Visiting Antietam

I visited Antietam National Battlefield yesterday.  I have wanted to see the park for years and I was not disappointed. Antietam may be the most impressive Civil War site that I've visited, mainly because the battlefield still looks largely like it did 149 years ago.  You can imagine the terrible fighting that took place there because there is no commercial or residential development surrounding it as there is at far too many Civil War sites.

Of course, Antietam was one of the most significant battles of the war, but it also had an important role in media history.  Alexander Gardner made some of the best-known photographs of the war at Antietam, pictures that for the first time showed the shocking casualties from the fighting.  Although photographs such as the Confederate dead at Dunker Church or the Bloody Lane are better known, my favorite has always been the Union burial party (above). To me the single tombstone, under the large tree with the soldiers sillhouetted against a bleak sky, captures the tragedy and valor of the war.

Herblock Remembered

My colleague Russell Frank has an interesting story in the Washington Post about the newspaper's famed editorial cartoonist Herb Block, better known simply as Herblock.  Russell is coordinating the Herblock oral history project for the Library of Congress.  He has interviewed numerous colleagues of Herblock, including Bob Woodward, Gwen Ifill and Donald Graham.

Spreading the News in a Painting

An interesting story in the New York Times by Robin Pogrebin describes the restoration of the painting, "Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment, N.Y.S.M From the Seat of War," which will be a permanent and prominent fixture of the New York Historical Society building. The painting by Louis Lang captured the large crowd that gathered along what is now Battery Park to welcome the soldiers returning from the battle of First Bull Run during the Civil War. The well-wishers included families of the soldiers, grieving widows, dignitaries, flower sellers and newsboys.

As the story notes, the painting comes from a time when of works were "expressive and descriptive, tools not only to evoke emotions, but also to do the very real work of simply documenting and recounting history." As such it was much like reporting. Lang painted the complex work quickly and it went on display just over a year after the regiment returned. Soon it will be back on display at the Historical Society, another reminder of a tragic and crucial era.

Kudos to Farabaugh

Congratulations to Pat Farabaugh, who earned his Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Penn State in 2009, for receiving honorable mention in the American Journalism Historians Association's Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation Award. Pat, who is an assistant professor at Saint Francis University, was recognized for his dissertation, “Carl McIntire and His Crusade Against the Fairness Doctrine.” I had the pleasure on serving on Pat's dissertation committee and the recognition certainly was deserved. The winner of the award was Ira Chinoy of the University of Maryland for his dissertation, “Battle of the Brains: Election Night Forecasting at the Dawn of the Computer Age.”