FAU Digital Library presents the American Civil War Collection in tribute to the 150th anniversary of the war between the States.

Originally characterized as “scarce and very interesting,” FAU Libraries’ featured Conferederate War etchings in the Elliot Cross and James A. Cross Civil War Collection are satirical sketches sympathetic to the Confederacy. The etchings were produced by German born artist Adalbert John Volck (1828–1912), a lifelong Balitmore resident, under the pseudonym V. Blada, an anagram for Adalbert. Volck’s etchings were published in Sketches from the Civil War in North America, 1861, ’62, ’63.

The Cross Collection is named for the late Elliot Cross and son James Cross. James Cross  donated to the FAU Libraries his father’s collection of purchased papers, lithographs and prints, currency, letters and memorabilia.

The etchings depict caricatures and cartoons that summarize the mood of one of America’s bloodiest conflicts. Daily witness to the American Civil War is accounted in rare, original materials held at FAU Libraries’ Special Collections & Archives.