To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Wagner, the Gallery is mounting an exhibition celebrating its magisterial Shaw Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. This monument, on long-term loan to the Gallery from the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Park Service, and the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, honors Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first regiments of African American soldiers during the Civil War. The exhibition features daguerreotype, tintype, and carte de visite portraits of the soldiers, the people who recruited them, including Frederick Douglass, Charles Lenox Remond, and Sojourner Truth, and the women who nursed, taught, and guided them, such as Clara Barton, Charlotte Forten, and Harriet Tubman. Letters, a recruiting poster, and the Medal of Honor awarded to the first African American soldier who earned this distinction—Sergeant William H. Carney—are also displayed, as is work by such 20th- and 21st-century artists as Lewis Hine, Richard Benson, Carrie Mae Weems, and William Earle Williams, who have reflected on the continuing importance of the 54th Massachusetts, the Battle of Fort Wagner, and the Shaw Memorial.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Accompanying the exhibition are a fully illustrated catalogue, with essays by the organizing curators and other scholars, and a brochure, available in print and in digital (expanded) formats.

Sponsor: The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of GRoW, an initiative of the Annenberg Foundation.
 
Additional support is provided by the Trellis Fund.

Passes: Passes are not required for this exhibition.

Image: Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Shaw Memorial, 1900, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire, X.15233

Other Venues:
Massachusetts Historical Society, February 23–May 26, 2014