ASHP Podcast

Peter H. Wood, Duke UniversityNewark MuseumJuly 12, 2012Peter Wood, emeritus professor of history at Duke University, discusses the career of Winslow Homer and his portrayals of African Americans during the Civil War. While many of Homer’s drawings and paintings appear nonpolitical, Wood argues that his training at Harper’s Weekly as a news illustrator prepared him for presenting current political debates in subtle ways. This fifty-minute talk took place on July 12, 2012 at the Newark Museum as part of The Visual Culture of the American Civil War, a 2012 NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers.

Cynthia Mills, The Smithsonian American Art MuseumCUNY Graduate CenterJuly 19, 2012In this forty-five minute talk, Cynthia Mills (1947-2014) the former executive editor of American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and co-editor of Monuments to the Lost Cause: Women, Art, and the Landscape of Southern Memory traces the arc of Civil War commemorative public sculptures, describes the similarities and differences between Northern and Southern monuments, and discusses the continued interest in and uses of these public monuments. This talk was part of The Visual Culture of the American Civil War, a 2012 NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers.

Martha A. Sandweiss, Princeton UniversityCivil War @ 150: Is There Anything More to See?CUNY Graduate CenterNovember 3, 2011In this thirteen minute presentation, historian Martha Sandweiss challenges assumptions and some of the uses of Civil War photographs as historical documents. Although biased, unreliable, and unrepresentative, the images are mostly used as illustrations of events. While we remain fascinated with Civil War images, there is insufficient knowledge of how they were created and how they circulated in their own time. Research remains if we are to understand how these photographs shaped public opinion while simultaneously competing with other forms of imagery of the period. Today, we are left with the challenge of “how the limited and biased photographic record has shaped both public memory of a complex event and the writing of scholars, making us more likely to narrate some stories at the expense of others.” This talk was part of the public seminar: Is There Anything More to See?

Anthony Lee, Mount Holyoke  CollegeCivil War @ 150: Is There Anything More to See?CUNY Graduate CenterNovember 3, 2011In this 15 minute talk, art historian, curator, and photographer Anthony Lee provocatively examines Civil War era photography by way of one case study. The discovery, in June 2010, of a supposedly rare carte-de-visite depicting two African-American boys began a contentious ordeal over the monetary and historic value of the artifact. Lee examines the process involved in the creation of photographs during Civil War and their possible meanings and uses in the historical moment. In his unfolding of the recent events after the discovery of the image, which is in fact either a carte-de-visite or part of a stereograph, Lee shows how the meaning of the image went from “abuse + mistreatment” to “patronizing and possibly ironical” to “resilience and defiance” depending on the interpretations of each of the image’s owners. He concludes that “Civil War photographers often anticipated that their work would become the key elements of historical recall and fashioned pictures to match those needs…it’s up to us to recognize their strategies.” This talk was part of the public seminar: Is There Anything More to See?

Mary Niall Mitchell, University of New OrleansCivil War @ 150: Is There Anything More to See?CUNY Graduate CenterNovember 3, 2011In this seventeen minute talk, historian Mary Niall Mitchell uses less known and difficult to understand photographs to discuss the use of photography as propaganda during the Civil War. Abolitionists knew that they needed to “shrink the distance between the enslaved and the free” in order to reach their target audience, the white middle class. They harnessed an early form of documentary photography as the ideal medium with which to reach this broad public. Anti-slavery activists used staged studio portraits of white-looking children dressed not as ragged but rather Victorian. Before-and-after photos showed the move from rags to respectability. Mitchell says that these images represent “the Civil War we don’t remember”—a set of ideas about children, race, and photography that have not been part of the narrative. This talk was part of the public seminar: Is There Anything More to See?

In this hour-long presentation, Anthony Lee, professor of art history at Mount Holyoke College, talks about the broad range and types of photographs taken during the American Civil War and ponders why some have received so much more attention than others. This talk was part of The Visual Culture of the American Civil War, a 2012 NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers.

Ellen Noonan, American Social History ProjectInterviewed by Andrea Ades VásquezApril 16, 2012Created by George Gershwin and Du Bose Heyward and sung by generations of black performers, the opera Porgy and Bess has been both embraced and reviled in its long life. In this 22 minute interview, historian Ellen Noonan describes how the show played a role in African-American debates about cultural representation and racial uplift, and how staging and script changes in the current Broadway revival have added depth and nuance to the show’s portrayal of its African-American characters. She also explains how her forthcoming book, The Strange Career of Porgy and Bess (University of North Carolina, fall 2012), explores the local history of black Charleston and the impact of the show’s fame on its native city.

Laura Lovett, University of MassachusettsHugh D. Hindman, Appalachia State UniversityKriste Lindenmeyer, Rutger’s UniversitySally Greenberg, National Consumers LeagueMarch 24, 2011To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in March 2011, the Gotham Center (Graduate Center, CUNY) sponsored Remembering the Triangle Fire. In this 55 minute podcast, Laura Lovett (University of Massachusetts) introduces the panel: Hugh D. Hindman (Appalachia State University, NC) (4:55), Kriste Lindenmeyer (Rutger’s University) (17:30), and Sally Greenberg (Executive Director of the National Consumers League) (37:00), who speak about the past and present issue of child labor. Hindman suggests that when remembering the Triangle Fire we should not focus solely on the factory as workplace. The historical definition of sweatshop is “a system of subcontract” and the problem still exists in homes here and around the world. Lindenmeyer discusses two strikes involving children, in 1903 and 1930. She looks at the reasons behind the different responses on the part of government and the public based on “economics, the needs of adults, and new ideas about work in the minds of the young workers who themselves helped to cause the change”.  Sally Greenberg ends the panel with a talk about child labor in the U.S. agricultural industry today and some recent legislative efforts.

Craig Steven Wilder, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUFT Headquarters, Bronx, NYMay 24, 2011Craig Steven Wilder, professor of history at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, speaks to New York City teachers about the influence of school districting on the racial segregation of Brooklyn neighborhoods.  Building on data from his book A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn (2000) Professor Wilder describes the evolution of residential segregation as a direct result of the intentional segregation of urban schools, which pre-dated the public housing policies that maintained residential segregation in northern cities for the greater part of the 20th century.  This talk was delivered on May 24th, 2011, at the United Federation of Teachers headquarters in the Bronx, New York.

Frank Deale, CUNY School of LawCUNY and Race Forum (Professional Staff Congress)New York City College of Technology, CUNYDecember 9, 2011Professor Frank Deale (CUNY School of Law) gave opening keynote remarks at the CUNY and Race Forum sponsored by the Professional Staff Congress. Providing social, political, and legal historical context for affirmative action, he broached two themes. First, the difference between anti-discrimination and affirmative action policies and second, voluntary affirmative action versus change that occurs through legislative decisions. In this 17 minute talk, Frank Deale analyzes the periods of Reconstruction and the Civil War, including the effects of the Freedmen’s Bureau, to the Civil Rights movement, and CUNY’s policies of the 1970s and 80s up to  the present.