examples and discusses her influences and reasons for painting lincoln. she concludes the program by discussing a summer-long daily tribute to veterans held at gettysburg national cemetery. the lincoln group of the district of columbia hosted this event. >> our speaker tonight is wendy allen. i think most people in the room probably know who wendy allen is, but for those who do not, she is an artist. did her first painting abraham lincoln in 1983. and since then, she has focused on abraham lincoln as her subject and has made many, many paintings in different styles that she will talk about. she also has been very active being interviewed by cnn and had her paintings in the historical society along with some other people you might have heard of. salvador dali. he was there, too. and norman rockwell. certainly in very good company, and so were they. in addition to all of this, she lives in gettysburg and has a gallery up there. she is also very active with the fellowship of pennsylvania where she is on the board and vice president of the fellowship of pennsylvania. she is also very active in the lincoln forum. a lot of us went to the lincoln forum last year. i think we had a record turnout for the lincoln group going to the lincoln form. we are going to try to beat that record this year in november. wendy is involved in all of those. tonight, she is going to talk and maybelincoln art a little bit more than that. plus, i think at the end, we will talk about the lincoln scholarship and her "100 nights of taps," which is a program she runs in pennsylvania. please welcome wendy allen. [applause] >> before i begin, i would like to thank david. i made his life miserable. thank you for your patience. it is an honor to be here extreme honor, so thank you for welcoming me to your event tonight. it is going to be multi-media. i hope you enjoy it. [video clip] >> ♪ >> ♪ wendy allen: several years ago, the renowned lincoln scholar contributed an essay to the book on lincoln and his world. in it, i found this extraordinary nugget concerning a particular photo session lincoln sat for for alexander gardner's studio in washington on november 8, 1863. it reads, "gardner had traditionally received the credit for these masterpieces." and those were the five pieces you just saw. " because few have recognized or understood the sculptor's role in sending lincoln to the gallery imposing for the portraits. sarah fisher ames received none of the credit she deserved. he also wrote in a magazine that then 1989 masterpieces he is talking about included what most people now agree is the most iconic photo of abraham lincoln ever taken. the famous photo we now call "the gettysburg portrait," so-called because it was taken 10 or 11 days before he left to dedicate the new national cemetery. when i read this, my heart nearly jumped out of my body because i thought another woman, another artist, sat close to lincoln wanting to and working to capture that iconic face. i guess you could say i had been starving for another woman's voice. tot i would not have given be a fly on the wall in that studio that day. but let me be clear. i'm not out to diminish alexander gardner's genius in any way. but i feel strongly i must throw a little spotlight on the almost forgotten bit of history. but not quite, thanks to harold, and how this of your woman artist was responsible for one of the greatest, most iconic photos, not just of lincoln, but in the history of photography. who was sarah fisher ames? she was a sculptor born in delaware in 1817 and became part of the elite art and social rome,s of boston, washington, d.c. in 1845, she married a portrait artist and they left the states to go to rome. in the mid-1800s, it was considered the our capital of the world. paris did not inherit that title until later. another reason for going to rome was women had far more artistic freedom there than they did in the states. in rome, she studied ancient and renaissance art and got to know other american artists who were there working and studying. sarah and joseph came back to the states sometime in the late 1850's and settled in boston. but when the war began, sarah volunteered as a nurse with the sanitary commission and she and her husband moved to washington. by some accounts in 1862, she was put in charge of cleaning up the u.s. capitol building. this is kind of fuzzy, but this is thought that this is where she was. it was turned into a union hospital along with other government buildings. went onwhen congress recess, the soldiers moved into the building and trashed it, especially the offices of the former southern congressme announcern. when sarah started mucking out preciousing, she found meat that had been left rotting. some scholars think this is probably where sarah met and perhaps became friends with president lincoln who was a regular visitor to the d.c. hospitals. while she gave a lot of time to the war effort, she was still a working artist and at some point tried to persuade the president to sit for her so she could create a bust from life. but lincoln was too busy. he did not have time to sit for the sculpture. he also thought she wanted to do a very classical portrait, and he felt it was not a good idea artist a woman sculpture watching him probably not having clothing on top, so that was not a proper way to interact. so, he agreed to have a series of photographs, portraits taken of him at alexander gardner's studio. 8, 1863, lincoln's private secretary and assistant escorted mrs. ames to gardner's studio. president lincoln soon arrived after them. their two conflicting stories. noaa brooks describes being there that day. he gets the date wrong. a lot of people, including myself, i do not believe he was there. he was recollecting much later than the time. he says lincoln was sitting there. there is an envelope. he says that is everett's copy of the gettysburg address. 1863, that point in everett was still working on the speech. i do not think noah brooks was there. there is nothing in the diary to suggest he was there, although brooks does say he was there. anyway. late --and john nick john haze diary. lincoln and john arrive soon after them. five photographs of lincoln were taken during the summer sitting. two of the photographs were paid for by mrs. ames. by paid for, i believe she retained copyright to the two images. a little different in those days. she also -- the copyright to both. lincoln gettysburg was hers. it is often discussed as the first great modern photographic i believe the photo was taken under strict direction of mrs. ames forgetting exact facial measurements. she did not have the right measurements. you know lincoln's face page she wanted exacting measurements of that face. she asked gardner to shoot this very close photograph. i was just reading today about how gardner probably did not even realize how great the photograph he had was until someone had a tight crop of that beautiful photograph. photographed deep down his chest for mrs. ames to get the chest dimensions as well. p street of photographs, sarah fisher ames went on to produce small-scale ands crudely modeled intended for purchase