources, Curators, and the Reading Room
Elizabeth Pope, Lauren Hewes, Thomas Knoles, Vincent Golden, Laura Wasowicz (GDH)
Tuesday June 19:
9:00-9:30 Session VII: Reflections and Discussion on the previous day/Context for day’s session
Josh Brown (GDH)
9:30 – 11:00 Session VIII: Slavery/Anti-slavery
Josh Brown (GDH)
Reading
Maurie D. McInnis, Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the
American Slave Trade (Chicago, 2011), 27-54.
11:15-12:45 Session IX: Pictorial Press
Josh Brown (AH)
Reading
William Fletcher Thompson, “Illustrating the Civil War,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 45 (Autumn 1961).
Jan Zita Grover, “The First Living-Room War: The Civil War in the Illustrated Press,” Afterimage (February 1984).
The Becker Collection: Drawings of the American Civil War Era
12:45-1:45 Lunch (GDH)
1:45-3:15 Session X: Mapping the War
Debra Block, Norman B. Levanthal Map Center, Boston Public Library (GDH)
3:00-5:00 Research in collections or Accessing Maps through websites
Wednesday June 20:
9:00-9:30 Session XI: Reflections and Discussion on the previous day/Context for day’s session (GDH)
9:30-11:00 Session XII: Political Cartoons of the Civil War: Lithographed Prints
Richard West, Collector and historian (GDH)
11:15-12:45 Session XIII: Political Cartoons of the Civil War: Pictorial and Comic Press.
Richard West, Collector and historian (AH)
12:45-1:45 Lunch (GDH)
1:45-3:15 Session XIV: Discussion assessing readings and interdisciplinary approaches (GDH)
3:30-8:00 Research in library
Thursday June 21:
9:00–9:30 Session XV: Reflections and Discussion on the previous day/Context for day’s session (GDH)
9:30-11:00 Session XVI: Ephemera of the War Georgia Barnhill and Josh Brown (AH)
Readings
Alice Fahs, The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861-1865 (Chapel Hill, 2001), 195-224.
11:15-12:45 Session XVI Continued
12:45-1:45 Lunch (GDH)
1:45-3:15 Session XVII: Painting the Civil War (GDH) Patricia Hills, professor of art history, Boston University
3:30-5:00 Session XVIII: Visit to the Worcester Art Museum or Teaching with Images or Research in the Library Georgia Barnhill/Josh Brown
Friday June 22:
9:00-10:30 Session XIX: Emancipation Imagery Josh Brown (AH)
Reading
Harold Holzer, “Picturing Freedom: The Emancipation Proclamation in Art, Iconography, and Memory,” in Harold Holzer, Edna Greene Medford, Frank J. Williams, The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (Baton Rouge, 2006).
11:00-12:00 Session XX: Memory and Prints
Josh Brown and Georgia Barnhill (AH)
Reading
Kirk Savage, “History, Memory, and Monuments: An Overview of the Scholarly Literature on Commemoration,” National Park Service History E-Library (2006)
12:00-2:00 Lunch, Discussion, Concluding Comments (GDH)
Faculty: Joshua Brown, Executive Director of the American Social History Project and Professor of History at The Graduate Center, City University of New York with assistance from Lauren B. Hewes and Georgia B. Barnhill (AAS), David Jaffee, Lynne Z. Bassett, Richard West, Debra Block, and Patricia Hills.
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