1. Photo Album Guidelines: Selecting a Topic

Photo essays are not simply random collections of photographs on a particular but a narrative in which the images are critical elements to the essay’s success. Here are some guidelines that will help you construct a good essay. Be aware that this assignment will require time and a bit of research effort. Some topics will require some real digging and imagination. The opportunity for bonus points on this assignment is great.

I. First, decide on a topic. Try to select a topic that is not one of the “usual suspects,” although persons and events are still acceptable, and one that you can deal with in six to eight images. Although there are literally hundreds of possibilities, here are some suggestions:

1. The Civil War in Florida
2. One of the lesser-known military engagements (not Antietam, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Chancellorsville, or any battle mentioned in our textbook. You might want to try something on the order of the Battle of Helena or some other smaller engagement. See exception below.)
3. Battle of Antietam (if you do your own photography)
4. Battle of Manassas Ist or 2nd (if you do your own photography)
5. Battle of Chantilly (if you do your own photography)
6. Alan Pinkerton
7. Architecture of slave houses
8. Medicine during the Civil War
9. Matthew Brady (Civil War photographer)
10. Visual coverage of the war in Harper’s Weekly
11. Civil War in dime novels
12. Clara Barton (nursing pioneer)
13. Elizabeth Baker (Pinkerton operative)
14. Rose O'Neal Greenhow (Confederate spy)
15. Tredegar Iron Works
16. 20th Maine Regiment (defender at Little Round Top, Gettysburg)
17. John Mosby
18. Ft. Pillow
19. Minnesota Sioux Uprising
20. Mary Chestnut (plantation belle)
21. John Bell Hood (Confederate general)
22. Museum of the Confederacy
23. Dred Scott Decision
24. Confederate Civil War maps
25. Confederate Photographs
26. Civil War Navies
27. Civil War nursing
28. Money during the Civil War
29. Winslow Home (as Civil War artist)
30. Col. Elmer Ellsworth (first Civil War casualty)
31. African American soldiers
32. Hispanic soldiers
33. Christian A. Fleetwood (first African American Congressional Medal of Honor winner)
34. Andersonville Prison
35. Lincoln Assassination (a subtopic preferably)
36. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
37. Civil War monuments
38. Slavery (Choose a subtopic; doing slavery in six to eight images is virtually impossible.)
39. 54th Regiment of Massachusetts (African American regiment used as the basis for the movie, Glory)
40. Alfred Waud (battlefield artist-Union)
41. Frank Vizetelly (battlefield artist-Confederacy)