Presentation:

The Civil War was the first war in which photography was widespread, and we tend to think of the thousands of soldier photos, battlefield pictures, fading stereographs as something almost commonplace. But to the people of the early 1860’s photography was a new and exciting idea. Many soldier’s letters, regimental histories, and soldier memoirs recall the first time young soldiers “had their likeness made” by a photographer, and radiate with pride and emotion on being able to send these amazing technological mementoes home to loved ones. Just as the Civil War was beginning, photography was evolving from a difficult and demanding medium confined to a few “artists” to a standardized process that almost anyone could understand and set up as a small business. The process was still messy, difficult, and expensive, but hundreds of small photographic establishments soon sprung up across the land. In addition, the apparatus, chemicals, and photo-lab equipment were portable enough to be packed into wagons and actually follow the armies.

Literally hundreds of thousands of soldier portraits were made during the Civil War. Craig Dunn has the largest single collection of images of Hoosier soldiers and personalities of that War. Come and hear Craig talk about and show some of the prize pictures of his collection--memories of the days of glory when young Hoosier men (and not a few old) stepped forward in record numbers to fight for their country, and on the way, to have their “likenesses” made for posterity.