Currently marketing Marketing Manager at the American Battlefield trust, the Nonprofit Organization dedicated to preserving americas hallowed battlegrounds and educating the public about the revolution pre war, war of 1812 and the civil war previously. And this is where most of you in this room know melissa from. She was the director of photography for history net, publisher of nine history related magazines, including americas civil war, American History and civil war times, for which she served as the primary photo researcher. Photographer and a regular writer. Melissa received, a b. A. In english from the university of wisconsin and has written for and published articles in multiple trade and commercial publications for more than two decades. She was a 2015 finalist for the jessie h. Neill award for best portfolio, and she is a member of the professional photographers association. Authors guild and center for civil war photography. When collect civil war photographs and ephemera with an emphasis on dead Letter Office images and Union General john h. Rawlins chief of staff to general ulysses s grant. So please join me in giving a warm shenandoah valley. Welcome to melissa. Will. Write. Thank you so much. I thank you, jonathan, so much for having me here and asking me to come talk to you. Im excited to be here and im absolutely honored to be here and humbled because it is a very esteemed lineup of speakers. So i thank you very much for having me speak. I am going to talk to you today about some civil war photography and the power of portrait and its impact on the soldier and the experience of war and the aftermath of war, not just the soldier, but for the families and for the nation. This portrait here is probably one of the most famous, if not the most famous, from the civil war. And it is the hammerstone children. Frank friedrich and alice amos, almost in of the 154th new york, was killed on the the gettysburg battlefield. His body was found by a local resident who found him clutching this photograph of his children. Frank frederick and alice. Another local resident, dr. John francis burns, decides to publish size the photo in an effort to help identify the soldier, and he makes copies of it. He duplicate it and distributes this image and also writes articles about it in local and and further out National Newspapers in an effort to identify the body of amos thomaston. And the rest is pretty much legendary he is identified the his wife will see the description of this image in a newspaper and help identify his body. This is a brand new use of photography. The this sort of Publicity Campaign and it will change the experience of the families aftermath of war. It exchanges, it changes the experience of it. Its homicides, war, this power of this portrait and. Its brand new because photography is really new at this time. Its in its infancy. During the civil war. On the left here, you can see is is a dagtype. The daguerreotype comes to the u. S. In 1839, and it is the dawn of commercial photography. Also shown here is an amber type. These are hard images. Theyre called cased images or hard images. And these are expensive materials. Having your portrait taken at this time is a very expensive proposition and is inaccessible to most americans. The materials you see here, a daguerreotype was actually a silver plated copper plate, and an amber type is a glass plate. So the materials are expensive. And also there are not a lot of photographers at this time. Its a very brand new technology. You might have to travel a long way to have your portrait taken, but the sort of race to improve this technology is pretty frantic. And by 1854, in the mid 1850s, there are many other formats or technologies for having photos taken. And here you can see a tintype. Its not actually ten, its actually on an iron plate. And then on my my right, the right is a card to visit and its named for its resemblance to a popular visiting card. It comes over from france in 1854. It is a paper print. Its a mountain under cardstock. And ive got actually an example here. You can see that this is the size of it. Its a small playing card sized image. This is the first time or that the glass will actually be used as a negative and these can be duplicate id. So these images are mass produced and these materials are much, much less expensive than the materials of the hard cased imagery. Youve also n got an of people who want their photosaken. So photography and portrait photography at this time explodes the use of itxpdes. And alongside with that are some trds that will massively impact the experience of war for these soldiers,ga, for their families and for the nation. And im just going to talk a little bit about some of those trends. And that brings us back to amos hammerstone. Hes on the battlefield, were evioly a soldier will die on the battlefield. Hes not feel alone he alone. Hes not because photography has given him identity back so he does not die unknown and he does not die alone. And this is aew use of photography as well for these soldiers andhe families. Was faced with mortality and the concept of mortality quite commonly. And it was hard for them to grasp. So there is a you know, infants died. The disease is uncontrollable at this time. The, you know, man or woman of the 19th century has to face mortality much more readily. Then we have to face it today. And a concept that they sort of a coping concept is the idea of the good death, which is a 19th century concept. And the good death is sort of a separate ocean for dying. And it has a set of parameters that. These individuals at the time would hope for. They would hope to die at home. They would hope to die surrounded by their loved ones. And with a clear conscience. And that was sort a way for the mortality to seem a little less daunting. Was this prepared way to die . The civil war, of course, will obliterate this idea. There is now you have thousands of soldiers dying on battlefields long, far away from their families, from their loved ones, and they at a moments notice. Theres no proper nation so photography, so