Home and Battlefield Exhibition at NY Historical Society

[Linda Anderson]

"To mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War (1861-1865), the New-York Historical Society presents a groundbreaking traveling exhibition, Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War, organized by the American Textile History Museum. The exhibition uses quilts, textiles, clothing, and other artifacts to connect deeply moving and insightful personal stories about the war, its causes, and its aftermath with the broader national context and public history."

http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/hom...-civil-war

Here is an article about the exhibition.

"In addition to quilts by Southerners, Northerners and slaves, the show features clothing, uniforms, period images and artifacts, including the noose and scaffold hook said to have been used in the hanging of abolitionist John Brown, and a post-Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan hood from Vermont.

"The exhibit begins with an enormous bale of cotton alongside a picking basket.

"'The thread that runs throughout the exhibit is cotton, which the organizers argue was a leading cause of the Civil War,' Hofer said.

"The cotton, picked by slaves, flowed north to mills, and then textiles flowed back south. That traffic, and the personal stories and emotions told by the quilts and clothing, blur the Mason Dixon line in this exhibit, adding depth to a story often presented as neatly split between two warring sides."

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...8/0/SEARCH

[Rsmyth]

Thanks Linda. This looks interesting. I think I will visit.

[BettyO]

This sounds like a wonderful exhibit - I would love to see it.....understanding social history is a vital part of understanding the past - and those who lived it.