Looking glass (one of a pair)

1865-1890

Measurements

21-3/4 in x 24-3/4 in x 3-1/2 in

Materials

Gilded gesso on unidentified wood, mirrored glass

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Sally Reese Pryor

Accession Number

2016.19

Inscription

Molded decorations on the frame incorporate the words "HONOR TO THE BRAVE" (top), "UNION" (sides), and “LIBERTY” (bottom).

Provenance

The pair of looking glasses descended to the donor in 1989 from her mother, Harriet C. Reese, and her father, Charles Lee Reese Jr.

Comments

The pair of horizontally oriented rectangular looking glasses exhibits clear visual references to the Civil War and its remembrance.  Molded appliqués on the frame ask the viewer to "honor" the "brave," namely those who fought in the Civil War; it champions "liberty"--an end to slavery--and "union," the survival of the nation.  The back boards and back of the frame have pieces of the October 12, 1861, edition of the Springfield [Massachusetts] Weekly Republican pasted onto them.  The newspaper is symbolic and not an indicator of where and when the looking glasses were made.