Beginning in 1862, Winchester, Virginia was occupied no less than 13 times by the Union and Confederate Armies. Some local historians estimate as many as 72 occupations. Winchester's location in the fertile Shenandoah Valley and proximity to both the Confederate capital at Richmond and the Federal capital in Washington, D.C. made it a desirable location for both armies. This lecture explores the ways in which Confederate Winchester civilians used textiles as symbols of war as they fought to defend their homes from invading armies. In doing so, the line between the battlefield and the home front was blurred.
Dr. Laura Ping is an Assistant Professor of U.S. History at Bellarmine University with a PhD from The Graduate Center, City University of New York where she specialized in U.S. cultural history, material culture, visual culture, fashion, and gender. Dr. Ping teaches courses on U.S. immigration, the Long Civil Rights Movement, public health, gender and sexuality, and the U.S. Civil War.
Dr. Ping’s research focuses on women and society. She is the co-author of Catharine Beecher: The Paradoxes of Gender in the Nineteenth Century (2022), which looks at how social and technological changes during the nineteenth-century can be understood through the life of education reformer Catharine Beecher. Dr. Ping’s current book project. Beyond the Bloomer: Fashioning Change in Nineteenth-Century Dress analyzes how American women used fashion as a political symbol prior to gaining the right to vote.
Sponsored by the Frankfort Civil War Round Table, Capital City Museum, and PSPL.
Please register at
https://www.pspl.org/event/cwrt-ping. For more information, contact Megan Pickett at (502) 352-2665 x108 or
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