Women: The Civil War era

History: Women in the Civil War
From Slave Mothers & Southern Belles to Radical Reformers & Lost Cause Ladies
​Selections from Virginia:

A Visit from Old Mistress
1876
Winslow Homer
​Oil on canvas

The Misses' Cooke's Schoolroom, Virginia
1866
Library of Congress File
​Location: Chimborazo Hospital

Gorilla
Chales Briton, ​1873

Carrie Mae Weems Missing Link: Despair, 2003

Today, contemporary artists like Carrie Mae Weems have begun to explore some of the many Mardi Gras traditions rooted in the post-Civil War fallout. In several elements of her installation, The Louisiana Project, Weems explores the legacy of antebellum race and gender dynamics, including those specifically related to Mardi Gras. In a powerful photograph entitled Missing Link: Despair, Weems tackles the racism tied to early costume designs such as Gorilla from the 1873 “Missing Links” Comus parade. In the photograph, Weems, dressed in a suit wearing the gorilla mask, hides both her racial and sexual identity, highlighting the traditions of masking that take place during Mardi Gras. Though her costume alludes to the racist 1873 gorilla costume, Weems reverses both race and gender roles, by masking her identity as an African American woman and asserting the idea that she could be anyone under her costume.