Joseph E. Shadek Civil War Sketchbook

The creator of the sketchbook is Corporal J.E. Shadek of the 8th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, Company A. The sketchbook originally measured 8 ½"L x 6 ½"W. In the winter of 2012 the book was disbound during conservation treatment at the NEDCC in Andover, MA. Conservators cleaned and treated individual pages of the sketchbook and re-housed it in a specially made box for storage. At the same time, the NEDCC photo lab took high quality digital images of the sketchbook for use in exhibitions, photo requests, and collections management.
The book consists of about 55 pages with sketches, newspaper clippings, and paper scraps with orders and passes and was bound by paperboard and leather. There are about 40 sketches, at least half of which are in color. The sketchbook's pages had suffered from staining and warping but these flaws were mitigated through conservation treatment. The title page of Corporal Shadek's sketchbook is typewritten and pasted onto the first page in the book.

The book is a hybrid sketchbook-scrapbook that contains many wonderfully detailed color and monotone watercolor, pen, and pencil depictions of encampment sites, battle scenes, landscapes, and buildings that were witnessed and unofficially recorded by Corporal Shadek during his tour of duty in the Burnside expedition through the Southeast (1861-1862). Each watercolor is carefully labeled with dates and place names so that the sketches themselves provide a chronicle of the Eighth Connecticut Volunteers, Company A's (8CV, Co. A) travels in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.