DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Civil War -- Detail: Horatio Bateman's "Reconstruction":
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Description of Pictures: Print shows a grand allegory of the reconciliation of North and South through the federal program of Reconstruction. Visionary in its breadth and scale, the work is a remarkable combination of religious and patriotic ideology. In "Bateman's National Picture" (as the print is termed in a published key) the government is represented as a colossal pavilion-like structure. It has a broad, flattened dome or canopy, on which is drawn a map of the United States, with a shallow drum with a frieze showing the Senate, House of Representatives, Supreme Court, and cabinet. The drum is supported by two systems of slender columns--the straight, outer ones representing the state governments, and the curved inner ones the people. Atop the dome is an eagle with flag and shield. The structure is literally undergoing "reconstruction." The bases of the columns of the former Confederate states are being replaced with new ones. The old bases are called "Foundations of Slavery." The new ones represent Justice, Liberty, and Education. Under the watchful supervision of the military, civilians carry the new columns and put them into place. The scene is teeming with other symbols and figures. The sky is filled with a multitude of faces--American statesman, public figures, and other historical characters (among others, Joan of Arc and John Milton). Daniel Webster and John Calhoun are prominently featured. The aerial host surrounds the figure of Christ, who says, "Do to other as you would have them do to you." Flanking the group are Justice (left) and Liberty (right). Below, beneath the canopy, representatives of the North are reconciled with their Southern counterparts. Union generals Benjamin Butler and Ulysses S. Grant clasp hands with Confederates P. T. Beauregard and Robert E. Lee, respectively, and Horace Greeley embraces Jefferson Davis. Below in a small vignette two infants--one black and one white--lie sleeping in their baskets. Above them flies an eagle with a streamer reading ""All m ...More...
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
SIPGBA_170513_006.JPG: Reconstruction of the South
This allegorical lithograph, published two years after the end of the Civil War, symbolically depicts the idealism of which President Lincoln spoke in the peroration of his second inaugural address:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
J.L. Giles, after Horatio Bateman, 1867
SIPGBA_170513_166.JPG: Men are born free and equal
SIPGBA_170513_176.JPG: Universal Suffrage
SIPGBA_170513_224.JPG: Union & Liberty Forever
SIPGBA_170513_233.JPG: Do to others are you would have others do to you
SIPGBA_170513_275.JPG: Freedman's Bureau
SIPGBA_170513_335.JPG: Bateman published a pamphlet called "Explanation of Bateman's national picture of Reconstruction Together with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States" which identified various parts about this piece. You can see the document on https://www.loc.gov/item/2015650705/
Identified parts include:
* Dome: Represents the US Government
* Straight Pillars: Represent state governments which supported the confederation
* Curved Pillars: Represent the people (which are being added)
* Item A: Pre-war foundations of free states were Justice, Liberty, and Education [location: erect foundation blocks, left side dome base]
* Item B: Pre-war foundations of slave states were Liberty and Slavery [location: tipped over foundation blocks, next to left side dome base]
* Item C: Leading men of the slave states took their state pillars out of the Union to form the Confederacy and removed the old foundations [location: upper left just below Freedman's Bureau building]
* Item D: Emancipation Proclamation [location: upper left just below Freedman's Bureau building]
* Left-hand figures: Military direction ensures freedmen become citizens with civil and political rights, placing them firmly under the new foundation (Item A)
* Portraits in clouds: Departed spirits of prominent men of history, looking down with satisfaction on Reconstruction, with Justice, Liberty and Peace and Guardian Angels
* Inside main building: Prominent men of present history, congratulating each other on the happy results of Reconstruction, becoming united on the true basis of a Free and Independent Republic.
