CURRENT EXHIBIT
Bullets and Bandages: The Passions and Price of the Civil War
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Thomas A. Hill House 159 Union Street Bangor, Maine 04401 (207) 942-1900 info@bangormuseum.org The Thomas A. Hill House is on the corner of Union and High Streets |
MAY 4 - October 12, 2013
This exhibit tells the story of Maine soldiers fighting on distant
battlefields. From frenzied patriotism on the home front to the gory consequences of 1860s battlefield medicine, Bullets and Bandages shares the trials and tests Mainers endured on some of the most gruesome battlefields in history. Exhibit visitors will experience an array of Civil War images and objects including the Hall of Soldiers, pre-war bands and patriotic efforts, battlefield technology, and a display of surgeons tools and a medicine chest among other rare images and artifacts. Many first-hand accounts from letters and diaries will be on display as well. Visitors may purchase their own reproduction copy of Mellen Pierce's (artist Waldo Pierce's father) wartime diary that he kept while visiting his brother. Sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank, the exhibit opens on Saturday, May 4 at 10:00 a.m. and runs Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. until October 12, 2013. PREVIOUS EXHIBIT - Women in War 1861-1865
During the American Civil War women broke out of prescribed gender roles and laid the foundation for the future suffrage movement. Women had many reasons for looking outside their traditional roles as mothers and homemakers for activities that were considered, by many, to be unclean, dangerous, and sometimes downright scandalous! Some women dressed as men and signed up to fight in the war while others followed their husbands into battle. Other women took up more traditional roles as nurses or worked in the Sanitary Commission to help the fighting men by supplying bandages and clothing. Still others became both consumer and commodity as camp followers and/or made their own wages as prostitutes. Even more scandalous and dangerous was the occupation of spy which several females on both sides of the war took upon themselves as patriotic duty.
Women of the United States made many sacrifices during this era in order to support war efforts, including the women of Bangor who made beds, pillows, blankets, towels, and thousands of shirts for the fighting men of Maine. This exhibit explores the choices women faced and how they dealt with their own sense of patriotism, place in the national and local economy, and their sense of duty to their families. The unique ways women challenged preconceived notions of the “fairer sex” to help bring an end to the War of the Rebellion. Special thanks to our exhibit sponsor Bangor Savings Bank |
