JUANITA LEISCH JENSEN
Juanita Leisch Jensen has spent fifty years of her life studying the lives, roles, and material culture of civilians in the Civil War, participating in Civil War reenactments, costume competitions, and living history events. She trained in the study of American Material Culture, and became an avid collector of clothing, artifacts, photographs, and personal accounts related to civilians and the Civil War.
She created a database of clothing characteristics observed in thousands of Civil War photographs, analyzing the “norm” of most common styles, and identifying age-based variants most worn by younger and older women. She published her analysis in a book titled , Who Wore What: which remained in print for more than fifteen years. She then focused on amassing a collection of original garments and has recently been working with Emily Lapisardi on a project to transform Who Wore What from a book illustrated with photographs to a series of videos illustrated with original garments.
In addition to clothing studies, Juanita has researched civilian roles and lives in the Civil War, publishing an overview of her research in a book titled An Introduction to Civil War Civilians. She has shared her knowledge and artifacts by guest- curating exhibits at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg and the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia, and has received numerous awards for educational exhibits at militaria shows. She is a past president of the Society for Women and the Civil War and is a member of the Company of Military Historians, which honored her by naming her a ‘Fellow’; an honor awarded to fewer than six women in the last half-century.
Juanita and her husband, military historian Les Jensen, split their time between homes in the Hudson Valley of NY and the Shenandoah Valley of VA.
She created a database of clothing characteristics observed in thousands of Civil War photographs, analyzing the “norm” of most common styles, and identifying age-based variants most worn by younger and older women. She published her analysis in a book titled , Who Wore What: which remained in print for more than fifteen years. She then focused on amassing a collection of original garments and has recently been working with Emily Lapisardi on a project to transform Who Wore What from a book illustrated with photographs to a series of videos illustrated with original garments.
In addition to clothing studies, Juanita has researched civilian roles and lives in the Civil War, publishing an overview of her research in a book titled An Introduction to Civil War Civilians. She has shared her knowledge and artifacts by guest- curating exhibits at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg and the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia, and has received numerous awards for educational exhibits at militaria shows. She is a past president of the Society for Women and the Civil War and is a member of the Company of Military Historians, which honored her by naming her a ‘Fellow’; an honor awarded to fewer than six women in the last half-century.
Juanita and her husband, military historian Les Jensen, split their time between homes in the Hudson Valley of NY and the Shenandoah Valley of VA.