Civil War photos and letters on display at Elmhurst Historical Museum

The famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady wasn't the only one who created memorable images of the conflict that divided the nation 150 years ago.

Some of Brady's iconic photos, along with those of many other photographers, are part of the exhibit “Between the States: Photographs from the American Civil War” running through Dec. 11 at the Elmhurst Historical Museum.

Put together by the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y., the traveling display is on its second stop of a multiyear tour.

“We're very lucky we got it first in the Midwest,” said Lance Tawzer, curator at the Elmhurst Historical Museum. “This exhibit is now booked full out for two years.”

The Civil War photos are being shown in conjunction with a second exhibit that brings the conflict closer to the Western suburbs. The upstairs gallery of the museum features “Letters from Home,” an exhibit built around letters Civil War veteran and Elmhurst resident Frederick Fischer received from his family while serving as a soldier in the Union Army.

Artwork inspired by the letters and done by members of the Elmhurst Artists' Guild hangs on the walls, and excerpts of the letters recorded by the Green Man Theatre Troupe play in the background.

“The idea was to do community partnerships,” Tawzer said. “It was a great experience and a lot of fun.”

Civil War photos

The idea of doing a community collaborative commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War was suggested by the Elmhurst Public Library about a year and a half ago, Tawzer said. He also became aware the Eastman House was putting together a traveling Civil War photo exhibit and jumped on the chance to house it.

During the Civil War, photography was still in its infancy but becoming popular, said Patrice Roche, marketing & communications specialist with the Elmhurst Museum.

“It was the first war that was photographed,” she said.

The 122 photos contained in 65 frames are facsimiles of original photos in the Eastman House, with images that range from battles scenes and landscapes to famous figures and common soldiers.

The rare images in the exhibit include some shot by America's earliest photographers such as Brady and Alexander Gardner, and by lesser-known figures.

“The majority of them (the photographers) are unidentified,” Tawzer said.

Many of the photos are as small as 3-by-2-inches because that is the actual size of the originals, he said.

“From a gallery standpoint, it forces the viewer to get closer,” he said. “It's an intimate experience.”

Grouped by subject matter, the photos include landscapes and war scenes shot by Brady and Gardner, images of the Confederate ship the CSS Alabama, Lantern Slide Art of war drawings that were photographed and sold commercially, and portraits of presidents, generals, abolitionists, former slaves and celebrities.

Some of Brady's famous images of Lincoln are there, as well as pictures of Union Gen. Ulyssess S. Grant and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Photoshop didn't exist then, of course, but photos already were being doctored to use as political tools. One satirical image of Confederate President Jefferson Davis shows him in a woman's dress and bonnet. George Washington is seen embracing Lincoln.

Among other notable figures is Jennie Wade, who had the misfortune of being killed in the Battle of Gettysburg when a bullet passed through two wooden doors and struck her while she was baking bread for Union soldiers.

“She died instantly and was the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg,” Roche said.

The photos include a section on the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln led John Wilkes Booth. Booth was hunted down and shot by Union soldiers, but four of his co-conspirators were hanged after a trial that included 400 witnesses, Roche said.

The exhibit also contains images of common soldiers, individually and with their regiments. Often Army camps included a photo tent where soldiers could get their pictures taken to send home, Tawzer said.

“The idea of getting your photo taken was a big deal,” he said.

Letters from home

No photos of Frederick Fischer or his brother, Augustus, who both served in the Union Army, are part of the upstairs exhibit, although images of their parents are there. A farm family, the Fischers lived just north of Elmhurst in what they referred to as Addison Township. Many of the family's descendants still live in the area today.

A relative of the Fischer family gave the museum 29 letters in 2008. Most of them had been written to Frederick by his brother Augustus, brothers and sisters living at home, and by his father, Henry, Tawzer said. Augustus' diary and the original letters are part of exhibit, along with a book of the transcribed letters that is available for visitors to read.

The letters give a picture of life on the farm, skirmishes with Confederate soldiers, and the family dynamics. A German immigrant, Henry urged Frederick not to re-enlist in the Army but to return home to help with the farm.

“Frederick was really torn and wanted to go to school. He didn't want to go back to the farm,” Tawzer said.

After leaving the Army, Frederick went to medical school, became a doctor and a prominent citizen in Elmhurst before dying in 1906.

His brother was not so fortunate. Lying about his age, Augustus enlisted in the Army at 17 and was killed two years later just outside of Atlanta. Herman, another brother, gave Frederick the sad news in a letter dated Aug. 25, 1864.

“Father just retuned from the Mill, his agony can not be described of the sad news that awaited him,” Herman wrote.

But not all the letters were sad. A younger brother, George, 13, wrote to Frederick one winter, “We have had nice skating ice and have been running skates like thunder but it is getting warmer here and the ice is melting again.”

Heather Jones-Pryer, a member of the Elmhurst Artists' Guild, used that passage from George's letter as inspiration of an ice skating painting that she did on a mirror.

Each member of the artists' guild chose a passage from a letter to illustrate and a few artists submitted two works, said Karen Exiner, the guild's liaison to the museum and co-curator of the Letters from Home exhibit. Artists did additional research to complete their work.

“It was a good experience,” Exiner said. “We actually learned a lot about the Civil War.”

When she and a small group of friends first read through the letters in order, they did not know Augustus had been killed until they came to Herman's poignant letter to Frederick, she said.

“It really told a story,” she said. “It brought it so close to us.”

If you go

What: Exhibits “Photographs of the American Civil War” and “Letters from Home”

When: 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays through Dec. 11

Where: Elmhurst Historical Museum, 120 E. Park Ave., Elmhurst

Cost: Free

Info: (630) 833-1457 or elmhursthistory.org