By Peter K. Steinberg, Collection Services

On 2 October 2014, my colleague Nancy Heywood announced on the blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS): “Just Launched! Nine Fully Digitized Civil War Collections.” In addition to these manuscript collections, the MHS holds several photograph collections dating from the Civil War period as well. Six of these have been digitized and are available both on our Civil War commemoration home page, and in our larger list of guides to photograph collections.

• Association of Officers of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment Carte de Visite Album
• 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment Carte de Visite Album
• 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment Photographs
• Homans Family Civil War Carte de Visite Album
• 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment Carte de Visite Album
• Wolcott Family Civil War Carte de Visite Album

The albums contain images of dozens of Massachusetts’ sons –some of whom feature in our digitized manuscripts collections, such as Richard Cary and Norwood Penrose Hallowell– as well as battleground areas and significant and anonymous role players in the Civil War. Seeing them adds another layer of context to the letters, newspaper articles, and other memorabilia of lives long ended. Don’t forget! Back in 2012, the MHS produced an in-house exhibit “Massachusetts in the Civil War, 1861-1862” and also made a companion website which featured many documents from the show. Since we deal with a lot of death here at the MHS – and really in most archives – I would be remiss without highlighting the second most emotional letter I have ever read, Wilder Dwight’s last letter to his mother Elizabeth from the battlefield at Antietam where he was mortally wounded.