Technology. This conversation took place on line due to the coronavirus pandemic and the New York Historical society provided the video. Harold, weve been talking in this series about the power of objects to be touchstones of historical events, to be con duties for understanding the past. Its a thrill and an extraordinary experience to be a historian at New York Historical where i work alongside these treasures and use them in my exhibitions. Lets talk for a second about the inspiration for this program, the book civil war in 50 objects. How can 50 objects tell such a sweeping story . We used to ask ourselves that question often when we were whittling down the list and there was so much to choose from. The way we did it, as i recall, is first we discussed the medium of the object, we wanted photographs, paintings, documents, relics, and then we wanted to represent every year of the civil war. First the year leading up to it and then 1861, 2, 3, 4, 5. By the time we shifted through the
We used to ask ourselves that question. First we discussed the medium of the object. We wanted photographs, paintings, documents, relics, and then we wanted to represent every year of the civil war, 1851 to 1865. By the time we sifted through the criteria, we thought we had 50 objects out there that met those requirements. It was truly an embarrassment and it was hard to whittle them down, for sure. [laughter] that is definitely true. Tonight we will be discussing two objects that are considered technology during the civil war. You can see the images of those. We have one from 1861 and a half model of the monitor of 1862. Lets consider the two part object. This is in the papers of Alexander Robert chisholm, bert born in 1834, died 1910. He was a stockbroker, a merchant, a railroad investor, and he died during the gilded age in new york city where he had grown up. Theis youth, he served on confederate side of the civil war. Can you tell us about his background . Carolina born in south ,
Button at the bottom of your screen. Well get to questions after our conversation. To lets turn our attention some objects that help us describe the civil war. The history museum, objects do a lot of heavy lifting and standing in for a larger historical narrative be the conditions of the objects themselves. Lets talk about this book, the civil war in 50 objects. Tell us about it and how 50 objects can tell the complex story of the civil war. Its extraordinarily when we undertook this project 18 years ago, it was difficult to find just 50 objects although we think they tell the story of the war. As you tell the story of arts theobjects standing in story about race, militarization, soldier life, civilian life. Its also a story about connecting collecting and the New York Historical society as the trove of this cities lower from the revolutionary period to today. So i think its a double story. Lets start with her objects of the evening. Remarkably topic is aligned with current events. The
Doses ready to ship once they get the green light and speaking of green light, joe biden wants to go ahead and raise Corporate Taxes, he is tapping his inner Bernie Sanders and outlining his economic plans using terms like fair share and calling for an end to what he calls shareholder capitalism. We are all over that story you can bet. We may hear the president s response to mr. Bidens plan shortly, he will be leaving for an event in florida this hour. We expect he will speak to reporters before boarding marine one as he likes to do and you will certainly see that right here when it happens. You will also see very little let up in the tech rally, despite theyre down day overall, the big tech names holding their own with more record gains. Amazon, it is hit an alltime high for six days in a row. Not bad. Apple, not much of a pullback of the stays above 380 a share, same story for microsoft, not much of a drop there, for microsoft still at 213 box. Facebook is above 240, despite constant
Books, hisng forthcoming book is southern journey. Welcome, it is an honor to have you. Edward my pleasure, thank you. Jeffrey Joanne Freeman is a class of 1954 professor of American History and american studies at yale university, where she specializes in the politics and political culture of the revolutionary and Early National periods. She is a cohost with edward ayres of a Popular History podcast backstory. It is great to unite these copodcasters together. And she is the author of many books as well, including the pathbreaking. As well as field of blood. Joanne, it is such an honor to have you with us. Joanne thanks for having me. Jeffrey Norman Ornstein studies politics, elections, and the u. S. Congress. His books include one nation after trump, a guide for the perplexed, the disillusioned, the desperate, and not yet departed. And there are other titles, the next one, we did at the Constitution Center. And it depressed us even before we begin the program. It is even worse than it