these mourning practices and battlefield deaths will sort of try to adopt their own practices to enact a new aspect of the good death and photography is going to be an example of a way that they can do that as amos and hammerstone, hes not alone the battlefield. He has somehow brought a peace of the good death with him to the battlefield, and it can give him a sense of peace and also the ones he leaves behind because this idea of photography is also for memory, for the living and for a sense of permanency that these soldiers are lacking. They will not have they are faced with their mortality every day at a moments notice. In her book, the new republic of suffering, Drew Gilpin Faust explains stories have become legendary of soldiers scribbling their names on bits of paper and pinning them to their uniforms before engagements. They expected to be especially bloody. After Oliver Wendell holmes, whos pictured here, was shot at antietam and taken to a field he was afraid that he would faint or die and be left nameless. Wte on sl opaper. I am captain o. W. Holmes, 10th massachuses son ooler wendell holmes, m. D. , boston, and he pinned it to himself. He survives the war, b he kept that piece of paper for the rest of life. First, drew up and fast plns these soldiers tear and there that their identity is would be obliterated expressed with a grim and almost dispatch minute practicality, they confronted the enormity death with ingenious attempts to control at least one of its particulars. If a soldier could not save his life, he hoped, at least to preserve his name and photography. This new medium photography will also allow them to save their face and image of themselves. And so one of the trends that i have seen civil war photography in portrait photography are these images that are sent back home to their loved ones with these phrases and sentiments about, remembering, remembering the soldier when this you see, remember me . This man here has written it directly on the image itself. This is another cased image of a soldier, and he has also written this in in his image. Inside the case of his image, it says when this you see remember, remember me . Well, time sweet. Remember me until we meet while coection dwells the remember o me his names john armstrong. And inside i call him the civil war poet. Inside he actually conina couple of poetry pieces as well. And again, you can see sort of a theme here the let this last one forget me, not forget me not. He repeats this phrase, these men are desperate to be and not forgotten. This is an or a cd thats been tinted of h. Wagner. Thats what it looks like. It says, im not expert in handwriting. Unfortunate, lee, but it looks to be wagner. And he writes in a journal that he sends home with this image. Remember me when this you see and thou art far away and other friends around thee when thinking of them think your old friend this is another example of a who has written it with itls and directly in the case when this you see me, this example here is sort of a reverse of of the same concept this is Nancy Bennett bailey and sends a photo this photo to her husband and inside she has scribbled when this you see remember she sends this photo as well a small tintype of herself and her and their son elmer. This is asa bailey of the 31st wisconsin ad and he will carry this image with him again, carrying a piece of his family with him on the battlefield. Hes somehow erasing some of the concept of being alone on the battlefield. He carries this and on the back, even it says that asa bailey carried this picture of his wife and baby with him during the civil war actually a little of a funny segway or sideway. What are we . I went to the Pentagon National archives to look through his pension records. Isaiah bailey does survive and these pension records are full of information. As you heard, they really have to send a lot of documentation in to justify that. They need this pension and so a lot of them are really harrowing, you know, very sad depictions of the aftermath of the war is not over for these men, never over. So a lot times youll go through these pension records and theyre just heartbreaking. So eisa bailey does receive a pension and in it it says a granted according to his application for contracting a rupture in his left groin caused by throwing a cannonball over his head for and to pass the time so not really as sad or harrowing you sort get this picture of this guy like hey man look how how far do you think i can throw this . You know . But he does receive a pension. But again those pensions, as jonathan mentioned, do not cover all of the costs. And this is another trend that you will see in civil war photography, portrait photography men will use these images to helt themselves. This is George Warner of the 20th connecticut art and he injured by friendly fire on s hill during the battle of gettysburg. And he will lose both of hisarm. A ha shapaid him a medical visit in 1864 says this case calls for unusual sympathy. He is entirely helpless so far as that he cannot dress himself nor eat his without the aid of others. Homer buchanan and john richardson, these neighbors of warners on ten years later, will say it is unsafe for him to walk out from his home alone and. Consequently, he is always attended by young man. He is entirely from performing any act without the aid and assistance one or more persons so George Warner will have multiple of himself taken and he will sell these as sort of a souvenir. Its a Publicity Campaign to raise money to support himself. This image here, he he gns lot of notoriety from doing this. And when the riment in 1885 the gettysburg battlefield, the to the 20th connecticut is on culps hill, they ask George Warner to unveil the monument and in order to do so, they a rope to his waist and he walks back words to pull this flag which is sort of pulley you know through the tree and it comes and unveils the monument. You can see in this portrait or this photo, the monument dedication you can see string and the flag hanging from the tree. So ts is a way for him, whether im sure he