Deborah Willis: Is There Anything More to See?

01/04/12 • 18 min

Deborah Willis, Tisch School of the Arts, New York UniversityCivil War @ 150: Is There Anything More to See?CUNY Graduate CenterNovember 3, 2011In this seventeen minute talk, Professor Willis discusses how as Civil War photographs were widely circulated, they became a story telling moment for those who posed. Looking at numerous images, she contemplates the “standard of pose” and what may have happened in front of the camera as well as the ways that these photos document the jobs, lives, aspirations, and beliefs of the soldiers. This talk was part of the public seminar: Is There Anything More to See?

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David Ruggles, Radical Black Abolitionist, and the Reform Tradition in Antebellum America

Graham Russell Gao Hodges, Colgate UniversityNew York Public LibraryHistorian Graham Russell Gao Hodges leads a discussion of the life of David Ruggles, black abolitionist of the 1830s, conductor of the Underground Railroad in New York City, author of numerous, ground-breaking pamphlets, editor of the nation’s first black magazine, and later, a doctor of hydrotherapy. This 50 minute podcast places Ruggles in the context of abolitionism and the Underground Railroad in New York City and in the nation generally. Professor Hodges’s talk draws upon his book David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (UNC Press, 2010.).Professor Hodges delivered this talk to a group of New York City public school teachers at the New York Public Library.

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