First Hand
Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection
McMullen Museum of Art (Publisher)
Published on 15. March 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
274 pages
978-1-892850-15-7 (ISBN)
Description
During the nineteenth century Joseph Becker and thirteen of his colleagues served as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie's "Illustrated Newspaper". These Special Artists, as they were called, drew and sent back for publication images detailing the Civil War and the Indian Wars, the construction of the railroads and the transatlantic telegraph cable, the Chinese in the West, and the Great Chicago Fire, among other milestones in American history. Published to coincide with an exhibition of the same name at Boston College, "First Hand" examines drawings from the Becker Archive, the largest private collection of Civil War period drawings, offering its readers a unique opportunity to view nearly 130 works of art which have never been seen publicly. Essays from editors Judith Bookbinder and Sheila Gallagher and a number of eminent American historians provide extensive commentary on the images, including a discussion revealing how newspaper editors altered the original images before publication in their attempts to shape public opinion.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chestnut Hill, MA
United States
Illustrations
118 colour plates, 91 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 267 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-892850-15-7 (9781892850157)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Judith Bookbinder teaches in the Department of Fine Arts at Boston College and is the author of Boston Modern: Figurative Expressionism as Alternative Medicine. Sheila Gallagher is an artist, independent curator, and associate professor of fine arts at Boston College.