Ancestral Tours of Battlefields and Bonefields

The Photo Detective

Forget the luxuries of early 21st century travel, early 19th century tourists who visited wartime sites usually dealt with bad roads and shoddy lodgings. Instead of the romantic visions of history depicted in paintings and writings, they found sites littered with discarded armaments and bodies of the fallen. Veterans greeted these tourists with reminiscences of their wartime memories.

Historian Thomas Chambers shares how battlefield tourism enabled wealthy educated ancestral travelers to make the connection between place and memory. Instead of going to Europe they took the weeks long American tour to see where history was made. They wanted the real experience of people and places to form their sense of the past. His book, Memories of War: Visiting Battlegrounds and Bonefields in the Early Republic (Cornell 2012, 2018) is a fascinating study of the history of tourism.

Related Episodes:

• Episode 49: Women Patriots with Mary Tedesco
• Episode 46: Benson Lossing, Revolutionary Traveler

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About My Guest:

Thomas A. Chambers joined Canisius College as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences in 2019. He currently serves on the Niagara Frontier State Park, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Commission, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area Board of Directors, and helped lead statewide public history projects related to the War of 1812 Bicentennial and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Path Through History Task Force. In 2016 Chambers was elected to the New York Academy of History. At Niagara University he earned tenure and promotion to Professor in the History Department, and served for periods as NU’s Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, History Department Chair, Graduate Studies Strategic Enrollment Director, Director of the Master’s program in Interdisciplinary Studies, and Director of the Liberal Arts major. He took his Ph.D. and M.A. at the College of William and Mary, and earned his B.A. at Middlebury College. He is The recipient of three National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks in American History and Culture grants.

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogic

I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations.

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