Calendar of Events
Reimagining War’s Reality: A Consideration of Photographs of Antietam’s Dead
Ongoing Opportunities
- Ghost Tours of Historic Frederick Select Dates April through December
- One Vast Hospital – Civil War Walking Tour in Downtown Frederick Saturdays and Sundays from April through September
- Academy Alive Monday April 28 through Saturday May 3
- Saturday, July 26 at 3:00 PM
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National Museum of Civil War Medicine
48 E. Patrick St.
Frederick, MD 21705 -
Website
301-695-1864 x1009
$
Saturday Speaker Series: Dr. James Broomall
Historian and Professor Jim Broomall will take a new look at the famous images of dead soldiers on the Antietam battlefield. The standard tale is that Americans were shocked by these photographs and their stark depiction of war. But Dr. Broomall will look at other types of contemporary depictions such as lithographs, to reconsider this assessment.
Did the photographs of the Antietam dead truly “bring home” the “reality and earnestness of war”? The now-famous “New York Times” review, “Pictures of the Dead at Antietam,” is oft quoted and has become a lasting symbol of how Civil War-era Americans reacted to images of wartime dead. Professor Broomall will call this orthodoxy into question and challenge the audience to more fully consider the Antietam photographs’ varied meanings through a broader discussion of lithographs, postmortem images, and contemporary source materials. By so doing, we will together reimagine the reality of war.
The presentation is included with admission to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.