Patriotic ephemera and decorative arts were a popular consumer item during the American Civil War ...

Patriotic ephemera and decorative arts were a popular consumer item during the American Civil War; this illustration comes from a ca. 1863 envelope found in Hagley Library's collection of Civil War patriotic envelopes (Accession 1969.064).

This collection has was digitized in conjunction with Hagley’s exhibit, An Oath of Allegiance to the Republic: the du Ponts and the Civil War and its digital companion exhibit Civil War: Robert Smalls / Soldiers and Powdermen, which takes a look at the lives of everyday people whose names might not be familiar, but whose impact on the story of the du Ponts and the Civil War is significant.

Materials digitized for these exhibits, including this one, also have a home in our Digital Archive's Civil War collections, an online resource that includes a small but significant selection of letters, photographs, pictorial envelopes, and other primary sources from the Hagley Library connected to the Civil War. Many of the items relate to du Pont family members, soldiers who served with them, or powdermen who worked in the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company powder yards during the war.