Whose Arlington House?

by Kevin Levin on September 22, 2009 · 2 comments · Follow me on

in Lost Cause, Memory, Public History

Here is another postcard of Arlington House, which is dated 1928.  Notice the similarities with the last image I posted, especially the children positioned in the center.  Postcards are wonderful little cultural artifacts that tell us quite a bit about how a historic site is interpreted/remembered and by whom.  The image of the front of the home cut off from the surrounding landscape of Arlington National Cemetery as well as the slave quarters in the rear of the building evokes a peaceful scene that would be easily recognizable to middle class white Americans.

Arlington House Postcard


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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Mike September 22, 2009 at 10:01 am 1

Nice Postcard of Gen Lee’s home. The post card shows it to be a happy place with children, still it is also a place of sadness since it is located overseeing Arlington National.

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Kevin Levin September 22, 2009 at 12:24 pm 2

It is a nice postcard. I find it interesting that the home is captured w/o any reference to the surrounding landscape or the history of the home as a plantation. Yes, the choices of what to highlight are quite interesting.

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