Opening Reception of A House Divided: Photography and the Civil War

The Art Museum at University of Saint Joseph (USJ) will be the first venue for the traveling exhibition A House Divided: Photography and the Civil War. This exhibition comprises more than 100 rare original photographic prints and cased images documenting important aspects of the Civil War as recorded by the most gifted artist-photographers of 19th century America. 
 
While the Civil War was not the first conflict recorded by the camera, it was by far the most extensive photographic effort to date, with some 300 itinerant photographers covering every theater of war, and every portrait studio memorializing the new recruits in their fresh uniforms. Photography was only 22 years old when the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, but photomechanical advances already made it possible to reproduce these images in the nation’s newspapers and magazines. In this respect modern photojournalism was born in the Civil War. 
 
Join us for an opening reception on Thursday, March 20, from 5-7:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required but registration is recommended at ArtMuseumUSJ.eventbrite.com. For more information contact roakley@usj.edu or call 860.231.5399.
 
All works in the exhibition are from the collection of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg. This exhibition was organized by art2art Circulating Exhibitions. At USJ it is supported in part by the Karen L. Chase ’97 Fund.

Image Caption: Photographer unknown. Union soldier with prominent foulard, 1861. Hand-tinted sixth-plate ambrotype. Collection of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg.