Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era

American Antiquarian Society

“Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era”
Thursday, June 30, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET
Speaker: Author Sarah J. Purcell, Professor of History at Grinnell College, Iowa.
Information and Registration: https://www.americanantiquarian.org/virtual-book-talk-spectacle-grief-public-funerals-and-memory-civil-war-era

Professor Purcell’s latest book examines how the public and often large-scale funerals of major figures from the Civil War era shaped public memories of the war, allowed a diverse set of people to contribute to changing American national identities, and set patterns for mourning culture and Civil War commemoration. After 1865, public funerals for such luminaries as Robert E. Lee, Charles Sumner, Frederick Douglass and Winnie Davis elaborated on these patterns and fostered public debate about the meanings of war, Reconstruction, race, and gender.