Archive for the Civil War Category (63 posts)

Free to Use and Reuse: Adolph Metzner Civil War Drawings

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This is a guest post by Julie Stoner, a reference librarian in the Geography and Map Division. It was first published on “Picture This,” the Prints and Photographs Division’s blog.

We’re highlighting the subject of Stoner’s post—Civil War drawings by Adolph Metzner—in our “free to use and reuse” feature on the Library’s home page. The home page showcases content from the Library’s collections that has no known copyright restrictions—meaning you can use the content as you wish. The Prints and Photographs Division recently digitized Metzner’s drawings and made them publicly available for the first time on the website.

Battle of Peach Tree Creek, Ga., 1864, by Adolph Metzner

As an admirer of Civil War drawings, I found my interest piqued by a recently digitized collection of drawings by Adolph G. Metzner. The difference in style from many other drawings of the time, along with the richness of color, drew me in to learn more about this man and his artwork.

Born on August 13, 1834, in southwestern Germany, Adolph Metzner immigrated to the United States in 1856. Shortly after the start of the Civil War, Metzner joined the 32nd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, also called the First German, fighting for three years on the western front of the war.

Adolph Metzner, c. 1861–65

During the years with his regiment, Metzner sketched any material available, drawing everything from portraits of his comrades to scenes of battle and death.

Adolph Metzner, Lieutenant Louis von Trebra and Jacob Labinsky, Huntsville, Ala., 1862

Lost on the Field of Chickamauga, 1863

One of the reasons I enjoy Civil War drawings is they can be a better medium for capturing movement, action or emotion as opposed to the photographs of the era. As an example, for me, the drawing below really gives the viewer a sense of the misery of marching in the mud and rain and how inglorious war can be.

Green River, 1861

Another aspect of these drawings that I find intriguing is how they complement the photograph album of Adolph Metzner that his daughter Helen Metzner gave to the Library of Congress 60 years before it acquired the drawings. The album consists of photographic portraits of the 32nd Regiment collected by Metzner. With both the photo album and the drawings, the observer can get different perspectives of the men in the regiment. For example, I am tickled by the contrast between the formal photographic portrait of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra and the caricature drawn by Metzner.

Photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra by Wilhelm Grundner, c. 1850

“Attention!” Adolph Metzner drawing of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra, 1861

As another example, the drawings give us a glimpse into the personalities of otherwise unknown people such as Private Jacob Labinsky, whom Metzner labels in the drawing as “The Camp Comedian.”

Portrait photograph of Jacob Labinsky, c. 1861–65

Jacob Labinsky by Adolph Metzner, 1861

Metzner’s 137 drawings constitute the largest collection of drawings from the Civil War’s western front campaigns so far in the Library of Congress collections. You can enjoy all 137 Adolph Metzner drawings with me as they are now digitized and currently available for viewing or downloading in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.

Scroll down for more examples and write a note in the comments section of this post if you find an interesting way to use a digitized image!

Chicken Thieves Being Disciplined, Camp Nevin, Ky., 1861

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Beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, 1864

Company A Hospital Steward Carl Bayer, c. 1861–64

Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, 1863

New Online: Mary Ann “Mother” Bickerdyke’s Papers

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This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. During the Civil War, thousands of Union soldiers in the Western Theater affectionately called Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817–1901) “Mother” for the tender maternal care she provided as a nurse and relief worker with the United States Sanitary Commission. Bickerdyke’s papers at […]

New Online: Iconic Recordings, Presidential Papers and a Civil War Diary

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The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.  Since the last installment in this blog series, published in mid-March, quite a few new offerings have been added to the Library’s website. Women’s History Month March was Women’s History Month, and we updated the site we maintain in collaboration […]

Women’s History Month: The Legacy of Hannah Richards

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(The following guest post was written by Beverly W. Brannan, curator of photography in the Prints and Photographs Division.) The Library purchased the collection of William Henry Richards (1856–1941), a law professor at Howard University, in 2013. The collection includes manuscript and visual materials, including a tintype of Hannah Richards, William’s grandmother, who was born […]

Witnesses to History

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(The following was written by Barbara Orbach Natanson, head of the reference section in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division, and featured in the November/December 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) The Library’s documentary photograph collections provide a rich, visual record of the […]

Rare Item of the Month: Mary’s Treasures

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(The following is a guest blog post written by Elizabeth Gettins, Library of Congress digital library specialist.) This month, in honor of Mary Todd Lincoln’s birthday on December 13, we will depart from our literary theme and look at some of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division’s “special collections.” While these items are not […]

The Power of Photography

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(The following is a feature story from the November/December 2016 Library of Congress Magazine, LCM, that was written by Helena Zinkham, director of the Library’s Collections and Services Directorate and chief of the Prints and Photographs Division. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)  What do Marilyn Monroe, Civil War soldiers and the Wright Brothers […]

New Online: William Oland Bourne Papers

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(The following is a story written by Mark Hartsell for the Gazette, the Library of Congress staff newsletter.)  As a hospital chaplain during the Civil War, William Oland Bourne collected the names of the wounded soldiers he tended and, in doing so, noticed a terrible trend: Many soldiers used their left hands to sign his […]

New Online: Education, Folklife, Wartime Collections

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(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.) Educational Outreach This month, we’re very happy to have a new release in the excellent series of Student Discovery Sets produced by the Library’s Education Outreach team. Designed for classroom use on Apple’s iPad platform, Student Discovery sets “bring […]