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Civil War Collage

A work made of photocollage (albumen prints).
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of photocollage (albumen prints).

Date:

c. 1860/70

Artist:

Maker unknown

About this artwork

Around the time of the Civil War, cartes de visite—small, inexpensive studio portraits—became extremely popular among middle-class Americans. Cartes were traded, kept in albums, and occasionally cut and pasted to form personalized collages. This is an unusual example of a portrait collage in that it implies a family tree, with layers of photographs clustered at the bottom and hierarchical rows at the top. It is possible that the composition focuses on a Union soldier, his commanding officers, and his family. If so, the work represents a transition from textual record keeping, such as lists of births and deaths, to a new visual narrative of family history, whether kept in an album or framed on the wall.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Unknown

Title

Civil War Collage

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1855–1875

Medium

Photocollage (albumen prints)

Dimensions

Image/ paper: 33.4 × 30.7 cm (13 3/16 × 12 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Ernest N. Kahn Photography Fund

Reference Number

2010.318

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/204013/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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