Cumberland Valley, from Bridgeport Heights opposite Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

In this scenic view of the Cumberland Valley on the outskirts of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a field is filled with rows of Union army tents as they looked in late spring-summer 1863, a critical stage of the American Civil War. Although all looks calm in this picture, the Union encampment was poised to protect the region, the fertile "bread basket" for the Union side, from the advancing Confederate Army, who had depleted their own supplies in Virginia and in the rest of the South. Harrisburg was a strategic target for other reasons as well: it was near a railroad hub at the Susquehanna River -- a vital route for shipments of troops and supplies between the mid-Alantic and Midwest states of the Union. As also suggested by this print, the Pennsylvania state capital hosted the largest Union training camp for thousands of men, in addition to a vast stockpile of weapons and other military gear. Thus, the Union Army could not risk defeat and Confederate occupation in Harrisburg.

Rather than show military battle, however, the artist Frances Flora Palmer chose to depict the strong Union Army presence as the protector of the region prior to the anticipated Confederate invasion. She based her image on an 1863 photograph of the camp by a photographer named Fred Clark. Undoubtedly, the lithograph was done to appeal to a North American public championing the Union cause. Palmer was one of the most important artists working for the lithography firm of Nathaniel Currier between 1849 and 1868, when she produced approximately 200 of the firm's best landscapes and most engaging scenes of daily life, although it was unusual for women to achieve such prominence in a printing firm.

Nathaniel Currier, who had established his successful New York-based lithography firm in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life. In 1857, expansion led to a partnership with James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), the brother-in-law of Nathaniel's brother Charles; thereafter, the firm was called Currier & Ives. People eagerly acquired Currier & Ives lithographs of rural and city views, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments.