The Castañé Collection, recently bequeathed to the Houghton Library, gathers together unique documents, photographs, and books that tell the story of the pivotal political and military events of the twentieth century. This lecture focuses on a selection of the unpublished treasures included in several albums containing photographs taken by soldiers in the long stretches of time when they were not involved in combat, which comprise more than 10,000 prints that provide a personal perspective on war, while sharing some common themes: landscapes, the civilian population, prisoners of war, soldier everyday life, military equipment, destruction, graves.

John Stauffer is a leading authority on antislavery, the Civil War era, social protest movements and photography. He is a Harvard University professor of English and American Literature, American Studies and African American Studies. His 19 books include The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race (2002), Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln (2008), and The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On (2013). He is the author of more than 50 academic articles and his essays have also appeared in Time, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, and the Washington Post, among other places. He is the editor of 21st Editions, has served as a consultant for the traveling exhibition War/Photography, and has co-curated an exhibition on Douglass and Melville at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. He also has advised three award-winning documentaries, and has been a consultant for feature films including Django Unchained (2012) and the Free State of Jones(2016).

About the Castañé Collection:

http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/modern/castane.cfm

Co-Sponsor: Houghton Library, Harvard College Library

Sponsor: RCC