Civil War History Journal writer James Brookes interviewed on H-CivWar
Jan 27th, 2020
From H-CivWar, don’t miss this insightful interview with James Brookes regarding his Civil War History article “‘The Last and Most Precious Memento’: Photographic Portraiture and the Union Citizen-Soldier” (CWH September 2019, Volume 65, No. 3).
I argue that portrait photographs were significant vessels of personal identity during the Civil War. Much like letters, they were used by soldiers and civilians as mediators of distance, and to manage anxieties over death and disability. Americans were innovative and unprecedented in their use of portraits as surrogates for loved ones and as images to incite memories of home.
