The War—Making Havelocks for the Volunteers

The War—Making Havelocks for the Volunteers is a significant wood engraving on paper created by Winslow Homer in 1861, published by the illustrated American journal Harper's Weekly. Executed early in the Civil War, this striking print classification demonstrates Homer’s initial role as a journalistic illustrator, documenting the rapid shift in civilian life and the immediate preparations for conflict across the United States. Homer’s facility with the demanding medium of wood engraving ensured that detailed imagery of the unfolding crisis could be rapidly distributed to a public hungry for news and visual reports from both the home front and the military encampments.

The piece depicts women engaged in domestic production, diligently sewing havelocks—linen covers designed to protect Union volunteers from heat and sun exposure during their service. This quiet scene captures the immense civilian effort integral to the war mobilization and the intense patriotic fervor that swept the North during the spring and summer of 1861. Unlike Homer’s later, darker depictions of battlefield realities, this work focuses on the unseen labor and the psychological landscape of anticipation, highlighting the support structure vital to the deployed troops.

This historical work is securely held within the esteemed collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a key early illustration by Homer, who would become a central figure in American art history, the print The War—Making Havelocks for the Volunteers provides critical insight into the visual journalism of the mid-19th century. Due to its age and importance, high-resolution digital versions of this work are often classified in the public domain, ensuring global access for scholars and art enthusiasts wishing to study these formative prints.