From Realism to Reality

Abstract

This monograph focuses on a selection of images displayed to audiences during the American Civil War era, based in two categories—illustrations and photographs. Illustrations include lithographs and handcrafted interpretations of events. Photographs include the mechanically based processes of the era that featured chemically captured images, or remnants of actual events. The chronological scope of this work is between the war’s outbreak in 1861 and its close in 1865. Using theoretical approaches generally applied by the social sciences, we interpret the content of images and place them in context with the origins of photography. We also compare both the common and dissimilar features of illustrated and photographic images from the era.