Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. is a collection of photographs and ephemera related to the American Civil War. The bulk of the collection comprises ambrotypes, tintypes, and cartes de visite of individual soldiers and officers from both sides of the conflict.
The collection, still in progress, was assembled and donated by Tom Liljenquist, a business owner from McLean, Virginia, and his three sons, Jason Liljenquist, Brandon Liljenquist, and Christian Liljenquist. Liljenquist owns four jewelry and watch boutiques in the Delmarva area of the United States. The family assembled the first 700 items in the archive through online auctions and visiting Civil War memorabilia vendors. [2] Research into a drummer boy from Maine who served three years "with the greatest army that was ever known" and died at age 21 from malaria complications inspired the Liljenquists to donate their assembled collection to the Library. [3] Ambrotypes, an early photographic process with a unique "tonality," were an early focus of the family'scollection. [2] The collection now numbers over 7,000 items and the family continues to make donations of new items. [4]
The Liljenquist Collection was the basis of the 2011 Library of Congress exhibit The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photographs from the Liljenquist Family Collection, which was organized to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War. [5] Many of the photographs have been dispersed over time from their families of origin and lack identifications, so the Library of Congress created a Flickr stream and has a contact email for the collection, as it is actively soliciting potential IDs from genealogists and volunteer Civil War researchers. [6] Community identifications have been made, either tentatively, [7] or conclusively, such as a "famous" photo of a Confederate, initially cataloged as unidentified but familiar to hard-core Georgia historians, [8] and a group photograph that was connected with Company H of the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry—an image including both a future Congressman and a Medal of Honor winner. [9]
Mathew B. Brady was an American photographer. Known as one of the earliest and most famous photographers in American history, he is best known for his scenes of the Civil War. He studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique in America. Brady opened his own studio in New York City in 1844, and went on to photograph U.S. presidents John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Millard Fillmore, and Martin Van Buren, and other public figures.
The American Civil War was the most widely covered conflict of the 19th century. The images would provide posterity with a comprehensive visual record of the war and its leading figures, and make a powerful impression on the populace. Something not generally known by the public is the fact that roughly 70% of the war's documentary photography was captured by the twin lenses of a stereo camera. The American Civil War was the first war in history whose intimate reality would be brought home to the public, not only in newspaper depictions, album cards and cartes-de-visite, but in a popular new 3D format called a "stereograph," "stereocard" or "stereoview." Millions of these cards were produced and purchased by a public eager to experience the nature of warfare in a whole new way.
A tintype, also known as a melanotype or ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal, colloquially called 'tin', coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. It was introduced in 1853 by Adolphe Alexandre Martin in Paris, like the daguerreotype was fourteen years before by Daguerre. The daguerreotype was established and most popular by now, though the primary competition for the tintype would have been the ambrotype, that shared the same collodion process, but on a glass support instead of metal. Both found unequivocal, if not exclusive, acceptance in North America. Tintypes enjoyed their widest use during the 1860s and 1870s, but lesser use of the medium persisted into 1930s and it has been revived as a novelty and fine art form in the 21st century. It has been described as the first "truly democratic" medium for mass portraiture.
Alexander Gardner was a Scottish photographer who immigrated to the United States in 1856, where he began to work full-time in that profession. He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and of the conspirators and the execution of the participants in the Lincoln assassination plot.
Timothy H. O'Sullivan was an American photographer widely known for his work related to the American Civil War and the Western United States.
The United States Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, is the U.S. Army's primary historical research facility. Formed in 1999 and reorganized in 2013, the center consists of the Military History Institute (MHI), the Army Heritage Museum (AHM), the Historical Services Division (HSD), Visitor and Education Services (VES), the U.S. Army War College Library, and Collections Management (CM). The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center is part of the United States Army War College, but has its own 56-acre (230,000 m2) campus.
James Irvin "Bud" Robertson Jr. was an American historian on the American Civil War and professor at Virginia Tech.
The 19th Alabama Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Amos Humiston was a Union soldier who died at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. A photograph of his children that was found with his body led to his identification when it was described in newspapers across the country.
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C. that serves as the library and research service of the U.S. Congress and the de facto national library of the United States. Founded in 1800, it is the United States' oldest federal cultural institution. The library is housed in three elaborate buildings on Capitol Hill, with a conservation center in Culpeper, Virginia. The library's functions are overseen by the Librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the Architect of the Capitol. The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its collections contain approximately 173 million items, and it has more than 3,000 employees. Its collections are "universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages".
The 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia. The 28th Virginia completed its organization at Lynchburg, Virginia, in June, 1861. Its members were raised in the counties of Botetourt, Craig, Bedford, Campbell, and Roanoke.
Carol McKinney Highsmith is an American photographer, author, and publisher who has photographed in all the states of the United States as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. She photographs the entire American vista in all fifty U.S. states as a record of the early 21st century.
The State Library of Massachusetts in Boston, Massachusetts was established in 1826 and "supports the research and information needs of government, libraries, and people through ... services and access to a comprehensive repository of state documents and other historical items." It "opened in 1826 and has been in its present location in the State House since the 1890s." The State Library falls under the administration of the governor.
Leroy Wiley Gresham was born in Macon, Georgia, and left behind one of the most remarkable and important diaries ever published. The seven journals, edited and annotated by Janet E. Croon, were published June 1, 2018 by Savas Beatie under the title The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Journals of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865. The book includes the tagline: A remarkable account of the collapse of the Old South, and the final years of a privileged but afflicted life. The book won two major awards and was a finalist for a third.
Theodore M. Schleier was a Prussian-born American photographer, inventor, and diplomat, active primarily in the southeastern United States in the latter half of the 19th century. While operating from a studio in Nashville, Tennessee, he helped document life in the city during the Civil War. He later moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he captured some of the city's earliest photographs. His inventions include an early artificial lighting system for photography studios.
The Shapell Manuscript Foundation(SMF) is a non-profit independent educational organization dedicated to research and the collection of historical documents and original manuscripts. The Foundation focuses on the histories of the United States and the Holy Land, with emphasis on the people and events of the 19th and 20th centuries.
James Adolphus Pugh was an American photographer, based in Macon, Georgia, at the time of the Civil War. Pugh trained with and eventually took over the studio of R. L. Wood. His studio specialized in providing photographs of soldiers going to war. His studio was called Pugh's Photograph and Fine Art Gallery and printed ambrotype, tintype and daguerreotype photographs.
The Brady-Handy collection is a historical photo archive of the United States. The collection is a cache of "mostly Civil War and post-Civil War portraits, with a small collection of Washington views" purchased by the Library of Congress in 1954, from descendants of Levin C. Handy, nephew and apprentice of photographer Mathew Brady. The collection included 10,000 original, duplicate, and copy negatives including about 4,000 original wet collidion plates and 1,300 glass plate negatives. The collection also included 24 daguerreotypes.
A Harvest of Death is the title of a photograph taken by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, sometime between July 4 and 7, 1863. It shows the bodies of soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, stretched out over part of the battlefield.
