Ah gus tuss saint gaudin. It is called the standing lincoln. We will get back to this. I love this material. I got to tell you, i am so moved by lincoln and by his era and by the art and imagery about him, the photographs of him. I know it sounds creepy, im in love with his body, and well see in photographs of him theres lots to say. By the way, i know im kind of like old and thin and tall, but i do not dress up like Abraham Lincoln. Maybe one day. But, you know, having said that, you know, i realize public history or Performance History or living history is really, really important. Lincoln enactors have an important place in the way we understand history. So if youre interested in that, we have a wonderful scholar, amy tyson, in the History Department whose specialty that is. I used to give lots of talks like this around the state of illinois in the years leading up to lincolns buy centennial, bicentennial of his birth in 2009. He was born in 1809. I found out that illinois is a huge state. It is really long. Remember, we have talked about this. The most southerly part of illinois is further south than the confederate capital of richmond, virginia. So in some ways Southern Illinois has a southern feeling definitely. Im anxious to kind of get going. Before we start really moving through the images, i want to say one thing about the civil war. In fact, all of the images we see reference the civil war in some way. Just the fact we are looking at lincoln images, right . So the civil war was between spring 1861 and spring 1865. It probably killed about 800,000 soldiers, maybe a million all together, and it engendered the bloodiest battles the north American Continent has ever seen with casualty numbers routinely in the tens of thousands for each battle. Now, you might be too young to remember this, but when we took baghdad in 2003 there were three american casualties, which is horrible. Every life counts of course, but the public would no longer stand the kind of casualties and death numbers that they experienced in just about every battle, 20,000, 10,000, 40,000, 50,000 over the course of a few days. Lincoln was nominated for the presidency here in chicago, the new republican party. It was part of our chicago machine to put him in that position, of course it was. We were working overdrive to get him to be the republican nominee, and he inherited, he actually walked into this enormous National Crisis of the civ civil war, which was at base about slavery, about the attitudes to slavery, about its spread, about differing economies, about abolition and about the profound injustice of it. I have to say at this point that africanamericans played a crucial role as agents we talked about this agents in their own freedom as soldiers in the northern armies, as people involved in abolitionist organizations and movements, as members of the underground railroad. By the end of the war and with the passage of the 13th amendment, four million enslaved persons were freed. So thats kind of a little background. We just have to think civil war era when we think images of lincoln obviously, right. By the way, i just well get back to this, but i just wanted to point out, do you remember the statue by George Washington that you memorized for the midterm exam . I might not have mentioned it at the time but his vest is missing a single button. That was thought at the time to show washington was a real every man, that he wasnt concerned with his clothing. Similarly here, the vest is wrinkled. People made a big deal about that, that somehow this captured something of the man, right, that lincoln was unfussy, wasnt fixing himself. He wasnt a dandy, that he was every mans president. So i cant wait to get into some details like this. It is fantastic. To for today some themes and concepts. This is as incredible truism, meaning a ridiculously obvious thing, that images of lincoln reflect the time and circumstances in which they were made. Thats true of everything, right . Weve talked about artworks that all have that quality. We should be able to talk about the culture that produced it and the artists that are behind it. But here the images of lincoln and of the civil war reflect in a really vivid, dramatic way how art was understood and used, and used in particular modern ways which i think is my next point. We will be looking at some photographs of lincoln because photography is relatively new. Photography grew up when lincoln was coming of age. If photography is invented in the late 1830s, lincoln is already in his 20s and couldnt have afforded it had it existed where he was in his 20s. But lincoln is the first extensively photographed president , and so that matters. Hes not the first president american president for which we have a photograph. Hes the first extensively photographed president , and hes also the first president who actually thought it mattered that he had photographs of him. He had the very modern belief that somehow if you wanted to get elected you had to get your face out there, and he was modern enough how, right . How did he know this . To use photography to his advantage, and we will see how he does that. They were extremely modern in their views and uses of media, and not just lincoln but also the Campaign Around him. The people in chicago, and well talk about a print that was made from a photograph because theres no way weve talked about this to publish a photograph until much, much later. So for now in the 1850s, 60s, 70s and into the 1880s, if you want to publish a photograph you have to have a drawing made of it and then a print made of it and then publish that print. They still thought that was remarkable for this age, that that was like so incredibly modern. Like after a photograph that would say at the bottom. So were going to see how those are extremely modern. Primarily were examining images and sculptures made in the north and in the 19th century. I need you to kind of keep that in mind for a lot of reasons because the south was poor, they lacked artists, they lacked ink, they lacked paper. They had a lot of their men, an ino inordinate amount of their men had gone to serve in the military. There simply arent that many images of lincoln. Were going to see one but there just arent as many. In terms of the 19th century, i will give you another dissertation one day about lincoln in the 20th century because he continues to be really important for 20th century art, and maybe into the 21st century, too. By the way, you might have a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on you right now, right . He has the most recognized face besides jesus in the western world. Incidentally, his face is much more recognizable today than it ever was during his own career. In fact, thats true after he died, people really understood what he looked