* Right foreground: Universal Education
* Left foreground: Universal Suffrage, Female Suffrage and Freedman's Bureau
* Center foreground: Equality of the races
* Item E: Spirits of a black and white man as they leave the grave, showing the souls of both alike in the future [location: center left just to left of eagle]
* Item F: Indicates Indian Reconstruction [location: bottom just to right of center under the tent]
* Item G: Future Destiny of the Whole World, governed by Justice and Liberty [location: upper left by feet of Justice]
* Item H: Fanneil Hall "the Cradle of Liberty" [location: upper right below Freedom's feet]
* Item I: Bunker Hill Monument [location: upper right below Freedom's feet]
* Item J: Independence Hall [location: upper middle above steamboat]
* Item K: Washington -- Capital, and Monument [location: upper middle, left and up from the eagle]
* Item L: Home of disabled soldiers and sailors, and widows and orphans of our departed heroes [location: island, middle left of eagle, north of train]
* Item M: Civil rights [location: lower right where the two gated houses are]
* Background right: North prosperous and flourishing
* Background left: South in ruins
* Background middle: Birdseye view of the whole country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with cities, lakes, rivers, railroads and mountains
Portraits in clouds include 153 previous figures, 139 of whom are identified including:
- George Washington
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Jackson
- John Q. Adams
- James Monroe
- James Madison
- John C. Calhoun
- Thomas Jefferson
- John Adams
- Daniel Webster
- Henry Clay
- Alexander Hamilton
- Roger B. Taney
- Stephen A. Douglas
- Martin Van Buren
- Benjamin Franklin
- John Brown
- Petras Styversant
- David Crockett
- Patrick Henry
- John Hancock
- John Jay
- James K. Polk
- Winfield Scott
- Lafayette
- John Tyler
- Samuel Adams
- Daniel Boone
- Elbridge Gerry
- Zachary Taylor
- John Marshall
- Tecumseh
- Tadeusz Kościuszko
- Aaron Burr
- Oliver Perry
- Francis Marion
- Elmer Ellswoth
- John Paul Jones
- Stephen Decatur
Figures under the dome include 106 named current figures including:
- Robert Anderson
- Philip Sheridan
- Daniel Sickles
- Charles Sumner
- Robert E. Lee
- Ulysses Grant
- Horace Greeley
- Jefferson Davis
- Salmon P. Chase
- James Longstreet
- Ambrose Burnside
- George Meade
- PGT Beauregard
- Joseph Hooker
- William Seward
- Thaddeus Stevens
- Edward Stanton
- Montgomery Blair
- Hannibal Hamlin
- Peter T. Barnum
- Nathan Bedford Forrest
- Joseph Johnson
- William T. Sherman
- John C. Fremont
- George B. McClellan
- John Bell Hood
- James Brady
- Franz Seigel
- Andrew Johnson
- William Lloyd Garrison
- Frederick Douglass
- A.P. Hill
- John Mosby
Note that only none of the identified characters -- Joan of Arc -- is a female. There are more Indians identified than African Americans.
SIPGBA_170516_011.JPG: Item A: Pre-war foundations of free states were Justice, Liberty, and Education [location: erect foundation blocks, left side dome base]
Item B: Pre-war foundations of slave states were Liberty and Slavery [location: tipped over foundation blocks, next to left side dome base]
SIPGBA_170516_023.JPG: Item A: Pre-war foundations of free states were Justice, Liberty, and Education [location: erect foundation blocks, left side dome base]
SIPGBA_170516_031.JPG: Item C: Leading men of the slave states took their state pillars out of the Union to form the Confederacy and removed the old foundations [location: upper left just below Freedman's Bureau building]
SIPGBA_170516_035.JPG: Item D: Emancipation Proclamation [location: upper left just below Freedman's Bureau building]
SIPGBA_170516_047.JPG: Item E: Spirits of a black and white man as they leave the grave, showing the souls of both alike in the future [location: center left just to left of eagle]
SIPGBA_170516_055.JPG: Item F: Indicates Indian Reconstruction [location: bottom just to right of center under the tent]
SIPGBA_170516_056.JPG: Item G: Future Destiny of the Whole World, governed by Justice and Liberty [location: upper left by feet of Justice]
SIPGBA_170516_066.JPG: Item H: Fanneil Hall "the Cradle of Liberty" [location: upper right below Freedom's feet]
Item I: Bunker Hill Monument [location: upper right below Freedom's feet]
SIPGBA_170516_080.JPG: Item J: Independence Hall [location: upper middle above steamboat]
SIPGBA_170516_089.JPG: Item K: Washington -- Capital, and Monument [location: upper middle, left and up from the eagle]
SIPGBA_170516_096.JPG: Item L: Home of disabled soldiers and sailors, and widows and orphans of our departed heroes [location: island, middle left of eagle, north of train]
