A single painting or photograph. His class is about 70 minutes. Do you recognize this . Do you recognize this statue . Were all chicagoans. Im going to shame you a little bit. We should know. Its, like, maybe the best sculpture of lincoln from the 19th century, and its in lincoln park, right behind the chicago history museum. And just like the fact that you have free admission to the art institute, you also have free admission to chicago history museum. Step outside next time and take a look. This is a fantastic sculpture by augustus saintgaudens. Lincoln, the man, or the standing lincoln is what its called. But well 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, photographs of him. I know it sounds creepy. Im in love with his body. And well snow photographs of him, theres lots to say. And by the way, i know im, like, old and thin and tall. I did not dress up like Abraham Lincoln. Maybe one day. But, you know, having said that, you know, i realize public history or perform active history or living history is really, really important. And lincoln and actors have a real 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, her specialty. I used to give lots of talks like this around the state of illinois in the years leading up to lincolns by centennial of his birth in 2009, because he was born in 1809. I found out that illinois is a huge state, really long. Remember, weve 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. So im anxious to kind of get going. So before we start really kind of moving through the images, i want to say one thing about the civil war, and in fact, all of the images we see reference the civil war in some ways. Just the fact that were looking at lincoln images, right . The civil war was between spring 1861 and spring 1865. Probably killed about 800,000 soldiers, maybe a million all together, and it engendered the bloodiest, bloodiest battles in the north american couldnt tent has ever seen with casualty numbers in the routinely tens of thousands for each battle. Now, i dont know 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 floor chicago. The new republican party. And 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 civil war. It was, at base, about slavery, about the attitudes to slavery, about spread, about different economies, about abolition, and about the profound injustice of it. And i have to say, at this point, africanamericans played 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 movements, as members of the underground railroad, and so 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, well get back to this. I just wanted to point out, do you remember the statue by George Washington that you memorized for the midterm exam . I montreal have mentioned it at the time, but his vest is missing a single button. And that was thought it the to show that washington was a real everman, that he wasnt concerned with his clothing. And similarly here, the vest is wrinkled. People made a big deal about that. Somehow this captured something of the man, right, that lincoln was unfussy, wasnt fixing himself, he wasnt a dandy, that he was everymans president. I cant wait to get into some details like this. Fantastic. Ok, for today, some themes and concepts. This is an incredible truism, meaning 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 produce it had and the artists behind it. But here, the images of lincoln and of the civil war reflect a really vivid, dramatic way how art was understood and used and used in particularly modern ways, which i think is my next point. Were going to look at some photographs of lincoln, because photography is relatively new. Photography grew up when lincoln was was coming of age. If photography is invented in the late 1830s, lincoln is already in his 20s. He couldnt have afforded it, had it existed where he was in his 20s. But hes the first extensively photographed president. So that matters. Hes not 9 First 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, . How did i know this . To use photography to his advantage. Were going to see how he does that. They were extremely modern in uses of media, and not just lincoln, but also the Campaign Around him. People in chicago, well talk about some print that was made from a photograph because theres no way that weve talked about this, the public photograph until much, much later. So for now in the 1880s, if you want to publish a photograph, you have to have a drawing made of it and a print made of it, and then publish that print. And they still thought that was remarkable for this age. That was, like, so incredible modern, like after a photograph that would say at the bottom, so were going to see how those were extremely modern, and primarily were examining images and sculptures made in the north and in the 19th century. I need to you 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 an inorder nant amount of men that had gone to serve in the military, and we are there simply arent that many images of lincoln. Were going to see one, but there just arent as many. And then 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, 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. He has the most recognize the face besides jesus in the western world. And 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 kind of saturated america. But yeah, if you have a lincoln penny ar a 5 bill, you have an image of lincoln, which is amazing to think about. We know his face. We know the topography of his body and things like that. I want to show enthuse because theyre great and really interesting and we can see them, and im working on a project that involves chicago artists, painters, sculptures and photographers from chicago who did images of lincoln. Ok, lets smee pictures. Nope, before we see pictures, i will show you this again when we start to do our final papers. You do a lincolnrelated topic, one of the topics is an old classic, everything, every statue it seems was covered by lauriston bullard, who got in trouble early in his life for stealing lincoln all right and lincoln artifacts, but then i won a pulitzer for reporting on the case in 1927, two italian fish mongers who were accused of an arkism and executed. The peterson is brilliant. Harold holzer is the preeminent expert on lincoln imagery, bar none. And ive 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 problematic in the relationships they show between lincoln and the enslaved person. So much needed. And then finally, anything from the Abraham Lincoln president ial line sandrear museum. Have you all been to springfield . Have you all gone to see . Well, wonderful. Youll 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 its true. I hope its true. I want to believe that its true. But it mattered a great deal. It was right at the end of our alley, and so we kind of grew up with the presence of lincoln. And that was really something. So, all right. This is as much skin as were going to see Abraham Lincoln showing. And this is a wonderful chicago painting. s in the museum of chicago history museum. And we dont know a whole lot about it, except that its really big and that its 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, they