The Atlantic Magazine : The Civil War
The Civil War
Swift to My Wounded Faces of Discord
Temple of Invention
A Brush with History
Mathew Brady and the Image of History
Special Commemorative Issue
Marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, The Atlantic’s special commemorative edition, featuring an introduction by President Barack Obama, showcases some of the most compelling stories from the magazine’s archives. Contributors include such celebrated American writers as Mark Twain, Henry James, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott.
Purchase electronic or hardcopy from: TheAtlantic.com.
A Visual History
DK Publishing, hardcover | 8.26 x 5.23in | 360 pages
$40.00
Produced with the Smithsonian Institution and released in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the start of the war, The Civil War is the definitive visual history to one of the most defining moments in our country's history.
Comprehensive timelines, revealing first-person accounts by soldiers and civilians, key political and military leaders, as well as examinations of broader topics, such as transportation, the economy, and the treatment of wounded soldiers, make The Civil War a must-have for anyone interested in the history of the Civil War.
Purchase from DK.com.
Walt Whitman and the Civil War
written and adapted by E. Warren Perry Jr. (National Portrait Gallery, 2009)
softcover, 5 ¼ x 8 ¼ in.; 38 pp., $6.99
Swift to My Wounded was first performed on November 13, 2006, for the National Portrait Gallery’s Cultures in Motion Program, in collaboration with the Catholic University of America Drama Department. Playwright E. Warren Perry Jr. uses Walt Whitman’s writings and his own adaptation of Whitman’s writings to convey the drama of the Civil War in Washington, D.C. Whitman served as a nurse in the Old Patent Office, used as a hospital during the war and now the Portrait Gallery’s home.
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The Civil War Era at the National Portrait Gallery
edited by James G. Barber (Collins Reference, 2006), hardcover, 9 x 11 in.; 320 pp.,
$34.95
Compiled primarily from NPG’s collections, these portraits of the leading historical figures of this turbulent and transformative time include many of the best and most accurate representations of such legendary figures as Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, John S. Mosby, and George Armstrong Custer, and were painted, sculpted, and photographed by the foremost artists of the day.
Purchase from the Museum Shop or from Amazon.com.
History of a National Landmark
by Charles J. Robertson (Smithsonian American Art Museum & National Portrait Gallery, in association with Scala Publishers, 2006), softcover, 9 x 8 ¾ in.; 112 pp.,
$19.95
Robertson tells the history of our National Historic Landmark building, beginning with its construction as home of the U.S. Patent Office, its conversion to Civil War barracks and use as the site of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural ball, through the Smithsonian’s acquisition of the building and its grand reopening in 2006.
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Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery
by Carolyn Kinder Carr and Ellen G. Miles (University Press of New England, 2001), 9 ¼ x 12 in.; 216 pp., hardcover, $60.00; softcover,
$30.00
Portraiture is a unique genre that is common ground for both American art history and history. Offering seventy-six wide-ranging examples from the National Portrait Gallery's incomparable collection, A Brush with History showcases the American portrait tradition from the country's beginnings to the present.
Purchase from the University Press of New England
by Mary Panzer, with an essay by Jeana K. Foley, (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), 9 ½ x 11 ½ in.; 256 pages., hardcover, $44.95 ; softcover, $19.95
While Mathew Brady is best known today for his photographic documents of the Civil War, his contemporaries admired him for his portraits. Intent on creating a "national portrait gallery" of famous leaders that would connect such luminaries as Daniel Webster and Henry Clay with the Civil War leaders who succeeded them, Brady assiduously courted his subjects. This book charts the most productive years of his career, beginning with his emergence in 1844 as a daguerreotypist in New York.
Purchase from the Museum Shop or Amazon.com
