Front cover of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s memoir, and “Ruins of the Arsenal, Richmond, Virginia, April 1865″ by Alexander Gardner
Tomorrow night is a Civil War literary and artistic double-header at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, where Co-Director Frank Goodyear will lead Alumni College participants on a tour of the exhibition “This Mighty Scourge of War”: Art of the American Civil War and attendees will also receive advance copies of “Blessed Boyhood”: The ‘Early Memoir’ of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, published in its entirety for the first time.
In his memoir Chamberlain writes of his early life before he headed off to fight for the Union—spanning from childhood to his years at Bowdoin (where he overcame a stammer, among other accomplishments) to the experience of starting a family. Edited by Director of Special Collections Richard Lindemann, the memoir includes annotations by David Thomson ’08. The book can be pre-ordered from the college store, to be shipped starting August 11.
The art exhibition, curated by Goodyear, opened yesterday in conjunction with the Bowdoin Alumni College “The Afterlife of the American Civil War.” Slated to remain in the museum until January 5, the exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings and photographs that showcase the varied ways in which contemporaneous artists responded to the war that divided the nation.
For anyone who’s in town and interested in taking a peek, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art will be open to the public until 8 p.m. tonight as part of Brunswick’s 2nd Friday Art Walk. The public is also invited to attend tonight’s 7:30 keynote lecture in Kresge Auditorium in the Visual Arts Center, delivered by Nina Silber of Boston University.