This statue . We are all chicagoans. I am going to shame you a little bit, you should know what may be the best sculpture of lincoln from the 19th century, linkin park. Lincoln park. There is free admission there. Aep outside next time, it is amazing sculpture. It is called the standing lincoln. But we will get back to this. I love this material. Hesso moved by lincoln, his error his era. I am in love with his body there are lots of things to say about his photographs. I do not dress up like Abraham Lincoln, even though i am tall and thin my came. Maybe one day. Thatg said that, i realize public history or formative history or living history is really important. Lincoln actors have a wonderful place in history. We have one of them and our history department. I used to give lots of talks like this in the state of illinois leading up to his bicentennial, the bicentennial of the birth of lincoln back of Abraham Lincoln in art andin 2009. He was born in 1809. Illinois is a huge state, and the most southerly part of illinois is further south than of confederacy capital virginia. I am anxious to kind of get going. Before we start moving to the images, one finger about the civil war. All of the images we see reference the civil war in some way. The fact that we are looking at lincoln images, right . Between the spring of 1861 and the spring of 1865, there were maybe one million soldiers killed altogether and it engendered some of the bloodiest battles the American Continent has ever seen, with casualty routinely in the tens of thousands, for each battle area for each battle. Routinely in the tens of thousands, for each battlewhen , there were three american casualties. Which was horrible. Every life counts, of course you read but the public would no longer stand the kind of casualties and death numbers that they experienced in just 20 thousand,attle, 40 thousand, 50,000, over the course of a few days. Lincoln was nominated for a presidency here in chicago, in the republican party. We were working in overdrive here to get him to be the republican nominee, and he inherited, actually walked into this enormous National Crisis of war. Il it was about slavery, about the war. Attitudes to slavery, about its spread, about different economies, about abolition, and about the profound injustice of it. I have to say at this point, African Americans played a crucial role as agents in their own freedom, as soldiers in the as peoplermies, involved in abolitionist organizations and movements, as members of the underground railroad. Passage of the 13th amendment, 4 million and slaved persons were freed. So that is kind of a little background we have to think civil war you are a when we see images of lincoln, obviously. Civil war era. I just wanted to point out, do you remember the proudhon statue by George Washington of George Washington, his vest is missing a single button. It was thought at the time to show that washington was a real everyman, not concerned with his clothing. The same thing here, the vest is wrinkled, people made a big deal about that. This capturing of the man that lincoln was, who was not fixing himself, he was not a dandy. He was everymans president. I cannot wait to get into details like this, fantastic. For today, the themes and concepts. This is a incredible truism, ridiculously obvious. Reflectss of lincoln that time and circumstances in which they were made. We should be able to talk about the posture in which they were produced, and the artists who are behind them. Vivideflect a really dramatic way, how art was understood and used, in modern ways, which is my next point. We will be looking at some photographs of lincoln, because photography is relatively new, and grew up with lincoln, with coming of age. Photography was invented in the late 1830s, when lincoln was already in his 20s. Lincoln is the first extensively photographed president. Not theters, he was First American president of which we have a photograph, but he was the first extensivelyphotographed. He was also the first president to actually thought that it there weret photographs of him. He had a modern belief that if you are going to get elected, you had to get your face out there. How did he know this . Hisse photography to advantage . We will see how he did that. He was extremely modern in his ,se of media, not just lincoln but also the Campaign Around him. People in chicago. We will talk about a print made of a photograph, because there was no way a published photograph was not available until much later. Theow, in the 1850s, 60s, if he wanted to publish a photograph, you had to make a drawing of it, and publish the print. That was remarkable for this age, it was like incredibly modern. After a photograph, it would say at the bottom. How that wassee done. We are also examining images of sculptures made in the north and the 19th century. I need you to keep that in mind. For a lot of reasons, because the south was poor, they lacked artists, ink, paper. Gone to their men, had serve in the military, an inordinate amount. There simply are not that many images of lincoln. Century,of the 19th onther dissertation one day lincoln in the 20th century, i will give you one of those. He continues to be very important for 20th century art. And maybe for the 21st century too. By the way, you might have a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on you, right now. Right . The most one of recognized faces besides jesus in the western world. His face is much more recognizable today than it ever was during his own career. In fact, after he died, people really understood what he looks like. There was a media explosion which saturated america. Have a fiveyou dollar bill or a lincoln penny, that is an image of lincoln, which is amazing to think about. We know his face, the topography of his body, things like that. Finally, i would like to show you the works from chicago of lincoln. They are great and really interesting, and we can see them. I am also working on a project involving chicago artists, painters, sculptors, photographers, who did images of lincoln. I will show you this when we start to do our final papers you will be looking at some of this. If you do a lincolnrelated topics of the every statue it seems, was