receives a pension. But to help support himself and his family and there are multiple examples of this as well. This is Benjamin Franklin work, who also understood that the power of name was welcome as a good for publicity as well. So Benjamin Franklin work enlisted in the company f of the 13th iowa volunteer infantry. He ends up by the end of the in the second minnesota cavalry and he stays on past the war and he spent the most of the remainder of the war. And after on patrols in minnesota and sells dakota in december of 65, the stagecoach he was traveling in was overturned in a blizzard and he nearly froze. This doctor was forced to amputate all four of his limbs. So he has no means to support himself. And in an effort to make a living this, he gets several portraits of himself taken that are multiple poses. And he has his story on the back and he will sell these. He kind of coins himself as the soldier and he will sell these images as a means of making a living. Hes rather successful at it as he sells thousands them. This is another example this is bernard toby. Toby. On january 1865, a powder magazine exploded while he was inside the surrendered fort fisher. 200 men were killed or wounded in this accident. And toby lost of his arms, unable work due to his injury, he purchased a hand organ and he used it to perform concerts, going around towns with son. And so he had a sort of a traveling act as a way to earn money. But his other means of supporting himself to have these portraits taken of his son and himself with the hand and had the picked the story printed on the back of this card stock and sells these images as a to support himself in the aftermath of war. Toby also becomes rather famous and gained a lot of notoriety, and he even ends up performing for president Andrew Johnson and ulysses s grant. Another form of charity or Charitable Organization that uses portrait photography in. A new and i think absolutely fascinating way is this partner ship between the freedmans association and the department of the gulf and they will eat venture to take 22 portraits of what you see are formerly enslaved individuals from new orleans. They are taken up to new york, philadelphia and they will have portraits taken for for selling the in an effort to raise money to educate these formerly enslaved. This is a group shot of the individuals that are chosen for this campaign. And you can see that they are chosen very purposefully. This Group Includes young slaves, older. They have dark complexions, fair complexions. Some of these children, they they look caucasian and are purposefully chosen to look like they can be assimilated into society. Of course, their mother would have been enslaved person and father of the enslaver this Group Portrait and some of the there are 22 poses of portraits. This campaign, this Group Portrait. Will there be rendering of it . And a story will run in harpers weekly in 1864 and will include this Group Portrait and multiple of the portraits. You can see in the portraits. I think theyre facets. Theyre draped in the flag they are using props and messaging on these images imply that the subjects shared their viewers values and the again, the goal to convince people to send money to this fundraising effort to educate slaves. You can see here again, theyre using the flag to draw draped in it. This one shows the slaves being educated and says learning is wealth. You get this real sense of, you know, this idea that if they can be educated through the use this fundraising technique, they can be integrated into society. This one is actually my favorite. This is the first one of this series that i had ever found or owned. And this is rebecca sugar. And again you see, shes shes adoringly looking at the flag. Oh, how i love the old flag. Theyre using these props, you know, really to draw on this patriotic sentiment. The time in the weekly article, it describes rebecca huger as 11 years old. She was a slave in her fathers house, the special attendant of a girl a little older than herself to all appearance, she is perfectly white, her complexion hair and features show not the slightest trace of blood in the few months during which she has been at school, she has learned to read well and writes as neatly as most children of her age. Her mother and grandmother live in new orleans, where they support themselves by their own. Again, this is in the article in the harpers weekly. There. You know, these people can be assimilated society if we pay to educate them. And i think really whats interesting about that is this is not just an individuals experience of war. It really shows how the portrait of the power of these portraits can shape the nations impact of war. How nation responds to the as well. So im going to talk a little bit about of my favorite subjects to talk about, and that is the dead Letter Office images. This is the nation coming to grips with the aftermath of the civil war and again, the power of portraits to sort of enact this response. These are these are called dead Letter Office images. And i will explain a little bit about that. So the dead office is established in 1825, and its located in washington, d. C. It, was designated to inveigate der mail and its intent was to get this mail to its intended recients dead letter. Office clerks were exclusively granted by congress the ability to open the mail and examine its contents for clues as to its proposed destination. The clerks were typically women or retired clergy men. Basically, they were believed to possess a higher moral or standard and thats why they were allowed to open the mail. These clerks really had to use lot of sleuthing to try to understand where these letters would be going to they had to have a queen of the colloquial use of language and also obviously names and places. So it was a sleuthing aspect of this, you know, effort here. During the civil war, there are two phenomenon of the civil war that greatly increased the number of letters coming to the dead Letter Office. One, hundreds of thousands of men, of course, are off at war. And you can imagine that m