A House Divided: Photography and the Civil War

A house divided against itself cannot stand
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free
 – Abraham Lincoln, 1858

At a time when our nation often appears to be coming apart at the seams, it is timely and sobering to revisit the American Civil War (1861-65), America’s bloodiest internal conflict, in which 620,000 young men lost their lives fighting brother against brother. While the Civil War was not the first conflict recorded by the camera, it was by far the most extensive photographic effort to date, with some 300 itinerant photographers covering every theater of war, and every portrait studio memorializing the new recruits in their fresh uniforms. Photography was only 22 years old when the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, but photomechanical advances already made it possible to reproduce these images in the nation’s newspapers and magazines. In this respect modern photojournalism was born in the Civil War.

This exhibition comprises over 80 rare original photographic prints and cased images documenting numerous important aspects of the Civil War, seen through the lens of the most gifted artist-photographers of 19th century America. All photographs are drawn from the private collection of Michael Mattis and Judy Hochberg, courtesy art2art Circulating Exhibitions, LLC.

Number of photographs:80
Rental fee: $16,500 for 8 weeks