Join us for a conversation with Deborah Willis, PhD, author of The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship (NYU Press, 2021) and art historian Sarah Lewis. Dr. Lewis will discuss her essay "The Insistent Reveal: Louis Agassiz, Joseph T. Zealy, Carrie Mae Weems, and the Politics of Undress in the Photography of Racial Science" in To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes.

Though both the Union and Confederate armies excluded African American men from their initial calls to arms, many of the men who eventually served were black. Simultaneously, photography culture blossomed—marking the Civil War as the first conflict to be extensively documented through photographs. In The Black Civil War Soldier, Deb Willis explores the crucial role of photography in (re)telling and shaping African American narratives of the Civil War, pulling from a dynamic visual archive that has largely gone unacknowledged.

Receive 30% off with the code WILLIS30 when you order this book through NYU Press.

This program is part of the Black Lives Always Mattered! public program series at the Blockson Collection, which has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Presented via Zoom Webinar: https://temple.zoom.us/j/98307756826. 

Free and open to all, registration is encouraged.