like as a print explosion, a media explosion saturated america. If you have a lincoln penny or a 5 bill, you have an image of lincoln which is amazing to think about. We live with, we know his face, we know the topography of his body and things like that. Finally, when i can i want to show you the works that are from chicago of lincoln because theyre great and theyre really interesting. We can see them, and im working on a project that involves chicago artists, painters, sculptors and photographers from chicago ho who did images of lincoln. Lets see pictures no, before we see pictures i will show you this again when we start to do our final papers. You will be looking at some of these if you do a lincolnrelat lincolnrelated topic. One at the top is an old classic, everything, every statue it seems was covered by bullard who got in trouble early in his life for stealing lincoln letters and artifacts, but then he won pulitzer for reporting on the sacko and vanzetti case, two fish mongers who were accused of anarcharism and executed. I have chosen an older source for him but he keeps writing wonderful things. Kirk savage taught us to be sensitive about race when we look at sculpture of lincoln. Even the images of lincoln that appear to be freeing enslaved persons are problem atic in the relationships they show between lincoln and the enslaved person. So much needed. Finally, anything from the Abraham Lincoln president ial library and museum. Have you all been to springfield . Have you all gone to see springfield . Wonderful, you will make it down there. Im envious that youre from illinois, many of you. I grew up in ohio, and there was a story that lincoln had come to my little small town and that he visited a hotel. I dont know that it is true. I hope it is true. I want to believe that it is true, but it mattered a great deal. It was right down at the end of our alley so we kind of grew up with the presence of lincoln and that was really something. All right. This is as much skin as were going to see Abraham Lincoln showing. This is a wonderful chicago painting. It is in the museum of chicago history museum. We dont know a whole lot about it except it is really big and that it is an oil painting, and it probably was used in the campaign in 1860 to elect lincoln for the republican as the republican nominee. Thats about as much as we know about it. Yeah, right. They had to come up with some sort of i dont know, a way to make all of the manual labor that lincoln had done accessible and to make it popular. So richard ogilsbee who would become a chicago politician and would become a friend of lincoln said rail splitting, rail splitting. He was a rail splitter. This is what we know about lincoln, he is tall, rangy, strong and compassionate and he was athletic, a rail splitter. Everybody split rails in western america, in illinois and what was considered the west at that point. Lincoln i think might have been a little embarrassed. He said yeah, yeah, i split rails, of course i did. They even had little pieces of wood from the rails he had split to kind of show delegates at the convention. They had some logs that maybe he split, but it was all to kind of make him popular for working people or people on the frontier or in the west. His face here is so interesting. I dont know if this comes from a photograph or a print. It is kind of derived from a couple of different photographs and prints, and thats Something Else i would like for you to remember. Artists are using photographs to make images of lincoln. For the first time you dont actually have to go sit with someone and make a portrait of them, although they do do that too. Artists and illustrators can refer to the things that are already out there, and in some sense let me finish this thought thats kind of why so many sculptures of lincoln are so accurate, because there had been photographs. We will also see there was a face mask that was also made here in chicago. By the way, did you think that lincoln might be holding an axe . This is called a mawl, which is a big mallet. The way you split rails is by putting a wedge in a log and then hitting it until the log splits. But, again, i think we always think that lincoln is swinging axes. He did that too, but the rail splitters, they use a mawl, it is called a big mallet. Photographs of lincoln. Let me give you some raw data. Theres 130 different original photographs taken of lincoln. Hes photographed on about 66 different occasions by 36 camera men. Or i know im going to ask you this on the midterm operators. Theyre called operators. Not camera men at this time. You were called an operator if you were a photographer in the 19th century. If you ever find a photograph and, actually, photographs of lincoln come to light a lot actually. You probably in your lifetime will see a couple of new ones, which is astounding. We all go every lincoln person goes crazy when a new if it is even whit perrspered t a new lincoln photograph. If you find one with a beard, hes president. If hes unbearded, hes not president yet. In fact, he starts growing his beard in chicago. The last photograph taken in chicago shows his new beard kind of sprouting and in that photograph he doesnt look very happy. He had a really long day that sunday, but he loved chicago and mary todd and his family loved chicago too. Lincoln loved chicago because the he loved theater and there were wonderful theaters in the loop. Mary todd, his wife, loved chicago for the shopping. Most of that was along lake street. Can you imagine where that is, like along lake street, under the l now. It wasnt until all of the 19th century that the shopping changed to state street north and south. Originally, and this makes perfect sense, doesnt it, commerce grew up along the river, grew up where the boats could unload. So all of the stores, all of the photographers galleries were along lake street, and lincoln was generally i have to say lincoln was a really patient sitter for works of art and for photographs. He was really nice, you know, and accommodating and he wanted things to go well. So he was patient, and so it is not like washington. You remember, we talked about washington after he got to after he after the war. People were coming to mount vernon and knocking on his door. Every artist thought they could make a living if they could get a portrait with George Washington. He didnt care for it. He was bored. His teeth hurt. But lincoln was not that way. On the other hand, lincolns face virtually never did that on the far right or any of these. Mary todd, his wife, teased him that this was his photographers face. You know lincoln loved stories, he was a mimic, he was laughing, smiling, joking, couldnt stop talking at times, but his face was very rarely slack like that. And so thats not the man, you know. If