Augustus Saint Garden’s monument to Colnel Robert Gould Shaw Unknown  (American)

One of the most compelling Civil War stories is that of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volnuteer Infantry. The brigade made up of African-American soldiers who volunteered for the Union Army. Their heroic but futile battle at Fort Wagner was memorialized by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Boston Common in 1897. This photograph was made by the publishing firm Curtis & Cameron in 1897, the year of the monument’s unveiling on Boston Common. In celebration of the monument’s centennial anniversary, the Eakins Press Foundation has produced an edition of one hundred copies of Lay This Laurel, Special Edition. The hand pulled photogravure is by Jon Goodman.