General Thomas Swearing in the Volunteers Called into the Service of the United States at Washington 1861

Winslow Homer created this engraving to be published, like a news photograph, in a periodical. In the mid-19th century, pictures like this one of General Thomas Swearing in the Volunteers, answered a growing public appetite for images of topical events. Wood engravings of this kind, printed in publications like Harper's Weekly, were key to informing the public. News travelled slowly, so illustrations of events were often the first time ordinary people got to visualize what was happening. The image depicts a formal ceremony outside a grand building, the volunteers stand together, and take the oath. Homer’s image does not make a comment on the politics or morals of the war itself, rather, he comments on the everyday reality of what was happening. Looking at art like this, we need to ask who was commissioning it, and what was its purpose? To find out more, look at the illustrated periodicals of the period.