we met lincoln he would not be in fact, you guys have never seen me make this face. Right . Thats not how my face goes. And so if my family saw a photograph like that they would say, god, you know, he was so dad was so strange and his face was so mobile and stuff. Same thing with lincoln. Heres the first photograph we have of lincoln. This came to light late in the 19th century. Actually, ida tarbel, a familiar u. S. Writer journalist got it from Robert Todd Lincoln who lived here in chicago, among other places. He only died in 1926. This shocked everybody because people didnt realize, my gosh, hes so put together. Here hes 37. Hes really wellgroomed. He has a Beautiful House on 8th and jackson street in springfield. How many people have been there . Okay. He has two boys, ambitious, smart, really smart wife, and hes going to be going away to the house of representatives to serve in washington. Again, it kind of startled us because we like to imagine lincoln a little more scruffy and a little more kind of down home with ill fitting clothing that people said, my god, you could see his wrists or his pants are just so incredibly short. That will all end when he gets to washington and when he starts getting his clothes made at Brooks Brothers and tailored, beautiful tailored clothing, right . So photographs can tell us an awful lot. This image, by the way, is how lincoln look when he was debating steven douglas, who was by far the most famous politician in illinois. He was certainly going to be president one day. He never became president. He invited lincoln to debate the issue of slavery, and in seven locations around illinois they met and had these huge outdoor kind of fairs. They were incredibly long. People brought picnics, had fights. It was these incredible battles of argument that were decisive in making lincoln known. He didnt win the seat that he was going for against douglas, douglas won, but suddenly he was a national figure. And if you had seen him at any of those seven places in illinois, this is how he looked. Incidentally, were going to see this thing that stands behind somebody who is having their photograph taken called an immobilizer. It is like a clamp that goes behind you head, and sometimes you can see it in photographs of lincoln. It is not a torture device. It is just if you backed up into it, then your operator knew that you were in focus and it was a kind of minder for your head, right. So lincoln is so tall that he has to have a little bench behind him and then the immobilizer, and here is one foot of it behind him. So theres a kind of a rod that goes up and it makes his collar kind of stand up a little bit. It is in so many of the photographs lincolns tie is crooked, his hair is scruffy, his collar is ajar. So well get back to lincoln and his face and what maladies he might have had a little bit later. In chicago a sculptor, maybe our first professional sculptor in our city and i would love for you guys to know his name. Leonard volk. Leonard volk. Leonard volk asked lincoln if he could have a sitting with volk, if lincoln could come and pose for him, and he saw that lincolns star was rising, saw that lincoln might be the republican nominee and made a deal with lincoln, next time youre in town arguing a case because lincoln would come and argue legal cases can you please stop up in my building which was on clark street, fifth floor, and do the honor of sitting for me. Lincoln said sure. The time came and volk said, sir, you promised. Lincoln always honored his promises. Volk put wet plaster over lincolns face, put two straw in lincolns nose and had to make small talk with lincoln for 45 minutes, 50 minutes. Can you imagine this . Imagine the pressure on an artist, so, you know, have you seen, you know, the booth brothers, the ones playing down on lake street . So youre staying at the Tremont Hotel . Steven douglas stays there too. Because lincolns face is covered in plaster. After about 45 minutes they pride the plaster look. Some of lincolns hairs got pulled out and he started getting teary eyed and they both laughed at that and thought it was kind of funny. But from that volk had almost what you could call a three dimensional photograph of lincolns face. After lincoln won the nomination volk went down to springfield and went to lincolns house and lincoln allowed his hands to be cast. With these volk made a whole industry out of lincolns sculptors, and to my mind is the most accurate, best sculptor of Lincoln Lincoln pieces. Ive seen this online called a death mask. There is no death mask of Abraham Lincoln. Theyve done it for other people, jefferson, washington, the founding fathers, when they could, napoleon. But this is a life mask. So this is lincoln as he actually looked in 1860 1859 from the face and 1960. Here is a volk statue thats made with the help of the mask. You can see how incredibly accurate it is. These are plaster. Volk actually took out a patent. You could actually patent works of art in the 19th century, believe it or not. That would end, but you can you could patent it. He patented his statues of Abraham Lincoln. One time he went to new york. This is volk in manhattan, walked into a shop and he saw like lincoln sculptures and hes like, oh, no. You know, they were like kind of bootlegged versions, copied versions. And so he actually started destroying the statues in new york and the police came and he had to explain, hey, you know, i have a patent for these and these people are ripping off my work, et cetera, et cetera. We had a very famous photographer in prefire chicago, Alexander Hessler who is lincolns great photographer in the early period. This is the first photograph we knew of for a long time before that other photograph surfaced from ida tarbell. We call this the tous willd hair photograph because lincolns hair is so i dont know. My personal feeling is that it is too clean. He cant do anything with it because hes had a bath, he just came from the barber and his hair is probably too needs some product, right . Needs some product to pull this together. So this is the photograph that a print was made i will show it to you in a second for the delegation that was held at a building called the wigwam where the Republican Convention was held. It was down on whacker. Like whacker on the i guess it would be on the south side of the street. It burned almost immediately. Lincoln didnt attend, but the print was made from this photograph because, as i told you, photographs cant be published. But let me just tell you this one story. Lincoln got a big kick out of how he looked in this photograph and he told the story that he heard newsboys selling the print this one. This is the print of the photograph. This is the one that came raining down during the convention in chicago. He said he heard newsboys