Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Abraham Lincoln I

CSPAN3 Lectures In History Abraham Lincoln In Art Photographs January 27, 2018

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 Ab

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