"A pictorial history," "a visual odyssey," and "an illustrated journey" are all phrases attached to published books on the American Civil War and the visual arts. Yet the majority of these publications still deem images as subordinate to text, as if images are not primary sources like historical documents. And quite often these texts on art and the American Civil War (the few that exist) are written by historians instead of art historians. The problem with this is the lack of "cross-fertilization" as Louis Masur called it in his critique of history textbooks called, "'Pictures Have Now Become a Necessity': The Uses of Images in American History Textbooks." Images need to be read. They need to be interpreted. As an art historian this is what I want to do, to read images like a written document, to visualize the "pulse of the period" and to speculate about artistic intent.
In beginning my dissertation research I have been flabbergasted by the secondary status of images when discussing the American Civil War. As a result this blog will post weekly updates on an image (and I use image broadly to encompass anything visual from a fine art oil painting to a sketch in a camp newspaper) with an art historical perspective. The ultimate goal of this blog is to encourage discussion among the disciplines and to give the images their due.
