COLUMBIA, SC — On Saturday, April 26, the SC Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum is hosting a lecture and demonstration on Civil War photography. This event coincides with the museum’s latest exhibit, “Civil War Photographs from the David L. Hack Collection.” This traveling exhibit organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia features unique and rare period photographs.
These images include Robert E. Lee in the uniform he wore while surrendering at Appomattox and Abraham Lincoln’s last formal photo session in the White House. Photographs of battlefield medicine tents at Gettysburg, a military band, and Confederate spy Rose Greenhow are among the unique scenes on display. Also included is one of the first examples of photo journalism in American history – Alexander Gardner’s photograph series of the Lincoln assassination conspirators’ execution.
Brooks Johnson, Curator of Photography at the Chrysler Museum, will speak about iconic photographs on display, as well as the photographers of the Civil War. He will also discuss the various techniques utilized in this time period. A brief exhibit tour will follow the lecture.
After the tour, Jonathan Goley, a Columbia area photographer and artist, will provide an educational demonstration of wet plate collodion photography. This was one technique used by photographers during the Civil War.
The event begins at 1:00pm and is free to the public. This program is sponsored by The Humanities Council SC, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities; inspiring, engaging and enriching South Carolinians with programs on literature, history, culture and heritage.
Founded in 1896, the SC Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is the oldest museum in the Columbia area. The museum focuses on South Carolina’s military history from the Revolutionary War to the present War on Terror.
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