156 Forbes Drawings Are
RICHMOND, Va. — A private collector who wishes to remain anonymous recently donated his collection of 156 Civil War drawings by Edwin Forbes to the Virginia Historical Society (VHS). According to the society some of the original pen-and-ink illustrations will be included in “An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia,” an exhibition the VHS is organizing for the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission, which will open at the society in February 2011. Paul Levengood, Virginia Historical Society President and CEO, said the society asked the donor for the Forbes collection 20 years ago. “Eventually people realize that the VHS can protect and preserve objects and materials for future generations to enjoy,” he said. “This collection gives us even more material to offer the general public during the 150th anniversary commemoration as a tool to understand the Civil War and its effects on Virginia.” John Edwin Forbes (1835-1895) was a New York resident who began studying art in 1857. He painted mostly animals, landscapes and scenes of everyday life. In 1862 Forbes became an illustrator for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. From 1862 to 1864 he followed Northern armies into battle in the South. He spent two-and-a-half years in Virginia, traveling mostly with the Army of the Potomac, documenting camp life during the Civil War. Forbes drew more than 300 pencil sketches in the field. They are at the Library of Congress. After the war, Forbes created pen-and-ink illustrations from his sketches. In 1889, Forbes produced a book, Thirty Years After: An Artist’s Memoir of the Civil War, featuring almost all of his pen-and-ink drawings. The VHS was given 156 of the original illustrations used in the book. The society hopes to exhibit a large majority of the drawings in a show dedicated solely to Forbes’ work in 2012 or 2013, after the Civil War 150th exhibition closes. The “An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia” exhibition, funded, in part, by the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission, will be on display at the VHS from Feb. 4 to Dec. 30, 2011. After leaving the VHS, the exhibition will travel to museums in Manassas, Roanoke, Appomattox, Winchester, Hampton, Abingdon and Lynchburg. The exhibit will use objects, interactive media and state-of-the-art technology to relate the personal experiences of free and enslaved residents of wartime Virginia and how the war continues to influence the state. .
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