277: The Civil War in the 21st Century: A New Museum Marks an Old Conflict

BackStory

History, Education

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2019

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

On May 4, 2019, the American Civil War Museum opens in Richmond, Virginia. It’s a historic endeavor, building upon a merger of several museums and historical sites in the region, including the former Museum of the Confederacy.

The museum’s goal is to tell an inclusive and balanced version of the Civil War. But for an event that’s arguably the most contentious conflict in American history, that’s a tall order.

So on this episode, BackStory gets an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the museum to explore what it means to tell new narratives of the Civil War in public spaces.

Image: "Storming Fort Wagner," chromolithograph by Kurz & Allison-Art Publishers, shows Union soldiers storming the walls of Fort Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina, and engaging some Confederate soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. Source: Library of Congress

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National
0:04.4	Endowment for the Humanities, and the Robert and Joseph Cornell Memorial Foundation.
0:12.2	From Virginia Humanities, this is backstory.
0:21.0	Welcome to backstory. The show had explains the history behind today's headlines.
0:25.4	I'm Nathan Connolly.
0:26.8	I'm Joanne Freeman.
0:27.8	And I'm Ed Ayers.
0:30.0	If you're new to the podcast, we're historians, and each week, along with our
0:33.8	co-host Brian Ballot, we explore the history of a topic that's been in the news.
0:38.4	Normally, this is when we take you back to a moment in history.
0:42.2	But this week, we're talking about something that's happening right now.
0:46.2	On May 4th, the brand new American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia, opens to the public.
0:52.8	Now, for full disclosure, I should add that I'm the founding chairman of the museum's board.
0:57.6	A merger of several historic sites, including the former museum of the Confederacy.
1:01.8	The American Civil War Museum is hoping to present a new narrative of the conflict
1:06.0	that's diverse, inclusive, and balanced.
1:08.8	This painting is known as the last meeting of Lee and Jackson.
1:12.2	That's Kathy Wright.
1:13.7	She's a curator at the American Civil War Museum and a former curator at the museum of the Confederacy.
1:19.6	She spoke to backstory producer Melissa Gismandy at the museum.
1:23.6	What we're seeing are Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, two of the most revered Confederate military commanders.
1:30.2	On horseback, meeting before the Battle of Chancellorsville.
	...

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