saying, get your picture of abe lincoln. When elected well haill have a haircut. I dont know if it is true. Probably not. Lincoln loved to joke about his appearance. But, yeah, lincoln got a big kick can out of his appearance. Its so funny, he thought he was so hideous looking. He thought he was really ugly and he said it every chance he got. He joked about his freakish height or about his face. Weve taken him at his word for so long, and finally it took a historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin who wrote team of rivals, that is an incredibly important book, biography of lincoln and his political history. She said on a talk show, and i was struck by this, he wasnt ugly. Hes handsome. Hes unusual and interesting and striking, but hes not ugly. It was like all of us, oh, my god, god, thats right. Hes not. Hes really interesting. I think i multimillionaires have mentioned this. You guys know that tom hanks and related to lincoln, right . Because lincolns mother was nancy hanks who died when lincoln was 9. Tom hanks, im just so proud to remember this, tom hanks is lincolns third cousin five times removed. Dont ask me what removed means. I just know the words, right . Lincolns third cousin five times removed. Which is really cool. You can see the squarish face and the interesting striking cheek bones. Okay. Lincoln goes to new york to make a really important speech, the Cooper Union Speech. This is to introduce him to eastern audiences as a serious candidate for the republican party. Lincoln traveled to new york, he was really nervous. He really studied and worked hard on this speech. And at first when he got up to talk, people kind of winced and felt sorry for him, but, in fact, he started speaking, he started the force and clarity of his arguments made an impression. Who was this guy that had kind of a rural accent . I think the first words out of his mouth, thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman . Really. And so they kind of thought who is this kind of western guy, and, by the way, just to clear up a couple of things about the way lincoln spoke. He did not have, like, the kind of James Earl Jones bass voice that we want him to have, that we expect all our american heros to have. He had a pretty high voice with kind of a southern twang, right . So if you saw the movie lincoln from 2012, spielberg movie lincoln, Daniel Day Lewis nails this voice. Its high and got higher the more he had to project. It got kind of screechy. Stephen douglas, the little giant, he was short, but really elegant. He had this beautiful manner of speaking with all these elegant gestures, perfectly, you know, choreographed kind of gestures. Things he had learned. He had been a teacher. He was a judge. He was a great speaker. And by comparison, lincoln looked untutored and kind of coarse, but, again, it was between his wisdom and the way he could reach his audience, the way he could connect, people were drawn to him. But i found this out, i heard this i think its true. At times during the debates, lincoln had a habit of kind of drawing his voice down low and he would actually kind of start shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, and for emphasis he would leap up and, you know, the volume of his voice would come up and people in the front row would kind of hes 64 and kind of looming over them. He had really robotic unattractive gestures. He was hugely effective but he did not look like the graceful orators of his own moment, right . Anyway, Matthew Brady made this photograph. This is what it might have looked like while they were taking the image. Incidentally, thats an immobilizer on the right, that rod with a clamp. And these days, operators would take the lens off of the im sorry, the cap, the lens cap off and then often use a clock to count out the duration of the shot and then simply put the lens cap back on. Apparently they had a wonderful moment where brady had to go up and kind of adjust lincolns collar and lincoln said, oh, youre shortening my neck, i see, or lengthening my neck, and brady said, yeah, yeah, thats what im doing. They both kind of giggled and laughed. They had a beautiful rapport. For his part, lincoln said the Cooper Union Speech and brady, who is the most popular photograph operator of his day, put lincoln in the white house. What a modern thing to say. Brady, which is to say this photograph that got widely circulated, and the Cooper Union Speech put me in the white house. How could lincoln, again, have known the power of photography . There is brady. He had real trouble with his vision. Today he might be considered legally blind or unable to drive. Can you imagine a photographer with vision, vision problems, right . But, anyway, thats Matthew Brady. He didnt invent photography in america, but hes the henry ford of photography. He made it accessible and popular and elegant. He had a real nose for whose images could be saleable and important. Okay. I want to pass this around. Okay . This is from the illustrious pohlad collection. Its only worth a few dollars. Its something called a cart did i have that up here . Which was invented in the 1850s in france and became wildly popular in the united states. The brady photograph is so people could get these, lots of these. And, in fact, things like this could be distributed when lincoln was running for president. And it really mattered because, again, we didnt have the screens, the computers, the televisions, the social media to constantly show a candidates face. So this is from about 1864, maybe, 65, 67. And it shows lincoln. See if you can read on the bottom whats down here. I think as i explain it, it will make sense to you. Yeah, these cart de vezit were called that because they looked like a visiting cart. Almost like a visiting card. When i say that, i dont want you to think that, like, somebody would show up at someones house and say her is my card here is my cart de visit. They resembled the little card that you would use to make a call on somebody, like, my card would just say mark pohlad and theyd hand to to the master of the house. Ill see if hes in. Wait right here. When these came out they were the size of literally visiting cards that they called them cart de visit. The most importantly thing about those in some ways is now some people could have collections of photographs, albums you had famous actors, the president , your minister, all your family, you had, oh, gosh, tom thumb, you had an image of the siamese twins. This is a stunning irony. Lincoln, in his album, his photo album, had a picture of john wilks booth before the assassination. Lincoln had his own assassin in his own photograph collection before the assassination took place. Thats because, again, you collected everybody and lincoln loved theater. He knew the booths