Lauriston Bullard who won a pulitzer for reporting on the socko and vanzetti case of second one vanzetti vanzetti case. He covered a lot of the lincoln imagery area at peterson also was an expert on lincoln imagery as well, he kept writing wonderful things about it. Kirk savage taught us to be sensitive about race when we look at sculpture of lincoln. Even the images of his which appear to be him freeing enslaved persons are problematic in the relationships that they show between lincoln and the enslaved persons. Much is needed there. Then, anything from the president ial library and museum in springfield, have you all been there . It is wonderful. I am envious that you are from illinois, many of you. There wasin ohio, and a story that lincoln had come to my little small town, visiting the hotel. I dont know that it is true, i hope that it is true. But it mattered a great deal. Right at the end of our alley. We grew up with the presence of lincoln, which was really something. Alrigh, this is a wonderful chicago patient in the. Useum chicago painting we do not know a lot about it except that it is an oil painting and really big. It was probably used in the campaign of 1860, to elect lincoln for the republican nomination. That was as much as we know about it. They had to come up with some a way to make all of the manual labor that lincoln had done, acceptable, and make it popular. Bee, a reallyles famous friend of president lincoln was a real railbetter. We know this about lincoln, he was strong, tall, athletic and his friend was awe know this abe reala railsplitter. For lincoln, it may have been embarrassing for him, that they had little pieces of wood from had split, tohe show delegates at the convention, logs to show that he had split them. To make him popular for working people. People on the front year, or people in the west. Year is so interesting, i do not know whether it comes from a photograph or a print, but it is derived from a couple of different photographs. Something else i would like for you to remember, artists are using photographs to make their images of lincoln. For the first time, you do not actually have to go and sit with someone, to make a portrait of them. Although they do do that. Artists and legislators can refer to these things which are already there. In some sense, that is why so many sculptures of lincoln are very accurate. Because they had been photographs. Facemask made a here in chicago. Way, did you think lincoln might be holding an ax . Ll, a bigalled a mu mallet. You would put a wedge on a log and hit it until the log split. This is how they used to split rails. It was a big mallet. A photograph of lincoln, let me give you some raw data to read there are 130 different original photographs taken of him. This was in 56 different oks occasions by 36 different cameraman. This is a question for the midterm, operators. The recalled operators, not cameraman at this time. You were called an operator if you are a photographer in the 19th century. If you ever find a photograph of , in yourome to light lifetime you will probably see a couple of new ones, which is astounding to read every lincoln person goes crazy when a new photograph, even if there are just whispers that there might be a lincoln photograph. If you find one where he has a beard, he is president. If he is on bearded, he is not resident yet. If you find one where he is not with a beard, that means he was not president yet. In this one, a new beard is sproutingnot area he had had a g day, but he loved chicago. May retard and his family loved chicago as well. Coln loved chicago because mary todd and his family loved chicago as well. His wife, loved chicago for the shopping. Most of that was along lake street. , it was nottreet until the 19th century that all of the shopping in chicago changed to state street, north and south. The commerce grew up along the river, where the both could unload. , thel of the stores photographers, galleries, they were along lake street, and lincoln was generally a patient sitter for works of art. Very accommodating, he wanted things to go well. So he was patient. It is not like washington, you remember, we talked about washington after he got to mount vernon, people would knock on his door. Many artists thought that they could make a living if they had a painting of him. But he would always complain, saying that his teeth hurt, or that he was bored. Lincoln on the other hand, his face never really did that. Mary todd teased him that he had a photographers face. Lincoln loved stories, he was a mimic, he would laugh, smile, would not stop talking at times, but his face was very rarely slack like that. So, that is not the man. You allincoln, have never seen me make this face, right . That is not how my face goes. So, if my family saw a photograph like that, they would say, god, he was so strange area and his face was so mobile. It is the same thing with lincoln. Ofs is a photograph we saw lincoln which came to light late in the 19th century, a famous writer and journalist got it from Robert Todd Lincoln who lived here in chicago, among other places. He died in 1926. The photoshop everybody because people do not realize, my gosh, he has soap together. So put together. He was very well groomed, had a Beautiful House on eighth and jackson street in springfield. How many people have been there . Boys, ambitious, smart, really smart wife, and he would be going to the house of representatives to serve in washington. Again, it was startling because we like to imagine lincoln as clothing,ll fitting people said, you could see his wrists, or his aunts were incredibly short. That all ended when he got to washington, and he started wearing tailored clothing made at brooks brothers. Photographs can tell us an awful lot. This image by the way is how he looked when he was debating Stephen Douglas, by far the most famous politician in illinois. He was certainly going to be president one day, that he never became one. Thenvited lincoln to debate issue of slavery and in seven locations around illinois, he had this huge outdoor stairs. Incredibly long. Had fights, battles and arguments, even picnics, that were decisive in making lincoln known. He did not win the seat he was going