Highlights Tours in The Civil War in America Exhibition

We will be offering highlight tours (approximately 45 minutes) of The Civil War in America exhibition to the general public at 12 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays. Please meet at the entrance of the exhibition on the 2nd floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building. The tours are free and open to the public, no reservations are necessary. For more information please contact Susan Mordan-White at 202–707–9203.

Gallery Talks

A series of noontime gallery talks on Wednesdays (unless otherwise noted) are given by Library curators and specialists in the Southwest Gallery, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building for the duration of The Civil War in America exhibition.

  • 11/14/2012
    Ed Redmond, Geography and Map Division, explored a map based on the U.S. census of 1860 showing the distribution of slavery.
  • 11/21/2012
    Curators Michelle Krowl, Margaret (Peggy) Wagner, and Cheryl Regan led a highlight tour of Civil War materials.
  • 11/28/2012
    Michelle Krowl, Manuscript Division, explored the many drafts of Lincoln’s speech to Congress delivered on July 4, 1861.
  • 12/5/2012
    Robin Rausch, Music Division, discussed drummer boys and their role in the Civil War.
  • 12/12/2012
    Curator, Margaret (Peggy) Wagner, Publishing Office, shared an 1861 letter from University of Alabama student James Billingslea Mitchell to his father.
  • 12/19/2012
    Kristi Conkle, Humanities and Social Sciences Division, discussed Frances Clayton, a.k.a. “Jack Williams,” and women posing as male soldiers in the Civil War.
  • 1/9/2013
    Carol Johnson, Prints and Photographs Division, explored Civil War photography.
  • 1/16/2013
    Barbara Bair, Manuscript Division, talked about the 37th Congress and the legislation that was passed, including the Morrill Act.
  • 1/23/2013
    Christopher Murphy, African and Middle Eastern Division, introduced the subjects of arms and military strategy during the Civil War.
  • 2/6/2013
    Conservation Division, conservators discussed their treatments of selected objects in the exhibition.
  • 2/13/2013
    Mike Buscher, Geography and Map Division, presented Jedediah Hotchkiss’s Map of the Shenandoah Valley.
  • 2/20/2013
    Connie Carter, Science, Technology, and Business Division, looked at a Confederate receipt book and how individuals survived on the home front with limited supplies.
  • 2/28/2013
    Pam Craig, Law Library, examined the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment.
  • 3/6/2013
    Sara Duke, Prints and Photographs Division, introduced various Civil War sketch artists.
  • 3/13/2013
    Georgia Higley, Serial and Government Publications Division, Newspaper Section, examined the Vicksburg Daily Citizen and the role of newspapers during the war.
  • 3/20/2013
    Janice Ruth, Manuscript Division, detailed Clara Barton’s work during the Civil War.
  • 3/27/2013
    Curator Michelle Krowl, Manuscript Division, discussed Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
  • 4/3/2013
    Barbara Bair, Manuscript Division, explored Walt Whitman and his many roles in the Civil War.
  • 4/10/2013
    William Elsbury, Humanities and Social Sciences Division, surveyed Civil War regimental histories in the Library’s collections.
  • 4/16/2013, Tuesday at noon
    Sibyl Moses, Humanities and Social Sciences Division, explored D.C. Emancipation on the 151st anniversary.
  • 4/17/2013
    Bruce Kirby, Manuscript Division, discussed Civil War veterans and the “Left-handed Penmanship” contests.
  • 4/24/2013
    Clark Evans, Rare Book and Special Collections Division (retired), discussed dime novels and Redpath Publishers.
  • 5/1/2013
    Michelle Krowl, Manuscript Division, introduced LeRoy Wiley Gresham, a young Confederate's view of the Civil War.
  • 5/8/2013
    Jennifer Harbster, Science, Technology, and Business Division, talked about the role of technology in the Civil War.
  • 5/15/2013
    Loras Schissel, Music Division, discussed the Port Royal band books.
  • 5/22/2013
    Mark Dimunation, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, explored the contents of Lincoln’s pockets on the night he was assassinated.
  • 5/29/2013
    Adrienne Cannon, Manuscript Division, talked about Frederick Douglass and the Civil War.
  • 8/29/2013, Thursday at noon
    Sara Duke, Prints and Photographs Division
    “Civil War Sketch Artists”
  • 9/28/2013
    Curator Peggy Wagner, Publishing Office
    “Religion in America during the Civil War”
  • 10/2/2013
    Ed Redmond, Geography and Map Division
    “Military Forts around Washington during the Civil War”
  • 10/9/2013
    Stephanie Marcus, Science, Technology and Business Division
    “Medicine during the Civil War”
  • 11/6/2013
    Megan Harris, Veterans History Project
    “Medal of Honor Winners from the Civil War to the Present”
  • 11/13/2013
    Megan Harris, Veterans History Project
    “Soldier Diaries: Civil War to the Present”
  • 11/19/2013, Tuesday at noon
    Curator Michelle Krowl, Manuscript Division
    “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the 150th Anniversary”
  • 11/27/2013
    Connie Carter, Science, Technology and Business Division
    “Thanksgiving Becomes a National Holiday during the Civil War”
  • 12/4/2013
    Curator Michelle Krowl, Manuscript Division
    “Antonia Ford Willard: A Confederate Spy”
  • 12/11/2013
    Barbara Bair, Manuscript Division
    “Wound Dresser: Walt Whitman’s Civil War Hospital Work”

