“Tell It with Pride” Exhibition to Mark the 150th Anniversary Year of the Battle of Fort Wagner, National Gallery of Art, September 15, 2013–January 20, 2014

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens Shaw Memorial

Carl J. Cruz, a great-great-grandnephew of Sergeant William H. Carney of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first African American regiment formed in the North during the Civil War, holds the Medal of Honor awarded to Carney for his bravery in the Battle of Fort Wagner, SC, on July 18, 1863. The Medal of Honor, the first awarded to an African American, will be included in the exhibition “Tell It with Pride,” at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, September 15, 2013–January 20, 2014 and at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, February 23–May 26, 2014.

Photograph by Deborah Ziska, National Gallery of Art.

National Gallery of Art
Tell It with Pride

On view from September 15, 2013, through January 20, 2014, Tell It with Pride includes daguerreotype, tintype, and carte de visite portraits of the soldiers and the people who recruited, nursed, taught, and guided them, including Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. Letters, a recruiting poster, and the Medal of Honor awarded to the African American soldier whose actions first earned this distinction Sergeant William H. Carney are also displayed. Works by such 20th- and 21st-century artists as Lewis Hine, Richard Benson, Carrie Mae Weems, and William Earle Williams reflect the continuing importance of the 54th, the Battle of Fort Wagner, and the Shaw Memorial. 

The magisterial Shaw Memorial (1900) by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of 19th-century American sculpture. This monument honors Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first regiments of African American soldiers formed during the Civil War. The 54th fought in the Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863, an event that has been documented and retold in many forms, including the popular movie Glory, released in 1989.

View the full press release and order publicity images at: http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/press/exh/3596.html