Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County is a region steeped in the history of our early nation, further punctuated by the defining, tragic drama of the American Civil War.
Here was the boyhood playground of our first President, George Washington, as well as four tragic battlefields that would yield over 100,000 casualties during an eighteen-month nightmare. The depredations of this war produced a pall over the countryside that wore heavily on the local citizenry for generations.
This volume sets out to demonstrate not only the lasting tangibility of prominent landmarks of this eventful past, but also the starkly contrasting disappearance of vernacular structure, the homes and workplaces of the common man. The shifting needs of the community amongst the growing technological advances of the modern world render a palimpsest landscape, where faint traces continue to erode, and are lost in popular memory.
Visual historian John Cummings brings together some remarkable combinations of then and now journalistic imagery. His intent is go to beyond a “pretty picture book” of stately homes and florid gardens. Here we see how indeed, time marches on. The reader will also find an exploration of the identification process employed to solve some long-standing photographic mysteries.
| BOOK ISBN |
9781625450487 |
| FORMAT |
235 x 165 mm |
| BINDING |
Paperback |
| PAGES |
96 pages |
| PUBLICATION DATE |
15 August 2017 |
| TERRITORY |
World |
| ILLUSTRATIONS |
92 black-and-white and 92 colour photographs |
John Cummings is the author of two previous books on the Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania region. He has also written for several national and local magazines and newspapers, and provided historical research and commentary for four documentary films. He provides battlefield guide services and research assistance to visitors. He served on the former Spotsylvania Courthouse Tourism and Special Events Commission, and is the chairperson for the Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields, (FoFAB).
