First Hand: Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection

During the nineteenth century Joseph Becker and thirteen of his colleagues served as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. These Special Artists, as they were called, drew and sent back for publication images detailing the Civil War and the Indian Wars, the construction of the railroads and the transatlantic telegraph cable, the Chinese in the West, and the Great Chicago Fire, among other milestones in American history.

Published to coincide with an exhibition of the same name at Boston College, First Hand examines drawings from the Becker Archive, the largest private collection of Civil War period drawings, offering its readers the unique opportunity to view nearly 130 works of art which have not been seen publicly. Essays from editors Judith Bookbinder and Sheila Gallagher and a number of eminent American historians provide extensive commentary on the images, including a discussion revealing how newspaper editors altered the original images before reprinting in their attempts to shape public opinion.

Judith Bookbinder teaches in the Fine Arts Department at Boston College and is the author of Boston Modern: Figurative Expressionism as Alternative Medicine. Sheila Gallagher is an artist, an independent curator, and associate professor of fine arts at Boston College.