Currier & Ives’ repro print of black Civil War regiment

I was doing a sweep of sellers at a flea market Sunday and came across an oversize book of Currier & Ives Civil War prints. The book opened to one of the most interesting of its reproductions: the assault on Fort Wagner, SC, in 1863 by Robert Shaw and the all-black 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment.

The book appeared to be from the 1950s. The images were a bit off-center, the color spilling outside the lines of the faces and bodies of the fighting men. (Photo above is from the web.)

The Currier & Ives company was the most prolific producers of lithographic prints in the 19^th century. It produced and reproduced artwork quickly and sold it cheaply. It produced prints of sporting and political events, Lincoln’s assassination, war battles, trains, firefighters, portraits, farm scenes, home scenes and just about anything else. People bought the prints to hang on their walls.

One of its most intriguing of their artists that I came across was Fanny Palmer, who created landscapes for them. She became one of the first women to make a living as an artist, although her name is unfamiliar to most of us. Her major works are in museum collections. Currier & Ives’ prints themselves are collectible, and their “Best 50” folio prints are among the most highly regarded.

I didn’t buy the book, but I found it fascinating enough to stand there for a minute to thumb through it. A woman walked up, recognized the print and we chatted about the regiment and the movie Glory (1989), based on the exploits of the 54th and starring Denzel Washington, Matthew Broderick and Morgan Freeman.

She recalled seeing a monument to them at an exhibit in Washington, at the Smithsonian. I found out later that she was right about the exhibit in the nation’s capital but it is on display at the National Gallery. The plaster version of the bronze relief sculpture honoring Robert Shaw and the 54^th is on a 10-year loan to the gallery. The original is across from the State House in Boston.

Shaw and his regiment were the unlikely heroes of a Civil War battle. Black soldiers were first prevented from fighting in the war but a clause in the Emancipation Proclamation changed that. In 1863, black men from all over the north volunteered for the new regiment, and Shaw became its leader. When they took the charge to assault Fort Wagner in July 1863, they lost many of their men, including Shaw.

Two years later, black businessman Joshua B. Smith organized a drive to erect a monument in Boston. It was created by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and dedicated in 1897. It was not the only salute to the 54^th: Edmonia Lewis, the first renowned black sculptor, created a bust of Shaw in 1864. Robert Lowell celebrated them in his 1960 poem “For the Union Dead.”

The Currier & Ives book was similar to one I had picked up at auction: “Currier and Ives America: A Panorama of the Mid-Nineteenth Century Scene,” with 80 color prints and commentary of the times. The prints offered an idyllic view of an American life where everyone was happy and rich, and poverty, slavery, hunger and disease did not exist (reminded me of Norman Rockwell.)

My book – a Book Club Edition – was published in 1952 and edited by Colin Simkin. The dust jacket was torn and ripped at the edges, but the hard cover and prints were in remarkably good condition and intact. It held images of well-dressed men and women engaging in sleigh rides, Clipper ships plying the waters and country women tending their garden estates. Even the cattle and livestock were lazing around without a care of being slaughtered and butchered.

There were two prints of black people, decently clothed not tattered and wan, singing and dancing as river boats came up the calm Mississippi River and waiting atop a rooftop after the river flooded. And one of Native Americans near their teepees overlooking a river and waterfall in Yosemite Valley California. Overall, though, the prints were quite lovely.

I didn’t buy the Currier & Ives book at the flea market, but I couldn’t resist three old postcards of Philadelphia: the Pennsylvania Railroad station and two versions of the Betsy Ross House.