The Civil War as they saw it

"Astounding" is the word the ResearchBuzz newsletter used for a collection of lively 19th-century news sketches now on line. Here's the word straight from the web site of the Becker Collection:

The Becker Archive contains approximately 650 hitherto unexhibited and undocumented drawings by Joseph Becker and his colleagues, nineteenth-century artists who worked as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the Civil War, the construction of the railroads, the laying of the transatlantic cable in Ireland, the Chinese in the West, the Indian wars, the Chicago fire, and numerous other aspects of nineteenth-century American culture.

Those within striking distance of Boston might consider a visit to the McMullen Museum of Art or a purchase of the exhibit's $50 catalog. Otherwise you can browse the on-line material by subject, artist, date, reference number, and location.