City. This conversation took place online due to the coronavirus pandemic. The New York Historical society provided a video. Good evening everyone. Im delighted and have the opportunity to talk to my good friend and professional colleague, harold. I want to remind you that you can ask questions anytime during the program by using the q a buttons. We will get to your questions after the conversation. Lets turn our attention to some objects that help us describe the civil war. In the history museum, objects to a lot of heavy lifting and standing in for a larger historical narratives be on the characteristics that define the objects itself. Let us just talk for a moment about the book civil war and 50 objects which inspired this program. Harold, tell us about it and how did the objects help to develop the complex story of the civil war . Its extraordinary, really, because when we undertook this project eight years ago it was difficult to find the objects, although we think they tell the s
Of the Newyork Historical Society top of the articles in the joint publication. A civil war in 50. Objects they risks they discuss objects civil war technicality, includings will secret war codes. The new york Historical Society provided the video. So harold, weve been talking in the series about the power of objects being touchstones and historical event, being conduits to understanding the past. Its a thrill and extort a experience being historian in new york historian and working along these treasures and using them in my exhibitions. Lets talk about a second for the inspiration for this program a civil war in 50 objects. I can 50 objects tells such a sweeping . Story we so after cells that question often when we were whittling down the list and it was so much to choose from. I guess the way we did it as i recall, his first we discussed the medium of the object. We wanted, photographs paintings, objects, relics and then we wanted to represent every year of the civil war. First year
Chrome film. The library of congress curator tells a story about this collection and the photographers. But we are in the center vault of the prints and photographs division of the library of congress. The library has a collection of color photographs from the 1930s and 40s. It started as an experiment with color film. Kodak was just putting its color film on the market and sent it out to photographers and institutions to give it a try to see if they could create a market for it. The pictures were free so they were appealing to the newspapers magazines and publishing agencies, book brochures on that kind of thing. I was fill your with the black and white photographs. About 171,000. Black and white photograph. I have been working with those for a few years. There was not much emphasis placed because they were hard to handle. They were unique items. Theres only one of each at the time in the 1970s. It was difficult to make a copy. Very expensive to make a photograph. You do make another
Going to be a beautification out here, which i guess never hit me, but i guess it might in a way. Because i am a big fan of robert e. Lee. What im hoping to do among others, besides give you a time line as to what robert e. Lee did in the postwar years which i think is one of obviously the most often overlooked portion of his life because, i mean, the civil war is always going to be first and foremost. The other main theme of this lecture im going to try to get across to you, if Park Services is big on themes, is that the amount of i wouldnt say that he did a lot of work in theory, but through his own personal example is probably the best way, through his own personal example, robert e. Lee tries to reconcile the nation. And what i think a lot of us as mers tod americans today have forgotten is how far apart this country was in 1865. I think it is the view of a lot of people that lee surrenders and bam, oh, well just forget about it, you know, okay, well just hold hands and reunite, an
Now, i will start off with a word of warning. When i compiled all the information i wanted to share with you all this evening the first time i went through it and timed it i spoke for an hour and a half. So i hope yall are comfortable. We might be here for a while. Last year when josie was compiling this topics for this year she called me into her Office One Day and pitched me this idea as she mentioned and she ended up when i told her i probably did know somebody interested in this topic and she said when i think about it theres only one person that comes immediately to mind, and i said im so touched. Those are exactly the type of characters every girl longs to be associated with so before you can really start looking at the outlaw gangs civil war spun off you kind of have to take a flip back and see kind of understand the guerilla warfare that was going on during the during the civil war to kind of understand how that same mindset continued on after the war and kind of manifested its