Page 12 - The Civil War booklet_Neat

Interpreting History

Artists and photographers show us things we otherwise could

not see, so we may transcend space or even time. Advances

in printing, distribution, and in photography brought the war

home to an unprecedented degree.

The press barraged readers with illus- Resonance of the
trated magazines and newspapers. Civil War
Photographer Mathew Brady left us
unforgettable images of the conflict but it One hundred and fifty years ago,
was artists and illustrators who captured at the close of the Civil War, it
action scenes in wood engravings that could looked as if our nation’s founding
now be easily and economically reproduced truths, . . . that all men are created
on the printing press. equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain un-

alienable Rights, that among these

are Life, Liberty and the pursuit

of Happiness . . . were, for the

first time since Europeans set

Mathew Brady. General Ord and
Family, 1860-1865

For several of his
paintings, Grooms was
inspired by Brady’s
photographs, as in the portrait
of General Ord and his family.

12 Red Grooms. General Ord and Family, 2010