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elmonoenano t1_izagli3 wrote

I found The Civil War in 50 Objects at a thrift store for cheap and picked it up. It's from the New York Historical Society. It's got a good selection of artifacts. B/c so many people go through New York and b/c NYC has some unique historical events during the period it's an especially good collection to pull objects from. The book is actually printed on pretty high quality paper and the images of the objects are full color and well done. I think I paid $5 for it, which is a total steal. This is a book that'll probably last, with minimal image fading for at least a few decades.

One of the objects that are specific to New York City is a pamphlet with the mayor at that time, Fernando Wood who was famously corrupt even by NYC machine standards, calling for NYC to succeed from the Union and the State of New York, to become a free city. It was apparently a ploy to try and force Lincoln and Congress to grant NYC some kind of benefits in trade. Lincoln immediately shut it down and after Ft. Sumter it was quickly forgotten.

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