I’ve probably linked 2-3 times to the NY Times Disunion series on the American Civil War, and as usual I feel the need for a disclaimer – my interest is in the broader history that also drives my historical re-enactment project. Sure, I probably do know more than my fair share about military history, but on my bookshelves you won’t find any biographies of generals or gory descriptions of battles, or the sort of books on the minutiae of uniforms or tactics from specialist publishers such as Osprey. That’s just not my thing, and instead you’ll see (highly-readable) classics of academic history like Eric Foner‘s “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War”. That’s my kind of history.

So before you dismiss this article Civil War Uniforms: Blue, Gray and Everything in Between, you can ignore the details of belt buckles and epaulettes:

At the other end of the social spectrum stood the Washington Artillery, a New Orleans militia battalion that had been formed in 1838, fought in the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 and functioned as an exclusive men’s club. Prospective members had to apply, pay a fee and be accepted by an examination committee.

The Washington Artillery dress uniform included a dark blue frock coat with red collar, sky-blue trousers (with a gold stripe along the outer seam for officers and a red one for enlisted men), and a red kepi with a blue band and a brass device consisting of crossed cannons and the letters “WA” (augmented with a pelican for officers); enlisted men’s uniforms also had red cuffs. Brass buttons, belt buckles and epaulettes (gold for officers) — emblazoned with various forms of pelican or the letters “WA” or “NO” as appropriate — buff white leather accoutrements (black for officers), and white gloves and gaiters completed the ensemble.

What makes the article particularly rewarding is the insights that uniforms provide into mid 19th century society and the character of the war. Strangely enough – and I promise I won’t be too much of a nerd here – such improvisation and attention to reflect one’s status was very much part of the English Civil War too. I suspect you might argue it’s in the nature of civil wars.

I’m still enjoying the NY Times’s excellent series of articles on the American Civil War, and today’s Lincoln Captured! is particularly interesting for photographers as it describes the President’s relationship with Matthew Brady:

Brady, the former painter, was not averse to certain forms of retouching (he made Lincoln’s neck less scrawny by artificially enlarging his collar), and the result was a surprisingly normal-looking candidate. Not a savage from the wilds of Illinois, or a baboon, as he was often called, but a reasonable facsimile of a human being. That image was widely disseminated during the tumultuous campaign, as Americans by the thousands bought small buttons with his tintyped image affixed to them.

A striking image jumped off the front of the latest Cam magazine yesterday. At first I thought it might be a restored painting, as Cam usually contains articles on historical and academic subjects, but as soon as I realised it was a photograph I lost no time in tracking down its creator. That was Christian Tagliavini and apparently he carefully constructs his mise-en-scenes:

Swiss-Italian, born in 1971, educated in Italy and Switzerland, where he lives and works as an graphic designer and a photographer. This provides him the perfect frame and background to invent, create and totally produce images that blend fine arts and craftsmanship.

No, not simply images, as Christian Tagliavini loves designing stories with open endings (requiring observer’s complicity) on unexplored themes or unusual concepts, featuring uncommon people with their lives and their thoughts made visible. This rich and exciting collision of circumstances results in photos as a final product.

I also liked his Dame di Cartone series where he created costumes from cardboard, but the picture shown here was from last year’s 1503 series. One curious aspect was how they all seem to have very long necks. Is that coincidence, or is it by design? I’m not sure, but it certainly encourages one’s “complicity”.

Eric Foner writes on Abraham Lincoln inaugurated 150 years ago today:

The black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, meanwhile, chided Lincoln for failing to take a forthright antislavery position. But, he added, while Lincoln complained that his intentions had been misunderstood in the South, the real problem was that “the slaveholders” understood him all too well. Secessionists knew that, with his election, “the power of slavery” in the federal government had been broken. Lincoln’s election, without a single vote in most of the southern states, indicated that the North now constituted a self-conscious national majority.

Next year it’s the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the American Civil War after the secession of the slave-owning Southern states. So the New York Times has begun a fascinating day-by-day blog-style coverage beginning with the November 1860 election which brought Lincoln, with negligible support in the South, to power. Of course, hindsight inevitably taints the writing of history and knowing the war happened makes it too-easy to pay attention only to the events that “led” to the conflict. But with a mixture of academic and general authors reporting key events and other currents, Disunion looks like it’s going to be well worth following.

