Provided the video. Good evening everyone. It is my absolute delight and pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with my good friend and professional colleague harold. Feel free to use the question and answer button at the top of your screen and we will get to as many questions as we can towards the end. To let us turn our attention to some objects that help us describe the civil war. Lets see the cover of the book. Civil war and 50 objects. In the museum realm, particularly the history museum, the art, objects and documents on display have the power to stand in for a larger historical narrative and make so much more than what is structurally defining of that object in itself. Harold, about this book, how did this come about and how effective is it and conveying the narrative of the civil war in 50 objects . It is kind of a tactile history that brings you closer to the lived experience of the civil war. That is what made it so exciting for me, and if you are asking how it happened, it happened because of louise. Louise asked me if i would be interested in doing this kind of a chronicle for publication. She said why dont you come in. I think you were there that first day of the review. She said why dont you come in and i will put some of the objects i have in mind on a few tables in the administrate of offices of the historical society, and what i saw during that first visit literally took my breath away, because we will be discussing these objects over the next four weeks or at least ten of the 50. One of them was a relic of Abraham Lincolns presidency and him in his own hand that i never knew about and i have been 40 years in the field. That is just one of the ways of paying tribute to the kind of boundless trove that the New York Historical society hosts. It was a thrill to see it and i wanted to share the thrill of the actual object for more time with our readers and with members and attendees of the historical society. It was hard to dwindle it down to 50, as a matter of fact. There are so many things to choose from. It was so wonderful. It could have done 100, but the mandate was 50. It was an editing process for sure. It was. I enjoyed editing with you very much. It was wonderful to add it. You are good writer. It was nice to revisit this wonderful project. So tonight we will be looking at two objects in particular. Maybe we could see the images. Yes. A cast of lincolns hand. And a spear like pike. Can we see the pike by itself, please . This first object looks like a spear from the middle ages. What is it, harold . It is a spear, all right, but it is not a severe from the middle ages. It is a weapon that the famous abolitionist, john brown ordered from a blacksmith in connecticut to supply the planned raid he had in mind against the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry virginia, which is now west virginia. Why did he order this kind of a weapon . Because it is kind of ironic and away. As much as john brown believed that slavery was evil, that people of color had a right to live and liberty and pursuit of happiness, he did not harbor illusions about African Americans of the day and their abilities to use modern weapons, which were nonexistent, because even where African Americans were free, they were generally forbidden from using arms for fear that they would mount an insurrection. As john brown planned this incredibly daring raid into western virginia, he ordered dozens of these pikes, because his idea was not only to raid the arsenal, but to arouse African Americans, enslaved African Americans in western virginia at the news of his incursion, to rise up against their owners, and start a slave insurrection. These were the weapons that he thought African People would be using in the most primitive manner to secure their own freedom. They are simply six foot six inch wooden stick pikes about, by the way, the height of Abraham Lincoln. On the end was a buoy net and it was the simplest most ancient weapon when could think of. I do not want to get ahead of the story, but the story is whether they were used. Obviously as we go into the story right. I think we have the image of john brown just so we have a sense of who this person was. This is a famous painting from the New York Historical collection. Its huge. Ten feet high. It is called john browns lets talk a little bit about him. John browns blessing. His efforts were peculiar. How so . He said that in new york city. He said it two months after jon brown was executed. I will talk a little bit about brown and then ill explain a little bit about why he said what he said. John brown was a former leather tan or, like ulysses grant, cattle ranch or who had an epiphany in 1837 when a mob and alternate, illinois, destroyed the Printing Press of a journalist named ally subtle of joy and then killed him in the warehouse where he had hidden his Printing Press. He was not abolitionist that event had an interesting impact on the two people we are going to be speaking about tonight. For Abraham Lincoln, it inspired his very first major public address. It is all in his home in springfield, illinois, where he said this act of violence should inspire reverence for the laws. John brown interpreted it he believed it should inspire reverence for insurrection. He became an abolitionist overnight, and he believed in armed resistance to the struggle, and he devoted the next 22 years of his life to ending slavery with violence if necessary. In the 18 fifties, he and his sons led a band of anti slavery gorillas into kansas, a disputed state which was either going to enter the union as a slave or free state, to frighten pro slavery residents and those coming into add to the pro slavery voting bloc. And conducted battles, burned peoples towns. Meanwhile, the pro slavery people were burning abolitionist towns and destroying newspapers and court houses. He killed so many people in kansas its sort of