had seen i think all three of them perform at this point. So he had john wilks both in his own cdv cart de visit photo album. Lets go to this. These are actual photographs, by the way, that you could cut and they put in these Little Campaign medals and this shows lincoln, here, again, unbearded just before his presidency. Thats his running mate Hannibal Hamlin of maine, which he didnt choose himself. Candidates didnt do that. They didnt choose their own Vice President s, unbelievably. He met hamlin in chicago in the loop at the Tremont Hotel and they were both tall. I think hamlin came from a town called lincoln, maine, which they giggled about. Both men had already lost a son to illness and so they were quite good friends, got along famously. But just the sheer volume of photographically related merchandise and material relating to lincolns campaign okay, lets get to some political cartoons. This one is really biting, and i should tell you, these arent political cartoons from the south, right . Which had a real grievance. Lincoln is elected seven states from the south secede. He walks to his presidency, walks to the first inauguration knowing that states have already seceded and then within a few weeks the war begins. So his whole presidency is about crisis, about the civil war. So can you understand whats happening here . Mr. Lincoln, give me back my 500,000 sons, meaning the soldiers that have been lost in the war. So this is during the civil war, 1860. This is the darkest hours of the civil war, 1864. And then lincoln, who the artist shows with his legs slung over his chair like hes a countriy y bumpkin for being so inelegant and crude. By the way, that reminds me of a story that was part of his reputation, he was always telling stories and tall tales and jokes, sometimes to a really irritating extent. This is a really good, ferocious political cartoon. And then down on the floor you can see 500,000 more troops lincoln is calling for to keep the draft numbers in the north up so they can be victorious. By the way, columbia is a symbol of america. This is a symbol of america. Here is a political cartoon where lincoln gets the better end of the deal. When lincoln runs for office in 1864, during the war can you imagine this . Running for president again, reelection during a horrifying, nightmarish war. Eventually he wins, but one of the people opposing him is a former general of his, mclellan who was really, really short and loved to kind of groom his troops and drill them and dig in and encamp, but he didnt like to use his troops and he didnt like to fight and eventually lincoln had to relieve him of his duties. So in this case, lincoln says that reminds me of little joke, you know, same line as previous, but now the little joke is general exgeneral mclellan and shes holding a shovel, which refers to his reputation for digging in but not fighting. Now lincolns got the upper hand. A really another smart political cartoon. In the south, they had political cartoons, too, and they made vicious fun out of lincoln when they could, but as i told you, the south lacked artists. Paper, ink, typesetters, that sort of thing, so they didnt produce as Many Political cartoons. The ones they did sometimes suffered. I dont know can you tell that this is supposed to be lincoln . Master lincoln gets a new master Abraham Lincoln gets a new toy, and that refers to a new general that is going to lead them to victory. And on the shelves behind you can see all the generals that havent been successful, mclellan, burnside, mcdowell, banks, scott. These are all older generals that werent able to bring the north to victory. In the south, so what . Master lincoln has a new toy, fighting joe hooker is going to be the new general that takes his turn and eventually hooker is relieved of his command, too. If it wont be until general grant assumes control of all the armies that the north racks up very, very, very bloody victories, but victories nonetheless. Okay. Ill tell you what. Why dont we take a little fiveminute break at this point and come back and look at some sculptures and paintings, okay . All right. Well, were back. Thank you. Thank you for a little breather right there. You know, i was just thinking about how complex this period is and it resists kind of easy conclusions. Even one of the artists i showed you, leonard volk who did the face mask of lincoln, he was a Stephen Douglas man. In fact, he named his son Stephen Douglas volk and he was related to Stephen Douglas because his wife was a cousin of Stephen Douglas. How is it that a Stephen Douglas man gets so close to lincoln and is so much responsible for the way we understand his sculptures . But this whole period is really difficult, subtle and even in art, its just not its not easy sometimes to get our minds around it. So, at any rate, lets get back to some paintings of Abraham Lincoln. This shows the First Reading of the emancipation proclamation before the cabinet. Lincoln has just stopped reading his new idea for the emancipation of enslaved persons. Remember, this would only take effect in the states that were within northern control. So it couldnt free enslaved persons in the states that had seceded. Nevertheless, this was a major effort by the administration. William h. Seward who is sitting on other side of the table, closest to abraham, secretary of state said Something Like, sir, dont you think we should wait for a major victory before we unroll this . Wouldnt that be a good idea . Generally, the artist has arranged the progressives over on this side, edwin stanton, secretary of war, salmon p. Chase, giedion wells, secretary of the navy, edward bates, attorney general. People that had reservations or who werent thinking along the lines of lincoln in relation to the emancipation proclamation. Lincoln said, yeah, this is a good arrangement. In fact, this artist, carpenter, lived in the white house for six months in order to make this painting. He had photographs taken of every person. He had measurements drawn up of the room. Drew the furniture and then produced this painting, which i have to say is kind of, i dont know, kind of muddy. I dont know, he couldnt stop touching it up. So the resulting print, and this is what it might have looked like with Abraham Lincoln looking over the shoulder of carpenter. No pressure. Just abe lincoln looking over watching you paint. We dont know if this actually happened, but carpenter did spend a lot of time with lincoln talking about the war, talking about the conduct of things, and carpenter wrote a book after lincolns death, my six months in the white house. But, anyway, the print that was made from the painting is clearer and better and kind of more its more all the detail is more easily kind of parsed out and seen, right . And so the idea was as weve