What is this? 25 February, 2013

What is this?  pl

Comments

[Ishmael Zechariah]

http://www.civilwar.si.edu/life_oath.html

Ishmael Zechariah

[Paul Escobar]

Mr. Lang,

Taking the Oath - Drawing Rations, by John Rogers, 1866 - Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Thank you for contextualizing it, in the other topic.

[Lars]

It is called "Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations" by John Rogers.

[Maureen Lang]

"Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations" by John Rogers.

http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/collections/overview/americas/northamerica/uscanada/sculpture/SX993174.html

[Nightsticker]

Colonel Lang,

A statue by John Rogers called
"Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations"
depicts a Confederate woman in Northern
occupied area taking the oath of loyalty
in order to draw food rations for her family.

Nightsticker
USMC 65-72
FBI 72-96

[Maureen Lang]

That's what I get for not reading the entire comment thread in the previous post...could have saved myself the trouble of looking this up freehand!

Re: previous post- as someone who, before retiring, lived in Los Angeles 1968-2011 & whose husband worked in the film biz for 44 years (including with industry heavyweights like Spielberg & Lucas), we never watch the Oscar show. Got a bellyful on the job of observing "above the line" people getting their arms out of joint patting themselves on the back. Our daughter, on the other hand, enjoys watching/commenting on The Spectacle, much as the 'bots enjoyed doing the same on MST3K.

[John]

Interesting what one sees in a photo?
I see one small child of the Losers cling to Mother's skirts.
I see the curious former Slave child just hanging out and checking out the scene.
I note the former Slave child has a basket which probably represents access to food that will be granted once the oath is complete.
I see a basically bored Yankee halfheartedly doffing his hat for a Godly oath.
I see a lot of Victorian sentimentality including Kipling's observation that "the female of the species is more deadly than the male". Hence the requirement that the Ladies submit to the Oath.
And to think, these cheap plaster statuettes graced the homes of countless upwardly aspiring throughout late 19th Century America!
Reminds me of the current Frederic Remington revival fetish that I ascribe to the Post WW2 Hollywood Cowboys and Indians mythology perpetrated on the Boomers.
Same object, different views, just like Rashomon.

[turcopolier]

John
A particularly mean spirited comment. "the Losers" I presume that you are a "winner?" pl

[Bill H]

I made the mistake of reading this, Colonel, while I was drinking coffee. You owe me a new keyboard.

[turcopolier]

Bill H

I can see that one can argue that slavery was too great a moral burden for the Southern war for independence to carry successfully, but the resort to an argument of "we won" and therefore are possessed of great virtue is merely a statement of belief that force majeur is a great good. pl

[DH]

http://www.johnrogers.org/OAT1.JPG

[Eliot]

There was little morality in the cause for Union. It was simply that, a desire for Union and a desire to subjugate Confederate nationalism. If Yankees had an opinion on slavery it was that it denigrated free labor - and puritan virtue. Racism was the rule in Union, just as it was in Confederacy. People like Chamberlain were very rare.

[Fred]

How interesting to capitalize "Slave child". Important (unlike the boy and his mother with the other skin color) and condescending at the same time, Just like Rashomon? You should really get out of the ivory tower once and awhile.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Must be a widow as well, no?

But I must admit that she is all woman in all the right places.

[Bill H]

To clarify, I was laughing my backside off.