Poetry Event

1/30/2013 Wednesday
Noon Reading
Natasha Trethewey, U.S. Poet Laureate, read from her Pulitzer Prize-winning book of poetry, Native Guard
Contact: Poetry Office, (202) 707–5394
Location: LJ 119, Thomas Jefferson Building

Tuesday Music Series “Music of the Civil War” sponsored by the Library of Congress Music Division

2/19/2013 Tuesday
Noon Lecture
Robin Rausch, Music Division, “Music of the Civil War: Battle Hymns and Bugle Calls that Shaped an Era.”
Location: Whittall Pavilion, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Music

2/9/2013, Saturday
1 p.m. Panel Discussion
Music in the Lincoln White House, presented in cooperation with the White House Historical Association
Location: Whittall Pavilion
3 p.m. Concert
“The President’s Own” United States Marine Band—Colonel Michael J. Colburn
Location: Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building

3/30/2013, Saturday
African American Spirituals of the Civil War
10:30 a.m. Spirituals Workshop with Dr. James Weldon Norris
1 p.m. Panel Discussion: The Legacy of Civil War Spirituals
2 p.m. Concert: Baltimore City College High School Choir
Location: Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Presented in cooperation with the Daniel A. P. Murray African American Culture Association of the Library of Congress.

12/16/13, Monday
“Taps” and General Daniel Butterfield: Tracing the History of America’s Bugle Call
12 p.m. Lecture
Location: Whithall Pavilion, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress
More information

Film programming is sponsored by the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress

Scheduled films related to the Civil War to be shown at the Packard Campus can be found at //www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/schedule.html
Location: Packard Campus, Culpeper, Virginia

“Books and Beyond Series,” sponsored with the Library’s Center for the Book

  • Monday, December 10, 2012 at noon
    William Martin discussed his new book The Lincoln Letter (Forge Books, 2012)
    Mumford Room, Madison Building
  • Thursday, February 7, 2013 at noon
    Daniel Stashower discussed and signed his forthcoming book The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War (St. Martin’s Press, 2013)
    Dining Room A, Madison Building
  • Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at noon
    Margaret (Peggy) Wagner discussed The Library of Congress Illustrated Timeline of the Civil War.
    Montpelier Room, Madison Building
  • Monday, April 8, 2013 at noon
    Ronald S. Coddington discussed African American Faces of the Civil War: An Album (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012). Cosponsored with the Prints and Photographs Division. Contact 202-707-1519 for more information.
    Pickford Theater, Madison Building

John W. Kluge Center Lecture

1/24/2013 Thursday
Noon Lecture
Kluge Fellow Lindsay Tuggle presented "The Afterlives of Specimens: Science and Mourning in Whitman's America."
Location: Room 119, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

“Death and the Civil War”

A Conversation with Drew Gilpin Faust, President of Harvard University, and Filmmaker Ric Burns; Introduction by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts [Book and DVD signing followed] More (PDF, 128KB)

Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 12:00–1:30 p.m.
Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building
10 First Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20540

Free and open to the public. No tickets required.
For more information, contact Nicholas A. Brown at (202) 707–8437 or [email protected].
loc.gov/concerts

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