talked about in class, a painter can make one painting and its unique and it gets sold. In fact, carpenter had the painting bought by the american government. And you can see it in Congress Today in a stairwell. But the print that was made by a publisher after the painting, which means imitating the painting, was meant to sell for 100, 50, 25, 10, and i think thats it. And thats how the artists and a publisher would make real money. In fact, the first person who was a subscriber, and they would approach you with an open book. Maam, here is a painting done by francis carpenter. Here is the suppobscription boo. Would you like to see who asked for a print. The first name was Abraham Lincoln. Ironically he didnt live long enough to get his print because he was assassinated. The print became wildly popular and in some ways think is better than the painting itself. I think im going to go a little further after this. This is a painting known as the peacemakers, which shows a meeting on a river boat, the river queen at city point, virginia, very late in the war where lincoln meets with grant, sherman and admiral porter to talk about the end of the war. And healy, another great chicago artist, made individual portraits of each of them because, again, lincoln had died in 1865 and then those those studies were based on photographs. And the Newbury Library has a wonderful study of lincoln that was incorporated into this painting. And as you can see, the painting exists in the dining room now of the white house. So i just wanted to show you that. Actually, you know whats beautiful about this . Apparently lincoln sat just that way. This is based on real observations. When he crossed his legs, his legs were so long that the opposite leg almost reached the ground. As you can see it does there. And i love this painting also because it shows lincoln doing something that he did really, really well, listening. Listening. And that was his idea about hiring people for his cabinet who were enemies of one another. And sometimes his own adversaries. People that thought they could be a president and should be president. And lincoln, instead of firing them, felt that he could gather them around and hear every side of an issue and find answers by the give and take, the friction of the the real earnest friction of politics. Okay. Lets go here. I just want to stop and point out. We teach the civil war as a boys game, dont we . Too many generals and now im fixated on lincoln a little bit here. We talk about soldiers. We could also be talking about women on the homefront, women in the underground railroad, women who disguised themselves as men, genuinely transgender persons who fought in battle. There is a really famous transgender man from illinois that did that. But also, there were famous women linked to the civil war, years and years, decades afterwards. Here is a photograph of lincoln at gettysburg. He gives thus outrageously famous powerful speech, the most powerful, moving speech in american speech making. In american politics. 272 words. Ten short little sentences. And it changes the nature of the war, why we were fighting it. This man, Edward Everett, you can still see him striking his pose. Hes actually still got his arm doing one of these kind of orders gesture and his face is blurry because hes kind of looking around like this. He spoke for nearly two hours and now its lincolns turn to get up and speak. We believe many people believe this is lincoln after hes already spoken and going back to his seat. So imagine the photographer feels like, okay, Edward Everett who had been president of harvard, he was a professor, he was a former secretary of state. Oh, my god, he was everything. He was this really important he spoke for two hours so certainly i have time to set up my camera for lincoln. But, no, really brief, really powerful, really, really punchy and moving. But here is what i wanted to say, the only reason we have this photograph is because a lie brarian and she said she believed lincoln would be somewhere in here. This is in the 1950s. She actually blew up this photograph, imagined where he might be and found lincoln i think hes hes in here. So, again, historians and people looking hard there is always things to find. There are more things to find. Things are hiding in plane siin sight, but i just wanted to give a shout out to Josephine Cobb for that because otherwise we would have no photograph of lincoln at gettysburg, conceivably his finest moment as leader of the country. All right. Very good. Oh, a couple more works here. Lincoln entering richmond. The moment that he got to play conquering hero. This is when the war is won four days earlier, richmond, the confederate capital falls. Lincoln appears in richmond, and because of some foulups with his arrangements, he ends up simply walking ashore from the riff with his son tad, who was named some people think because lincoln said he was really wiggly when he was little, like a tadpole and others said because he had a big head. He did have a big head, actually. Lincoln and tad simply walked through the streets. There is a moment he gets into a carriage also, but freed africanamerican enslaved persons come out to touch him, to kiss him. Lincoln actually takes off his hat. He shakes hands. He tells people, dont kneel. Dont kneel. His tearyeyed. Its really, really moving. He goes to the he goes to the Confederate White House to Jefferson Davis room and office, sits in davis chair for a few minutes, asks for a glass of water, thinks, reflects, thats it. I mean, imagine, you know, weve talked a lot about napoleon, lincoln could devastate richmond further. He could destroy the Confederate White House. He could he could drag people out and have them hanged as traitors, right . Instead, his style is gentler and more about reconciliation, more humane. Most of the white citizens had the drapes pulled and the blinds they wouldnt go out, of course. They were sullen. Lincoln was only shown in his spectacles once, as he is here. Sometimes hes holding his glasses. This photograph was taken by anthony berger, a very famous operator, right, for betrayed. If you guys ever take my history of photography class, well talk about why bradys operators who were so talented eventually leave him and either start their own businesses or become a different kind of photographer altogether. But in the day, it would just be photographed by brady because it came out of bradys studio, but the camera was really operated by anthony berger. So here is lincoln. And looks like hes reading from a bible. To tad. And, in fact, lincoln worried about that when he saw this photograph. He said, i dont i dont want this to be a species of false pretense, he said. I dont want people to think that this is a bible. And sometimes the illustrations