Adalbert J. Volck Collection of Etchings, Collection Number M 149, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library,
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va.
Acquisition Information
The collection was purchased by the Department in 1979.
Adalbert J. Volck was born on April 14, 1828 in Augsburg, Bavaria. He studied in Nurnberg and Munich, but was forced to leave
the country in 1848 due to his revolutionary sympathies. Volck came to the United States in 1849 and became caught up in
the gold rush. By 1851, he had enrolled in the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, receiving his D.D.S the following year.
Volck was a charter member of the Maryland State Dental Association and a founder of the Association of Dental Surgeons.
He was instrumental during the Civil War in getting medical supplies to the South.
During the war, Volck made a series of caricatures favorable to the South under the pseudonym of V. Blada. The Confederate
War Etchings, the best known of this series, are in the Volck Collection. After the war, Volck became interested in others
fields of art. Several of his works can be seen here in Richmond, at the Valentine Museum (portrait of Lee) and the Confederate
Museum (shield). Volck died in March, 1912 at the age of 84.
The Volck Collection is comprised of 29 Confederate War Etchings and three folders containing articles about the artist and
his work. Also included is an original first edition of "The Grasshopper", a cantata written by a Virginian, Innes Randolph,
and illustrated by Volck.