Sketchbook of 19 folios, 5 blank, and 12 loose sheets, with Draft Riot scenes, 1860-1880

This collection of thirteen sketches (graphite, and black ink and wash on paper) has been digitized from a small sketchbook in the New-York Historical Society's Museum. Most of these Civil War-era sketches were done by an artist identified only as 'J.H.W.', with other sketches inscribed 'Bart del.' Although there are other subjects in the sketchbook, including New York City street scenes and depictions of various types of people, only those sketches depicting New York during the Civil War at the time of the Draft Riots are included in the digital collection. The Draft Riots of 1863 began when angry laborers took to the street, destroying African American neighborhoods, recruiting offices, and churches, and killing 105 people. They were frustrated by the draft, and especially over the regulation stating that people could buy their way out of the draft for three hundred dollars. The sketchbook may be dated to between 1858 and 1869, since it was purchased from a business listed in New York City directories for that period. It was filled with drawings from the 1860s until approximately the 1880s. Label inside cover: "From / Goupil's / 772 Broadway". Gift of George A. Zabriskie, 1943.