became bloody kansas on his watch and his initiative. Osawatomie brown named after one of the battles that his armed men fought. Then he retreated back to new york where he was funded by a lot of donors to mount this next insurrection into virginia. So well Abraham Lincoln is debating for the senate, he is part of the political system for sure, and he believes in gradualism to destroy slavery. Brown is still at his armed insurrection crusade, and many famous people donate to the fundraising for this cause. Others . Douglas . We dont know for sure about douglas. We know he was frightened up when the rate came up, he fled to europe to escape prosecution. William lloyd garrison donated 25,000 dollars. The future governor massachusetts, john andrew, donated money. He marched to maryland with his sons and a band of 18 people with his spears. And in october 1859, a surprise attack against the old arsenal in Harpers Ferry which is still there, overpowered the guard, took over the arsenal, and from there everything went wrong. Plantation owners surrounded him on the hills around the arsenal which sits on the confluence of several rivers. It is pretty vulnerable and a crazy place to build an arsenal. But there were 100,000 weapons. There it was an inviting target. Eventually, as history tells us, he was taken prisoner. There was a fascinating cast of characters, and i was reading this essay again, that participated in the raid of Harpers Ferry. Robert e. Lee, jeb stewart, they showed up in the story. How did it unfold with them and ultimately what happened to brown . It was considered an act of treason by the governor of virginia even though it was federal property, so he immediately called out the marines, and the commander of the marine regiment that marched on Harpers Ferry to get john brown out of their, and arrest or kill him, was colonel robert easily. Not the lee we know about who had the luxury and beard that john brown had, but a very handsome he was supposed to be the handsomest officer in the army with the luxury and black mustache, and he, at one point dispatched one of his officers to walk up to the arsenal and a demand that john brown surrender or be taken dead or alive, and the person he dispatched to do that was jeb stewart who would be one of his generals and the Confederate Army in just two or three years from that. Point brown refused to surrender. The marines stormed the arsenal. Another of brown sons was killed in the raid. Brown was nearly killed. He was struck with a sword but he lived. He was put on trial very quickly. By december, he had been convicted and he was hanged in charleston, virginia, just a few miles away from Harpers Ferry. Diane the painting that we looked at a minute ago by noble, who grew up on a plantation, by the way, was radicalizing against slavery himself. It shows a moment and a legend that has some truth and it, and that is that brown, as he was marching down the courthouse steps toward the gallows with a jeering mob, and some sympathetic African Americans outside, saw a woman with a baby, and the woman held her child up for a blessing, and brown put his hand on the babies head as if to bless the child, and this moment of kind of nobility and courage became instantaneously a legend, and was quickly immortalized by this former slave owning painter who would also become very, very anti slavery. By the way, talking about the continuing coincidences. Abraham lincoln was in kansas the side of john browns original rates when the news came that he was executed. Lincoln gave a speech and live in north and which he said john brown was executed, he committed treason and there is no other recourse, that let this be a lesson to any Southern State that contemplates treason against the union in the future. They will be dealt with exactly in the same way. Then when he comes to new york, just a few months later in february, to give the cooper union address, his Harpers Ferry, it would thrust him international fame. He says what val, you said earlier, was that john browns case was a peculiar one. What he wanted to convey by that, and by peculiar he means unique, not strange. He wants people to understand that anti slavery men are not all violent. They are not all willing to start an armed rebellion. He wants people to know that there is a way of putting slavery, as he puts it that night, on the course of ultimate extinction without violence. As we know, that was not what the future held, that he wanted to separate the Republican Party from john brown foreshore. Let us see the pike one last time again. And before we move on to our foreign object. Just looking at this life again, explain how these weapons were used. This little life at the end of a stick. How the handful of African Americans joined the raid, they werent really instructed on how to use them, would you explain . I am assuming the you hold it javelin style and you throw it or you use it on your hand to thrust against your enemies. The fact is as you point out, they were never used and irony piles upon irony when the African Americans who are part of the john brown Raiding Party saw these weapons, they had no clue. They had never been to the movies, theyve never seen racist interpretations of native people using spears. So they had no. Close by that time, brown had changed them in the east of rifles. The capable of African Americans were not capable of using modern weaponry would be dispelled within four years when africans joined the union army and fought for their own freedom. They had no clue. And neither do i when it comes right down to it. It is a fascinating object. Its a thrill to see it. By the way, 1000 of these made. The New York Historical society, and theyre all numbered, we have number 1 01 which is pretty good in the limited edition scheme of things. You conclude your essay in the book saying john brown had not managed to launch a modern revolution misfire