that were made of this photograph made it thicker, made it look like a bible, but after lincoln died, this was reproduced and it made people feel very deeply because it was the first image of lincoln as a father people had seen. Now, heres an example of, like, how the photograph is published. It says photographed by brady. So people seeing this would not think its a photograph, but its the next best thing and its super accurate representation of the photograph. So this is what it looked like when a photograph became a print. And harpers weekly is the most popular illustrated magazine in the north for the duration of the war and in the whole entire period. Lincoln is the first president to be assassinated in office, while in office. It stunned everybody. And i have to say, it was hard for people to grasp. It was really hard for people to grasp, wait, an actor shot lincoln . Yes. One of the booth brothers. The older one . No, no, no, no, the younger one. Edwin booth . I saw him in chicago. Hes great. No, no, no, john wilks booth. Because he was an actor and could pass off and get through security at fords theater, he didnt look out of place, snuck into the president ial box, wait for a big laugh in the play, our american cousin. It was a comedy. Lincoln was having the time of his life because the war ended a few days earlier. He was relaxing with mary todd. We should go to the middle east, 50 id love to see the holy land. They talked about retiring to chicago, they were going to start living after the war. John wilks booth shot lincoln, there was a scuffle, john wilks booth slashed him in the arm with a dagger. Yelled something that some people remember as the south is avenged. Other people remember it as the latin phrase, this is what always happens to tyrants. Thus, this is what always happens to tyrants and then fled out the theater and into the maryland countryside. But it was really hard to grasp. Publishers, and this is one of the most famous currier and ives prints. Publishers were thinking about what they were going to do while lincoln laid dying. This one came out within four days of the assassination. Usually it took weeks to produce a print. Its awkward. The bodies and the heads are mismatched. A little out of shape. Remember, they had to get an image of john wilks booth, find a photograph or another image to make the face. By the way, lincoln wasnt grasping the flag at this moment. He wasnt looking this direction, he was looking down into the audience. It would take a couple of seconds for him to know what was happening and he jumped up. There was a whole body of imagery that shows how dastardly and horrible john wilks booth is, satan tempting booth to the murder of the president. Can you see this . Can you make out whats happening . This image of john wilks booth which comes from a photograph looks pretty stiff, right . Satan is actually talking over his shoulder and pointing with one hand at the open box of the president. And moreover, writing the idea of lincoln of assassination in booths mind. Then with his other claw, pointing to the daringer that booth uses to kill the president. There is a pretty gruesome closeup. Alonso made a painting of people who came to the grooming house. They took pictures of his body. He was still conscious seven hours after the building. Because the bullet lodged behind his eye they took him to a little rooming house. A soldier gave up his room. If ever any of you have ever been here, been to the rooming house, its really tiny. Its like 9 x 14 feet. So really just room for a bed and a nightstand and a chair. But chapel has to include all 47 people that showed up that night. So he had photographs made of everybody. So here is lincoln, mary todd. This is lincolns oldest son, robert todd, who actually posed for a photograph that would then be used for the painting. So, again, i just want to for art in this period, i want to get you out of the idea that its all about emotion, expression. Artists that paint from their souls. Its about business. Its about media. Its about striking while the irons hot, while people are still interested. Isnt this something . Can you imagine that . Your father is assassinated. You go to a Photographers Gallery and then have your portrait taken the way you thought you might have been mourning when you were in that room that is much too small, herald hultzer call the calls it the rubber room. The room just keeps getting bigger as people enter. They have to show everybody that came that night. You know, this is kind of sad. This is henry, the man that jumped up to protect lincoln and got his arm slashed and then had a horrible life afterwards. Really horrible life. He gets pushed all the way to the end. Thats not fair. Heres the print that was made of the painting, same thing as the departmenter painting. And here if you bought one of those prints, you actually got a numbered print that told you everybodys name. Everybodys position. You cant see because this is not a great reproduction but there are numbers above each of the heads that tell you. So imagine if you happened to have been part of this, you would want one, your family would want one, all your friends would want this print because you were there when lincoln passed away at 7 22 on april 15th. And then art and the imagery of lincoln really took off. In fact, look at some of these images. Hes ascending to heaven, met by actually George Washington, which is interesting. Washington is the father of our country, considered the indispensable president in lincolns own period. Now i think we regard lincoln a little higher than washington. Washingtons second to lincoln. But can you imagine these . Arent these strange . Wonderful. To our 21st century eyes, Something Like this is so absurd, right . And yet in the period, people knew exactly what this meant and they wouldnt have criticized the media for being so strange and manipulated. Okay. Heres what i passed out. Heres what i passed around to you, a cart de visit. What does it say down here . Our beloved president. So maybe this cart de visit was in somebodys album and that inscription comes from, well, we dont know where it comes from. We cant be sure but it was somebody who felt strongly about the president and its written not in a ball point pen, but in a steeltipped pen. What is it, carolyn . Thats okay. Everybodys had a chance to see it . Okay. So, yeah, this was in somebodys album. You know, i cant quite tell when its from, but it could be at any point after the death of lincoln. By the way, for this photograph of lincoln, this is so strange, the photographer has combed lincoln hair against the part. This says more about lincoln than it does the photographer, to get the part completely wrong. Wouldnt you Say Something if somebody started combing your hair the wrong