had to come up with some sort of, i dont know, kind of a way to make all the manual labor that lincoln had done accessible and to make it popular, and so richard oglebee, who would become a really famous chicago politician, great friend of lincoln, said rail splitting. He was a rail splitter. And we know this, dont we . This is what we know about lincoln. Hes tall, rangy, strong, smart, hes compassionate. Oh, and then also, he was athletic and was a rail splitter. Everybody split rails in western america in illinois and what was considered the west at that point. And lincoln 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 that he had plit to kind of show delegates at the convention. They have 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. And his face here is so interesting. I dont know if this comes from a photograph or a print. Its kind of derived from a couple of different photographs and prints, but not Something Else id like you to remember. Artists are using photographs to make their 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 just finish this thought, thats kind of why so many sculptures of lincoln are so accurate, because there had been photographs, and well also see, there was a facemask that was also made here in chicago. By the way, did you think that lincoln might be holding an ax . This is called a mawl, which is a big mallett. 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 actions. Did he that, too, but the rail splitters, they use a mawl, a big mallett. All right, photographs of lincoln. Let me give some raw data. There was 130 different original photographs taken of lincoln. Hes photographed on about 66 different occasions by 36 cameramen, or, i know im going to ask you this on the midterm, operators. Theyre called operators. Not cameramen at this time. You were called an operator if you were a photography in the 19th century. If you ever find a photograph, and actually photographs of lincoln come to light a lot actually, youll 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 its even whispered that theres a new lincoln photograph, if you find one where he has a beard, hes president. If hes unbearded, hes not president yet. In fact, he starts growing his beard in chicago, and we have the last photograph taken of him here in chicago shows his little 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 he loved theater, and there were wonderful theaters in the loop. Mary todd, his wife, loved chicago for the shopping. And most of that was along lake street. Can you imagine where that is, lake street, underneath the l now . It wasnt until the 19th century that all the shopping in chicago changed to state street, north and south. Originally and this makes perfect sense, doesnt it the commerce grew up along the river, grew up where the boats could unload. And so all the stores, all 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 and accommodating, and he wanted things to go well. And so he was patient. And so its not like washington. Do you remember, we talked about washington after he got to after the war, people were coming to mount vernon, 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. That, you know, i mean, 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. 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 in my family saw a photograph like that, theyd 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 a famous writerjournalist got it from robert todd lynn, who lived here in chicago, among other players, only died in 1926, and this shocked everybody. Because people didnt realize, my gosh, hes so put together. Here hes 37. Hes really well groomed. He has a Beautiful House on 8th and jackson street in springfield. How many people have been there . Ok. Hes got two boys, ambitious, smart, really smart wife, and hes going to be going away to the house of representatives to serve in washington. And again, it kind of startled us, because we like to imagine lincoln a little more scruffy and a little more kind of downhome, with illfitting clothing that people said, you know, like, god, you can 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 beautiful tailored clothing, right . So photographs can tell us an awful lot. This image, by the way, is how lincoln looked 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, had huge outdoor kind of fairs. They were incredibly long. People brought picnics, had fights. 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 in any of those seven places in illinois, this is how he looked. Incidentally, were going to see this thing that starts behind somebody whos having their photograph taken. Its called an immobilizer, and its a clamp that goes behind your head. Sometimes you see it in photographs of lincoln. Its its not a torture device. If you backed up into it, then your operator knew that you were in focus, and it was a kind of a minder for your head, right . And so lincoln is so tall that he has to have a little bench behind him, and then the immobilizer, and heres one foot of it, is behind him. So theres kind of a rod that goes up, and it makes his collar kind of stand up a little bit. In so many of the photographs lincolns tie is crooked, his share 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. Ok, in chicago, a sculptor, maybe our first professional sculptor in our city, and i would love for you to know his name, leonard volk. Eonard volk. Leonard volk asked lincoln if he could have a sitting with volk, if championship could come and pose for him, and he saw that lincolns star was rising, saw that lincoln might be the republican nominee, and then made a deal with lincoln. Next time youre in arguing a case, because lincoln would argue legal cases, can you please stop up by any building, which was on clark street, the fifth floor, and do me the honor of sitting for me. And lincoln said sure. Well, then the time came, and volk said, sir, you promised. Lincoln always honorable order his promises, right . Volk 3u9 west plaster over lincolns face, put two straws in lincolns nose, and then had to make small talk with lincoln for like 45 minutes, 50 minutes. Can you imagine this . Like imagine the pressure on an artist, so, you know, have you seen, you know, the booth brothers . One is playing down on lake street. So, youre staying at the treemont hotel . Yeah, Steven Douglas stays there, too. Because lincolns face is covered in plaster. And after about 45 minutes, they pried the plaster loose. Some of lincolns hairs got pulled out, and he got tearyeye and had they both laughed at that, thought it was kind of funny. But from that, volk had almost what you would call a threedimensional photograph of lincolns face. After lincoln won the nomination, volk went down to springfield and went to lincolns house and had and lincoln allowed his hands to be cast, and with these, volk made a whole industry out of lincolns sculptures. And is, to my mind, the most accurate sculptor of lincoln, lincoln pieces. Now, ive seen this online called a death mask. There is no death mask of Abraham Lincoln. They did not do that. Theyve done that for other people, jefferson, washington, founding fathe