G.C.Kirkwood Photographic Gallery

10/03/2021

Man, what a fantastic time last night. Modern methods really hooked it up. The entire staff were so welcoming and we had such a blast. Can’t wait to get the photos all varnished and scanned. Took so many beautiful shots.

09/14/2021

Had an amazing day at Rosecrans Pursuit in Georgia last weekend. It felt so good to get back out into the field with my friends and take their photographs. The impressions we gorgeous as usual and all of the subjects so very easy to work with. I set up a make s**t portrait studio as so many original photographers would’ve done based on period sketches from the era. It was a blast and can’t wait to get out again.

03/02/2021

I will be set up at Rosecrans pursuit registration, shooting portraits. Time will be limited as i will be taking part in the event in a military capacity. A google doc will be set up to register for a photo time. Can’t wait to get out and shoot with y’all!

02/22/2021

Hey!!!
Help us get the word out! Maybe donate a dollar! This is one of my very favorite programs and it needs every dollar we can all spare!

Hi folks! We’re raising funds for Civil War Trails, Inc. over the next 30 days in conjunction with our upcoming event “The Final Campaign.” Help us support an incredible organization!

01/01/2021

Happy New year from Chrissy and I! Here is a year in review with some of our favorite shots from the past year. We didn’t get to take nearly as many photos as we’d hoped to but, at least we got to take some. Here’s to hoping this year turns out more active than the last!

12/25/2020

The world lost another amazing brother this year. Someone who’s name i knew growing up, it was synonymous with authenticity, knowledge and the civil war. I was lucky to take Matts tintype at Defending the Heartland last February. I am so incredibly saddened to see another friend taken too soon. See you on the other side sir.

12/06/2020

Looking through last years sessions, missing the field, friends and the smell of collodion.

12/04/2020

Hey! Check out my guy of Funnel cakes and dysentery on Facebook. He makes some of the best comics making fun our little “stupid hobby”. They chronicle all of our adventures perfectly. I personally love the guy and his amazing talent. He made the background for me at Silent Machines and we have some other cool stuff planned for the future.
Funnel Cakes & Dysentery

12/02/2020

Another amazing part of history, wonderfully documented forever by some great field photographers!

During the Civil War, countless soldiers flocked to photographic studios, and photographers often followed the armies to capture images of the participants in the field. Often soldiers posed for the camera with objects that would show off their martial abilities in war – a musket, or a flag, or an edged weapon.

But the soldiers pictured here posed with perhaps a more powerful weapon. Prior to the Civil War, most southern states prohibited the education of enslaved people and Black residents. So when the US Army came south and began recruiting Black soldiers, teachers often followed. Literacy became as much a part of their training as military drill. If you look closely, you’ll see that many of these soldiers are armed not with the typical tools of war, but with books. At least ten of these soldiers appear to be holding a book of some kind. Behind them are officers and what are likely their teachers.

We don’t know exactly where this photo was taken. It is labeled as South Carolina – so there’s a chance it was taken somewhere along the coast here between Hilton Head and Charleston. But it could also be mislabeled. Regardless of where it was taken, it’s a scene that played out in army camps throughout the South, as education quickly became one of the core goals of Reconstruction.

The original photo can be viewed at https://www.loc.gov/item/2013647889/

11/27/2020

Is this a civil war pit bull? Definitely a photo i will recreating with my pitty. So cool.

11/26/2020

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to pe*****te and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Happy thanksgiving! I hope you all have a blessed day. I know these times are trying and we are all struggling to just get through, but we can and we will.