direction . And yet, Robert Todd Lincoln said this was the best image of his father. This is the one that most faithfully represented what his father looked like. Can you imagine if youre an artist or a photographer, robert todd is going to live until 1926. So robert todd becomes the authority on every sculpture, every painting, because theyll ask, like, the Lincoln Memorial, the sculpture in washington, sir, what do you think . Does this capture your father . Yes, i think this is magnificent. This really captures his majesty. Robert todd lincoln is a living critic around the imagery of the dead president. Lets do just a little bit more here and then well ill take some questions. John rogers was an inventor in new england and came up with tabletop sculptures that were made of plaster. There is wire there is a wiewire armature in there. I think we might have spoken about these. These were really popular honeymoon and wedding presents and they were like the three dimensional versions of currier and ive presents and several of them involved lincoln. Lincoln looks like hes readying a newspaper here, but, in fact, he was looking at a map. Lincoln was really, really involved in the conduct of the war. This is general grant. So rogers produced this in the thousands and they were about 15 at the time. One thin i liked about rogers painted these gray so you couldnt see the dust that was collecting on them. Isnt that smart . When i heard that, i felt like i wanted to get everything in my apartment painted gray so i wouldnt have to dust. I thought that was kind of really brilliant, i thought. Great strategy. Vinnie ream was a prodigy from madison, wisconsin, actually, and had spent time painting and sculpting images of native americans. She went as an 18yearold to washington and was given a commission to make a lincoln statute. Lincoln was charmed by her. Everybody was charmed by her. Lincoln sat for her. But after his assassination, vinnie ream asked to do a fulllength lincoln and produced this one, which is in statuary hall in the capitol in washington, d. C. 1871. Now this hes holding the emancipation proclamation, and it was only after lincolns death that any imagery of lincoln as the emancipator came about. Lincoln thought he would be most remembered for freeing enslaved persons. He thought that would be his great achievement. It was only until he was assassinated that people could make that imagine having works of art or imagery associated with that accomplishment. So every time you see him holding a scroll, its the emancipation proclamation. Let me get to this work and maybe well finish with this one. This is thomas ball. He was working in italy on i think he had made a little model for a statue of lincoln. And when the organizers of this sculpture saw it and asked if he what it would cost to buy that from him and produce a fulllength sculpture, ball said ill do it just for the cost of materials. Now this statue was paid for entirely by africanamericans. A woman in ohio was heard to say by her employer after the war, id give 5 of my pay for a suitable monument to father abraham, and a minister found that out and made it a reality and they collected only money from africanamericans at first. It took them a great long time. So 1876. Now this is the statue, though, that i was referring to when i talked about an awkwardness. Kirk savage has taught us in his book, standing soldiers, kneeling slaves, whatever it is, its still an image of a white man lording over africanamericans. That makes it kind of complicit in an attitude about enslaved persons. First, that theyre somehow less than human. And to show him nude virtually and still chained does that. But it also suggests that they dont have any agency. That somehow they werent a part of their own emancipation. And let me just read to you a quote that Stephen Douglas spoke at the unveiling of this statue on april 14th, date of lincolns assassination, 1876, the centenial of our country. This is really jarring. He says you and yours, speaks to the audience where the objects of lincolns deepest affection. You are the children of Abraham Lincoln, we, africanamericans, are at best only his stepchildren, children by adoption, children by forces of circumstances and necessity. While Abraham Lincoln saved for you a country, he delivered us from a bondage, one hour of which was worse than ages of the oppression your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose. In other words, the oppression that led to the revolutionary war, americans. So douglas, Frederick Douglas wants people to know that africanamericans still have a difficult time, they still cant claim lincoln and his legacy for their own and hes certainly right, considering what happens in reconstruction and after. So let me just kind of in a few words to conclude here. The way lincoln is portrayed in various media speaks dramatically to the political and cultural experience of the american 19th century and beyond. As compassionate, critical students of history, as Depaul University encourages us to be, its incumbent upon us to understand this vital period and all the players, all the artists and operators, soldiers, enslaved persons, women, children and to understand the various audiences for those images across time. Okay. So thank you, as ever, for your good attention. You see in class on wednesday. Well discuss the cassen reading on the greek slave, as i said, and then next time we go to the art institute, i want to show you some dynamite a couple of great statues by Daniel Chester french who did the colossal Lincoln Memorial im not sure why im doing this. Thats his pose. And, you know what, if its ireally nice fall day, i want to show you the st. Goadens statue, the seated lincoln just a few steps ain grant park. Any questions . Would you like to sea anything . Any questions at all . Time for a couple of questions, anyway. Then i can go back to any of the images. Very good. Well, thank you so much. This weekend, American History tv on cspan. Saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on real america, the failm, saigo, downtown zero. The chance to use the women and children of the area as human shields. Then on sunday, 10 00 a. M. Eastern, interviews from the west point center for oral history with west point graduate and vietnam war helicopter pilot steve darrah. Then the made the major assault into the valley during that timeframe. And that was a major big deal effort. We lost 24 aircraft the first day. 24 helicopters. And the distinct memories that i have of that is a ch47 chinook flying down the valley with fire coming out of the back of his aircraft, his whole aircraft was on fire. And at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on american artifacts,
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