SIPGBA_170516_108.JPG: Item M: Civil rights [location: lower right where the two gated houses are]
SIPGBA_170516_130.JPG: Portraits in clouds include 153 previous figures, 139 of whom are identified including:
- George Washington
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Jackson
- John Q. Adams
- James Monroe
- James Madison
- John C. Calhoun
- Thomas Jefferson
- John Adams
- Daniel Webster
- Henry Clay
- Alexander Hamilton
- Roger B. Taney
- Stephen A. Douglas
- Martin Van Buren
- Benjamin Franklin
- John Brown
- Petras Styversant
- David Crockett
- Patrick Henry
- John Hancock
- John Jay
- James K. Polk
- Winfield Scott
- Lafayette
- John Tyler
- Samuel Adams
- Daniel Boone
- Elbridge Gerry
- Zachary Taylor
- John Marshall
- Tecumseh
- Tadeusz Kościuszko
- Aaron Burr
- Oliver Perry
- Francis Marion
- Elmer Ellswoth
- John Paul Jones
- Stephen Decatur
SIPGBA_170516_154.JPG: Figures under the dome include 106 named current figures including:
- Robert Anderson
- Philip Sheridan
- Daniel Sickles
- Charles Sumner
- Robert E. Lee
- Ulysses Grant
- Horace Greeley
- Jefferson Davis
- Salmon P. Chase
- James Longstreet
- Ambrose Burnside
- George Meade
- PGT Beauregard
- Joseph Hooker
- William Seward
- Thaddeus Stevens
- Edward Stanton
- Montgomery Blair
- Hannibal Hamlin
- Peter T. Barnum
- Nathan Bedford Forrest
- Joseph Johnson
- William T. Sherman
- John C. Fremont
- George B. McClellan
- John Bell Hood
- James Brady
- Franz Seigel
- Andrew Johnson
- William Lloyd Garrison
- Frederick Douglass
- A.P. Hill
- John Mosby
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Description of Subject Matter: Two of the threads running through the United States before the Civil War were the principle of union and the reality of slavery. In the North, Americans insisted on union above all else; in the South, Americans insisted on slavery above all else; and in the great American West, pioneers and sellers were left to choose between the two.
The Americans represented in this gallery felt strongly about these issues of liberty, union, and slavery. One of them, John Brown, did as much as any single person could do to push the divided nation to the brink of secession and civil war.
Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in November of 1860 enraged radical southern leaders, who fiercely defended the institution of slavery. As the Republican Party candidate, Lincoln wholly endorsed his party's platform to ban the extension of slavery into the western territories. Although he clearly stated his intention not to interfere with slavery where it already legally existed, southern extremists did not trust the new president-elect. In response, southerners enacted their doctrine of states' rights: "The Union Is Dissolved!" proclaimed the Charleston Mercury on December 20, 1860, when South Carolina became the first of eleven states to secede. A call to arms on both sides followed on the heels of secession. "Both parties deprecated war," President Lincoln reflected four years later in his second inaugural address, "but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came."
Lincoln and His Cabinet:
Upon entering the office of the presidency, Abraham Lincoln had every reason to feel skeptical about the ultimate success of his administration. Faced with a civil war, responsibility rested on his angular shoulders as it had done with no other American president before or since. Moreover, Lincoln had to win control over his cabinet, which at the start was at odds with him and with itsel ...More...
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2017 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Trips this year:
Civil War Trust conferences in Pensacola, FL, Chattanooga, TN (via sites in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and Fredericksburg, VA,
a family reunion in The Dells, Wisconsin (via sites in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin),
New York City, and
my 12th consecutive San Diego Comic Con trip (including sites in Arizona).
For some reason, several of my photos have been published in physical books this year which is pretty cool. Ones that I know about:
"Tarzan, Jungle King of Popular Culture" (David Lemmo),
"The Great Crusade: A Guide to World War I American Expeditionary Forces Battlefields and Sites" (Stephen T. Powers and Kevin Dennehy),
"The American Spirit" (David McCullough),
"Civil War Battlefields: Walking the Trails of History" (David T. Gilbert),
"The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956 — Khrushchev, Stalin's Ghost, and a Young American in Russia" (Marvin Kalb), and
"The Judge: 26 Machiavellian Lessons" (Ron Collins and David Skover).
Number of photos taken this year: just below 560,000.
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