Brooklyn Sanitary Fair, 1864: New England Kitchen

This hand-colored lithograph depicts a domestic scene from a Civil War-era charitable exhibition. Women in period dress gather in a large hall centered around a brick fireplace, where figures in colonial costume demonstrate historical cooking methods. The composition shows the fair's educational purpose: to showcase New England heritage while raising funds for the Union cause. The architectural rendering—with its clerestory windows, exposed timber roof, and segregated viewing areas—documents both the exhibition space and Victorian attitudes toward domestic labor, regional identity, and women's public participation in wartime charitable work.