If you’re interested in the English Civil War or in Irish history then take a look at this fascinating Trinity College Dublin site hosting transcripts from the 1641 rebellion. For example, Mr Strangwaies of Galway:

That after ever since this deponent & his wiffe his father & said Children were driven from their habitacion & fledd to the Abbey of Roscomon this deponent hath ever since hath beene in service vnder against the Rebells vnder the Command of the said Captain Ridge <symbol> And this deponent hath credibly heard & partly knoweth that when mr Bewcannon & others of the Brittish were murthered by the Rebells att Shrowle, in the County of Mayo: The Lord of Mayo: that vndertooke to conduct them was then & there in Person & those brittish were then and there murthered by his followers in his the lord of Mayos presence

Mostly these are reports from Protestants / settlers telling of their sufferings at the hands of the native Irish – “anti-Irish insurgents” in Bush-speak. While they may be tough-going if you’re not used to reading contemporary writing style, reports of what was happening to god-fearing Protestants were widely known in England (more background here) and contributed to suspicion of the King and those around him, as well as being just a few years before Cromwell’s Irish tour. So it’s great to have access to so many first hand accounts (as it is to see John Morrill still survives his term teaching me back in the 1980s).  But if you’re interested in Lightroom or Photoshop, it’s probably not the link for you.

Birmingham with Patrick Conolly Up, and his Owner, John Beardsworth 1830

Despite my love of history, I’ve never really been into family tree research. Besides, I doubt there’s much to discover – we Beardsworths probably only came down from our trees or emerged from our caves 2 or 3 generations ago. But I did know I had a 19th century namesake who dealt in horses and whose stallion Birmingham had won the 1830 St Ledger, and today a conversation with my brother led me to dig a bit deeper:

“Beardsworth (John).—Founder of the Repository, began life as driver of a hackney coach, in which one night he drove a beautiful young lady to a ball. John went home, dressed, procured admission to the ball, danced with the lady, handed her to the coach, drove her home, and some time after married her. The lady’s cash enabled him to acquire an ample fortune, being at one time worth nearly a quarter of a million, most of which, however, was lost on the turf. The Repository was the largest establishment of the kind in the kingdom, and Beardsworth’a house adjoining was furnished in most splendid style, one centre table (made of rich and rare American wood) costing £1,500.”

There’s a lot more equally-juicy stuff here. I doubt we’re related, but isn’t that the kind of ancestor you’d want?

Not long ago I spent a great afternoon in the V&A examining 19th century tintypes and ambrotypes – I also got to see a few daguerreotypes – and it’s an amazing collection. But its online resources are put in the shade by the Library of Congress, which is just as well since it’s the wrong side of the pond, and I’ve blogged before about the wonderful Prokudin-Gorskii collection of early colour images which you can download as red, green and blue channel TIFs and re-assemble in Photoshop.

Almost equally special is the newly acquired Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Portraits, almost 700 tintypes and ambrotypes:

Among the rarest images are African Americans in uniform, sailors, a Lincoln campaign button, and portraits of soldiers with their wives and children. A few personal stories survived in notes pinned to the photo cases, but most of the people and photographers are unidentified. Tom Liljenquist donated the entire collection to the Library in 2010. An exhibition of the collection will commemorate the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War in April 2011.

All the images can be downloaded as TIFs, so you can have a really close look. And just check out some of those picture frames! Well done Mr Liljenquist.

Via

My latest article on re-enactment photography is in Digital SLR User magazine Sept 2010, out now.

6 pages of hot tips on shooting beards and gunpowder….

And if that isn’t enough, last week the Sealed Knot were on the BBC’s Celebrity Masterchef programme!

Researching northern Russia, I noticed this colour picture was captioned “Kem 1911″. 1911? The photographer turns out to have Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii whose archive is in the Library of Congress:

Prokudin-Gorskii created his negatives by using a camera that exposed one oblong glass plate three times in rapid succession through three different color filters: blue, green, and red. For formal presentations, he printed positive glass slides of these negatives and projected them through a triple lens magic lantern. Prokudin-Gorskii would project the slide through the three lenses, and, with the use of color filters, superimpose the three exposures to form a full color image on a screen.

Graham Parry reviews three books released in 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot:

The concluding thoughts of three of these books turn to the contemporary problem of terrorism in London. The parallels between 1605 and 2005 are striking: the perpetrators come from a religious minority that is widespread throughout the country; they are motivated by perverted religious values; they are thought to have foreign support from countries or groups hostile to this nation; they target London; and their instrument of destruction is gunpowder, in ancient or modern form. Hatred of government policies is another common factor, driving a desire for vengeance in a spectacular way that will destabilise the country. In 1605 the Catholic community immediately repudiated the conspirators and distanced itself from the plot; there were no more conspiracies for a very long time. What helped to restore confidence after the plot was the recognition by the authorities that Catesby and co were extremists and quite uncharacteristic of their fellow Catholics. There was no vindictive policy of persecution once the trial of the plotters had ended, but a sustained attempt to make allegiance to the crown a universal bond. We could learn something from that precedent.