Civil War-Era Illustrations

In honor of the 160th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, the AARLCC Special Collections is exhibiting a selection of 12 exquisite illustrations

This year marks the 160th anniversary of the end of the Civil War (1861-1865). During and after the war African Americans fought hard to not only gain freedom, but to define what it meant to be democratic citizens in the United States.

The AARLCC Special Collections is exhibiting a selection of 12 prints that were printed in illustrated newspapers during the Civil War and the Reconstruction era. These newspaper prints were so compelling that people saved, hand-colored, and framed them as art in their homes, allowing them to survive to the present day.

The Civil War created a huge demand for illustrated papers, and helped two Northern newspapers, Harper’s Weekly (founded 1857) and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (founded 1855), gain a wide readership. During the war, the newspapers’ staff artists worked as reporters on the war front. The artists sent their drawings back to the main offices where draftsmen and engravers would create woodblock engravings used in printing the newspapers. Most images could be published within a week.

The illustrations provide valuable insights into the parts that African Americans played in the Civil War. Whether they served in the US military, operated as spies, leant their labor to the war cause, gained an education, or built communities around themselves, the 4.4 million Black people who lived in the United States during that critical era all had roles in crafting what freedom looked like for themselves and for others. Indeed, these illustrations are proof of what they were capable of.

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