The Voluntary Manner in Which Some of the Southern Volunteers Enlist.
date: label: Date made
content: n.d.
name: label: maker
content: Worth, Thomas
notes: label: Description
content: This sardonic Union propaganda print mocks the enlistment of a Southern “volunteer” after the passage of the Confederate conscription law of April 16, 1862. A Southern man is reluctantly forced into a recruiting office by bayonets. The recruitment officer inside sits at a table supported by a cask of whiskey and a bottle sits at the man’s feet. Behind him on the wall, a poster celebrates a “Glorious Victory for the South,” reporting the death of Union General Nathaniel Lyon and that 800 enemy soldiers had been killed with another 2,000 captured. A bearded soldier holding a pistol leans against the right wall. Above him, another poster, accompanied by a hanged effigy of Lincoln, fantasizes about the “Suicide of Abe Lincoln … Washington to be Taken,” signed by J.B. Floyd. Floyd had served as Buchanan’s Secretary of War, and was accused of bolstering supplies of arms and ammunition in Southern states before the war. In the lower right corner sits of collection of household goods, labeled, “Prizes taken by the Southern Navy.” Since naval prizes refer to captured ships this mocks the perceived ineptitude of the Confederate Navy, but also alludes to the preference of Southern captains to take part in the lucrative enterprise of blockade-running, rather than serve as privateers. In the lower right, a dog urinates on a passed out man, above whose head hangs a notice accusing him of being a Northern sympathizer. It grants permission for the confiscation of his property, authorized by Jefferson Davis, and Robert Toombs, his Secretary of State.
label: Description
content: Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and after serving an apprenticeship in Boston, he moved to New York City in 1834. In New York, he briefly partnered with Adam Stodart, but their firm dissolved within a year, and Currier went into business on his own until 1857. James M. Ives (1824-1895) was a native New York lithographer who was hired as a bookkeeper by Currier in 1852. In 1857, the two men partnered, forming the famous lithography firm of Currier and Ives, which continued under their sons until 1907.
label: Description
content: Although never an actual staff member of Currier & Ives, Thomas Worth (1834-1917) was one of the lithographers’ major contributors, selling them his many drawings and cartoons. His most famous series of sketches for the firm was his “Darktown” cartoons, which included heavily stereotyped, racist depictions of African-Americans living in the North after the Civil War. In the early 1900s, Worth drew cover illustrations for the dime novels of Frank Tousey.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: World
topic: label: Subject
content: Political Caricatures
label: Subject
content: Lighting
label: Subject
content: Drinking
label: Subject
content: Pets
label: Subject
content: Clocks
label: Subject
content: Communication, letter writing
label: Subject
content: Uniforms, Military
label: referenced
content: Civil War
label: depicted
content: Furnishings
label: Subject
content: Confederacy
label: related event
content: Civil War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: American Civil War Prints
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.3488
label: catalog number
content: 60.3488
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 10 in x 14 in; 25.4 cm x 35.56 cm