Louisiana - Civil War Period
- Title:
- Louisiana - Civil War Period
- Alternate Title:
- Louisiana - Civil War Period
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Corley, Carl Vernon
- Other Creators:
- Louisiana Department of Highways: Public Relations and Educational Section, Art and Model Unit.
- Date:
- 1969
- Date 2:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2375.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2375_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1960 - Present
- Subject:
- Pictorial
Slavery/Race
U.S. Civil War
Unusual Graphics/Text - Measurement:
- 33 x 41 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This promotional pictorial map published by the Louisiana Department of Highways offers a window into the views of that state’s government officials on slavery and the Civil War soon after passage of the landmark civil rights acts of the 1960s.
The top right quarter of the map is an illustration of “The moss-hung kingdoms, the cotton and sugar cane empires [that] were in their glory in 1861 . . . Permanently implanted in the economic and social system of the South.” A handsome planter on horseback and a Southern Belle in hoop skirt are pictured in front of a columned plantation manor. Around them are much smaller images of black slaves bending to pick cotton and chop sugar cane. Locations relevant to the War are identified on the map, including Clinton Louisiana, where “Free Negroes sided with the South, displaying loyalty in Civilian duties.”
At the lower left is a very different image, one of bedraggled and wounded troops returning to a ruined landscape. “May 26, 1865 . . . The Civil War was over . . . The soldiers of Louisiana returned home to a war ravaged and desolate state, to humiliation, to unspeakable poverty and despair.” Elsewhere the map lists details about casualties, nicknames, army cuisine, army whiskey (“Bust Skull,” “Red Eye,” etc.) and troop names (including “Franklinton Pumpkin Studs”).
The map was drawn by Carl Vernon Corley, who worked as an artist and illustrator for the State Department of Highways from 1961 to 1981. Howard 1999, 217-18. The date is estimated based on the known dates of other maps by Corley in the same series. Corley is best known for his illustrations of male physique for “beefcake” magazines in the 1950s and for some 22 gay pulp fiction novels he published under his own name between 1966 and 1971 (ibid. 310-311), during the period when this map was created.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.