for a guest eggless, douglas won, but suddenly he was a national figure. If you had seen him in illinois, this was how he looked. Incredibly, the figure that sees if you stand behind him as he is getting his actor taken, that figure was called a mobilizer. Sometimes you can see it in photographs of lincoln. It is not a torture device, if you backed up into it, then your operator new that you were in focus. It was kind of a minder for your head. So, lincoln was so tall, that he had to have a little bench lined him. Mobilizer was behind him immobilizer was behind him. In a lot of the photographs, lincoln is scruffy, his calle hiscollar is a jar. We will talk about that abnormalities lincolns face may have had, later. Sculptor, may be our first professional scope sculptor,r city was his name. Lincoln, if he could tting, and pose for him. He saw that lincolns star was rising, that he may become the republican nominee. So he told lincoln, the next time lincoln was in town arguing a case, please stop, building on clark street, and dimly be honors do me the honors of sitting for me. Lincoln said, sure. Lincoln always honored his promises. Put wet plaster over lincolns face, put two straws in lincolns nose, then had to make small talk with lincoln for about 4550 minutes. Can you imagine this . The pressure on an artist have you seen the booth brothers . They are playing down on lake street. So, are you staying at the Tremont Hotel . Stephen douglas stays there too lincolns face was covered in plaster. After about 45 minutes, they andd the plaster loose, lincoln started getting tearyeyed. They laughed at that. Volk had ahat, threedimensional photograph almost, of lincolns face. Went to springfield, to lincolns house, and lincoln allowed his hands to be cast. With bees, volk made a whole industry out of lincolns sculptures. He is to my mind, the pieces. Lptor of lincoln i have seen this online, it is called a death mask. There is no death mask of lincoln. They have done that of other people, jefferson, washington, the founding fathers, napoleon. When they could, they would. But this is lincoln as he 1860, 1859,ked in was the face and 1860 was the hands. Withis a volk statue made the help of a mask. You can see how incrediblyaccurate it is. These are plasterers which volk took out, he took out a patent. You could actuallyyou could acts of art in the 19th century. Believe it or not. That ended. He patented batches of lebron lincoln. York, walkedto new into a shop he patented statues of Abraham Lincoln. Once he went into a shop in new york and saw bootlegged copies of his statues, which is where he started destroying the statues in new york. The police came, and he had to explain i have a patent for , and these people are ripping off my work, etc. , etc. We had a very famous fireographer in pre chicago, alexander hessler. This was the first photograph, e weping off my work, knew of in a long time, before the other photographs surfaced from ida tarbell. Lincolns hair in this photograph is my personal feeling is that it is too clean. He could not do anything with it, because he had had a bath. E probably needed some product to put it together. So, this is the photograph that a print was we knew of in a made, i will show t to you in a second, for the delegation held at a building gwam, where the Republican Convention was held. The street, side of it burned almost immediately. But thedid not attend, print was made from this photograph. Photographs cant be published kick out ofot a big how he looked in this photograph, and he told the story, that he heard newsboys selling a print of this photograph. Came raining down during the convention in chicago. And he said that he heard newsboys saying get your picture of lincoln, when elected, he will have a better rcut it may not be true, but lincoln got a big kick out of this appearance. He thought he was hideouslooking. Chanced about it every he got. He joked about his height, his face. We have taken him at his word for so long, and it took a historian, doris kearns goodwin, rivals, aneam of important biography of lincoln she said in a talk show he was not ugly he was handsome. He is unusual, striking, interesting. He is not ugly. And all of us were like, oh, absolutely. He is not ugly at all. Hanksns mother was nancy , who died when lincoln was nine. So tom hanks, was proud to remember this, he is lincolns third cousin, five times removed. Do not ask me what removed means, i just know the word. Lincolns third cousin, five times removed. Which is really cool. They have the square face, really interesting striking cheekbones. So lincoln goes to new york to make a really important speech, the cooper union speech. He is introduced to eastern audiences as a serious candidate for the republican party. Lincoln traveled to new york, really nervous. He had really studied and worked hard on the speech, and at first when he got up to talk, people winced, feeling sorry for him. But in fact, he started speaking. The force and clarity of his arguments made an impression who is this guy with a kind of rural accent . The first words out of his ,uth, thank you mr. Chairman chairman . Really . They thought, who is this midwestern guy . A couple of things about the way he spoke, lincoln did not have this kind of James Earl Jones bass voice that we expect all of our heroes in america to have. He had a light voice with a southern twining. A southern twang. If you have the if you watched the spielberg movie on lincoln, Daniel Day Lewis nailed the voice. Stephen douglas, he was called the little giant, he was short and elegant. Elegant gestures, a beautiful manner of speaking, perfectly gestured elocution. He was a judge, a great speaker. By comparison, lincoln looked untutored and course. Coarse. But between his wisdom and the way that he reached and connected with his audience, people were drawn to him. Times heard this at during the debates, lincoln had a habit of drawing his voice download and start shrinking, shrinking the voice. Then he would suddenly leap up and the volume of his voice would go up, and people in front row would be startled. Because he would be looming over them. But he had sort of robotic and. Nattractive gestures it was hugely effective, but he di