History of Photography Fall 2019

Tintype of federal soldiers enjoying coffee and hardtack. Credit: Heritage Auctions.

If you had a choice, which would you give up? Food? Or coffee? We have just explored the photography of the Civil War, and we are reminded of the difficulties of producing photographs during war, especially with the wet-plate collodion process.

The objective of this homework is 1) to review the wet-plate collodion process, 2) to practice creating a post on our Openlab website, and 3) to post a picture on the OpenLab.

To help better understand the conditions that photographers worked in, this week’s homework explores what Civil War soldiers ate and their dependence on coffee. The typical food ration for a Union soldier included small amounts of meat, coffee, and hardtack (what is hardtack? Look here to find out.) The Union side half-jokingly believed coffee helped fuel their soldiers. Meanwhile, the Confederate South suffered vast food shortages due to strong Union blockades, and resorted to unique recipes (called receipts in the 19th century) to produce coffee substitutes. The word ‘coffee’ appears more frequently than ‘rifle’ or ‘bullet’ in Civil War diaries. To review the wet-plate collodion process, watch the first 3 minutes of a video from the George Eastman House.

1. In a post, share what you think is most fascinating about a Civil War soldier’s diet AND post an image of a food item that you cannot live without. You can link to a photo on the web, or take a picture!
2. Then comment on a fellow student’s photo.
   Please make sure you only check off the category #studentHW.

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR POSTS BY TUESDAY October 22, 2019 — two days BEFORE the Midterm. Please make sure you find time to review the wet plate collodion process for the midterm.

Additional sources: If you’re interested in what soldiers ate and drank, check out these links.

What Union soldiers ate at PBS.org.

NYT’s article “How Coffee Fueled the Civil War”