Inauguration of Jefferson Davis 1861

Editor: So, this is Winslow Homer’s "Inauguration of Jefferson Davis," a wood engraving from 1861. There's this massive crowd and impressive building. The mood feels…stilted? Maybe formal. What do you see in this piece, beyond the surface depiction of a historical event? Curator: I see a carefully constructed piece of propaganda masked as objective reporting. This image, printed in *Harper's Weekly*, ostensibly documents the Confederacy's founding moment, but the framing— the softened edges of the image, for instance, romanticizes the event. Consider how the presence of enslaved people is virtually erased or diminished; look how they are barely present. Doesn’t that lack of representation uphold a particular narrative about who is participating in—and benefitting from—this new nation? Editor: That's a sharp reading. I hadn't really considered how the composition actively silences a large portion of the population. But wouldn't viewers at the time have been more attuned to those absences? Curator: Perhaps, for some. But mass media has the power to normalize and sanitize. Think about who *Harper's Weekly* was trying to reach – largely a white, Northern audience potentially ambivalent about abolition. What message is being sent by downplaying the brutal realities of slavery and presenting the Confederacy as a genteel, organized society? Is it persuading a segment of the population to not meddle in the South's "peculiar institution?" Editor: So it’s not just what's in the picture, but also what isn't that matters. Viewing it through that lens changes everything. It speaks to the power of visual representation and its capacity to influence public opinion during times of political upheaval. Curator: Precisely. It reveals the urgent need to deconstruct seemingly neutral images and uncover the ideologies they subtly promote. A single image can carry profound sociopolitical weight. Editor: I'll never look at a historical image the same way again! Thanks!