Alumni are invited to get a sneak preview of the conservation work underway on the Library’s rare Civil War items and hear a talk, “Charleston, the War, and Reconstruction,” given by history professor Douglas Egerton on Saturday, June 4, 11:00am-11:45am, in the Bernat Room, Noreen Reale Falcone Library.
The conservation work continues on the Falcone Library’s 1866 “The Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign,” an album of photographer George Barnard’s prints depicting the aftermath of General Sherman’s march through the South. The album, along with the original letter to Barnard from William Tecumseh Sherman expressing his support for the project, were gifts to the College in 1997.
Douglas Egerton is a professor of history at Le Moyne College. His books include The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America’s Most Progressive Era (2014), Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War (2010) and Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America (2009).
George Barnard’s photography stands along with those of Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O’Sullivan, in advancing the photographic techniques used in the 19th century and in documenting the American Civil War. Barnard, who moved as a child to upstate New York, at one time had studios in Oswego and Syracuse and died in Syracuse in 1902. He worked for Mathew Brady at the outbreak of the Civil War and performed the difficult task of following the armies’ path and documenting the violence and destruction of war.
West Lake Conservators, located in Skaneateles, NY is overseeing the conservation work, which will be completed by late June 2016. For more information about the event, contact Tom Babcock at babcoctg@lemoyne.edu.
Come join the Le Moyne College Book Club on Wednesday, June 8 as we discuss A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. We will be meeting in the Bernat Special Activities Room in the Noreen Reale Falcone Library from 7-8:30 pm. Refreshments will be served!
