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CUNY Digital History Archive Wins Archivist Round Table Award

ART award group at ceremony
Published September 21, 2017

In October 2017, ASHP's CUNY Digital History Archive (CDHA) received the Award for Archival Achievement from the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. Founded in 1979, A.R.T. is a not-for-profit organization representing a diverse group of more than 400 archivists, librarians, records managers and those who support archival efforts in the New York metropolitan area. It is one of the largest local organizations of its kind in the United States with members representing approximately 375 repositories.

A.R.T.'s award citation stated: “Designed both as a collections portal and a grassroots collecting endeavor," the award citation read, "CDHA offers...Read more

2018 Institute Faculty

Principal Faculty

Joshua Brown is executive director of the American Social History Project and professor of history at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He is a noted scholar of visual culture in U.S.

2018 Schedule and Syllabus

Pre-institute reading

•Pre-institute reading: Louis P. Masur, The Civil War: A Concise History (New York, 2011); Eric Foner and Joshua Brown, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction (New York, 2005); James W. Cook, “Seeing the Visual in U.S. History,” Journal of American History 95:2 (September 2008); Michael L.

The Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath


An NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers

July 10-21, 2023
The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Setting the Stage: Reconstruction

Published August 24, 2017
Gregory Downs, UC Davis CUNY Graduate Center, July 19, 2016

Gregory Down provides historical context for viewing U.S. slavery in a global context and presents the complexities of reconstruction efforts to create a unified United States after the Civil WarRead full description

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Reconstruction Political Cartoons Published in News and Humor Publications

Richard Samuel West
Published August 22, 2017
Richard Samuel West, founder of New England's Periodyssey CUNY Graduate Center, July 20, 2016

In this presentation, Richard Samuel West analyzes political cartoons of the reconstruction era utilizing Thomas Nast’s Harper Weekly pieces as a timeline.Read full description

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Visualizing Emancipation and the Postwar South in the Popular and Fine Arts

Published August 22, 2017
Sarah Burns, Indiana University CUNY Graduate Center, July 19, 2016

In this discussion, Sarah Burns examines common Civil War narratives in fine arts in this period by examining the work of artists such as William Walker, Thomas Waterman, and Winslow Homer.Read full description

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Bodies in Ruins

Published August 22, 2017
Megan Kate Nelson, Author of Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War CUNY Graduate Center, July 15, 2016

In this talk, Megan Kate Nelson discusses the proliferation of photographs that focus on ruins and war-torn bodies in 1864/1865, at the end of the civil war.Read full description

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Slavery & Anti-Slavery Imagery

Published August 22, 2017
Maurie Mcinnis, University of Virginia CUNY Graduate Center, July 12, 2016

In this presentation, Maurie Mcinnis discusses the development of anti-slavery art in England and walks through American anti/pro-slavery imagery.Read full description

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Counter Legacies of The Civil War

Published August 17, 2017
Kirk Savage, University of Pittsburgh CUNY Graduate Center, July 20, 2016

In this highly relevant presentation, Kirk Savage speaks on the legacy of the Civil War and its continued impact on shaping American identity.Read full description

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