spears. Lets move on to our next object this evening. This is a cast,. Here is the gargantuan head of the rail splitter champion wrestler and debater who didnt use his hands while he was just trying because look like he was swatting bees as he said. Course if you also want to romanticize that hand clutch deep gettysburg addressed in the second inaugural. Tell us a bit about how these cats were made. Harold. Starts with the sculpture not to wellknown today. Let mueller wills volker who is interestingly a cousin by marriage of stephen a douglas, lincolns lifelong rival in politics. Vogue was a nonpartisan artist and after seeing Abraham Lincoln conduct a trial in chicago in 1860. Youve actually seen in the Lincoln Douglas debates wall when he was a douglas ruder. Lincoln came to his studio in chicago in march of 1860 to have a light mask made. This was a tool sculptures of the period made if they werent going to enjoy repeated seedings. Lincoln was a trial lawyer at the time on a case so he submitted to this very difficult life mask process. Hardening on his face wall had straws in his nose to breathe. And when it came time to take it off, vogue couldnt get it off and lincoln took those massive hands and tugged and vogue remembered it brought tears to lincolns eyes because it pulled the hears out of the temples. He did not remember it with amusement. He did come back and then paul came back and posed for the bust a bit. He would come from court, he would take off his jacket, he would take off his shirt and would vote to pull down his union suit. I guess he was wearing a long underwear. So he took off as long underwear topping tighter in front of him and he was pretty embarrassed about it because when the sitting was over. He dressed very quickly in hurry down the stairs. Someone stopped him on the street and said, excuse me sir, excuse me tall sir, but your sleeves of your underwear seem to be dragging behind you. So we had to go back up to the studio. Vogue told the story. He completed this bus just neck up. I have a little copy of, it i hope people can see it, its over my shoulder. That white plaster was a copy the original boss. Lincoln liked it. There is the animal himself, he said when he saw. Then a couple of months later lincoln was nominated for president. Will vote realized he had something going on here. He just didnt have to do a small boss to put in the store window in chicago with his other work. So he got on a train the day that lincoln was nominated in chicago. Lincoln was not there he was home tradition of the day. Yet he got to like and sometime of springfield a day after the nomination. He said now id like to cast your hands as well because you are a National Figure now id like to make a full length statue of you as i have done of my cousin Stephen Douglas who you just defeated. He financed my rti education in rome but youre the man. Lets just look at a picture of lincoln. Can we just throw that up on the screen . So photograph of the animal himself. By the way, whatever the caption says, its 1864, its not 1865. Thats from our collection. laughs you say in your essay that lincoln realized that in order to be taken seriously as a statesman, he needed to subject himself to make himself more readily available to painter, sculptures an artist. Why is . That he had been photographed from time to time. Obviously when that picture was taken he was already one of the most photographed men in the country. What a great choice because it shows those hands that they look when he was in repose. Photographs were fine, they were becoming popular, because they could be reproduced by 1860 and 61 and be circulated to increase a persons recognition caution. We have paintings and statues were for famous people. Lincoln had been a congressman, he got into washington. Its seen a statue of George Washington outside of the capital. Even though it was something of a national joke and was later relegated to the smithsonian, he had seen the statue of jefferson at receptions. Thats also gone. Thats what famous men inspired. I think folk was the first but there were other sculptures who followed an artists who is available for sittings even though he never sat still the way George Washington did for gilbert stewart. He made himself, never said no, ive only feel a few examples over the next few five years. By the way, when vocal arrived on may 19 1860, lincoln was not in the best condition to have that kind of thing done. Lets to see the hand again. See that image again . Please . He had hosted a reception at his home after winning the nomination and he had shaken thousands of hands to the point where his hand had swelled up. You can see that there are no veins on the back of the hand because the hand was puffy. Volker said to lincoln, this casting was done at his home in springfield. Volker said to mr. Lincoln do have an object you can. Hold like an excuse themselves and the next thing he heard was song coming from lincolns privy and shed. When lincoln came back, he was holding the end of a stick. He had cut the handle off a broom he explained and now he was wiggling it and volker said, mr. Lincoln you dont have to do that because im not gonna use the stick in the final sculpture. Lincoln said all i wanted to have it nice and thats the cast of the right hand it is shaken so many hands that it swollen. Apparently, that was something that happened to lincoln because we know at just three years later, his hand was so swollen from handshaking at a new years reception at the white housefp Richard Nixon grew a moustached during a debate, Abraham Lincolns hand swelled. We have a couple more minutes just between ourselves before we open up to cuban a. I just wanted to ask you one more thing. If we can see the slide of the seeded lincoln image . This is Daniel Chester french. We have the mall cat of the head, the life seismic out of the head for the lincoln memorial. The very famous scu