Saturday, June 27, 2009

Big Day at Gettysburg Show


Today I attended the Gettysburg Show with Anne. We left early to make the ten o'clock opening, armed with business cards, books and my trusty laptop computer and scanner. Turned out to be a great day of progress for the African American soldier book.

Thanks to Ronn Palm and Paul Rusinoff, I had the opportunity to meet Tim Kernan, who generously allowed me to scan a pair of spectacular quarter-plate tintypes of brothers who served in the First Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry (African Descent), later designated as the Sixtieth U.S. Colored Troops. I look forward to learning about them, and am happy to make the acquaintance of Tim, a good guy who shares my interest in making these stories available to a wide audience.

The third image comes from the holdings of dealer and historian Henry Deeks, who inspired me to research and write about Civil War soldiers. The carte de visite of Lewis A. Fuller, reproduced here, is the first identified African American soldier in my collection.

Anne and I left the show with three new additions for the book and celebrated with a lunch at Dino's. Definitely a day to remember.

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