by middle-class collectors. abraham lincoln was intrigued by that. before election time if people had the sculpture in their houses, it might help his campaigning. this is what she produced. they were produced in europe and sold for between five dollars and $10 apiece big i believe harold just sold his. he had one in his collection he recently sold. they were a hit. ames acquired substantial notoriety and got more commissions. artist and paint abraham lincoln. the winters of 1978 and 1979 in connecticut or two of the worst winters i can remember. and my car was broken down. with little cash and hopes of a new beginning, i drove to california. i wonder for older sister who is here today took me in. i found a job in about a month. i found a little studio apartment in mountain view, california, that right now is about a quarter-mile from google. . did not have any experience in design or publishing, but they gave me a chance. i was working with some incredibly interesting, talented artists. they opened my eyes to the art world. i have never had an art class. i was really intrigued by everything they were doing. incrediblylso vibrant arts scene going on in san francisco at the time. i was motivated so i went out and bought canvases and oil paint and created some really bad art. my paintings were awful. i had never painted or had an art class and i really did not know what i was doing at all. the first attended civil war institute at gettysburg college with the renowned lincoln scholar and historian. there were about 20 of us. we had a blast. it was really fun. going to the institute rekindled my love for lincoln as well as awakening me to the fundamental issue of his having with modern and postmodern art, and that is that it lacked representation of history. i returned to the bay area area and painted my first lincoln. but an artist must innovate. obstructwned expressionist once wrote that if the artist did not desire to change all art, you would never get past his love for the artist who first inspired him and be able to paint his own pictures. she is finally getting recognition for her fantastic work rate she was friends with would go downnd wha during the bay of pigs. she painted him live during this crisis. her on hisrking with portraits. they just had a show about a year ago in washington. i don't know if anybody saw it, but it was an incredible show. they had this piece and it was incredible. i think she is just marvelous. go2009, i had the chance to they curatere contemporary works of western art from around the world. i love modern art. but again, what bothers me about modern art and postmodern art is it really lacks history. it seemed to me as if contemporary artists had intentionally turned its back on history. i wondered how they could ignore the most important attribute that differentiates us from all over living species on this earth, our great and grand sense of history. at the same time, i started to closely study other painters' work. i knew i had a lot of catching up to do on my learning curve. there is a handful of artists that inspired my work, inspires me to paint. the first one was wayne tebow. he was in san francisco. his painting applications and use of color are staggeringly beautiful. that is one of my lincolns mimicking his style. i look at the paintings to see how they work and then i apply it to what i want to do. another one was another west coast painter, nathan oliveira. he recently passed away two years ago. time flies. his human figures feel transparent to me and beautiful. this is work i have done based on his style. and then there is ellen mcgee -- allen mcgee. he lives and works in maine. he is an excellent illustrator. he also does paintings of rocks. they are gigantic, enormous canvases about the size of half that wall divided into them. and all he does are these paintings of rocks. every painting is the same. and sawaw he had a show seekhow, i was like, wow, and stick with one subject and do it over and over again. i love that concept. i got a lot of strength there. let me see. see the repetition of the same subject for me was very inspiring. and of course, there is andy warhol. andy warhol. he is from pittsburgh and so am i. he loved to work with other painters and i love his sense of pop style, and i incorporate that as well. painter -- labor favorite painter, vincent van gogh. that is a new van gogh they have decided after five years is his work. it is in amsterdam. it is from when he was in the asylum. it is a new story that broke today, fascinating story. a lincoln based on van gogh. i am completely mesmerized with the female obstruct expressionists -- obstruct expressionists --abstract expressionists. paintingsn find her all over. michael westbrook, her name was but she changed it because she felt she would have a better chance to present debate if she had a masculine name. her works are amazing. people don't know much about her. she is a real innovator. really fun. her work is amazing. and that is my lincoln. i wonder how many people here know janet sobel. she is from reclaim -- your -- ukraine. she came to the states in the 1940's. she was a painter, housewife, mom. she had five children, i think five boys. and she started painting with the kids. her son had a paint set, and she started painting with his paint set. what she does is -- here is janet. she starts splattering paint. the date on that painting is 1945. well, peggy guggenheim discovered her, actually her son gets peggy guggenheim to her house. she paints in her living room. she then offers janet a show. janet's english is not that good. but peggy guggenheim who has a gallery is mesmerized by her work. so she has a show in new york city. you will never believe who comes to her show but jackson pollack. lincolns basedmy on her style of drip painting. here are the two paintings side-by-side. janet sobel's painting in 1945. jackson pollack's first official drip painting is in 1947. he never gives her any credit. awayecomes ill and moves to retirement. she does beautiful splatter paintings. he never really mentions her or gives her credit as an influence. i don't want to take anything away from jackson pollack. i do not think he invented the splatter painting. i think janet sobel invented the splatter painting. but he certainly borrowed it and applied it beautifully. he also was the supreme model of young, masculine strength in the the countryng make the transition between world war ii and the 1960's. he was exciting. people loved him. he was a real character. that is when he became a must as important as his paintings. but it is interesting. the san diego museum of art has this little janet sobel painting on display now. they claim that is the first splatter painting. they are very adamant about it and excited they have a painting. it is a little painting, about this big. it is getting of abstract expressionism. they are very excited about that. another, of course, influence, getting back to sarah fisher ames and one of the most iconic photos ever taken. the artist must soul search, and i do all the time. one of my most favorite authors is dr. richard selzer. he was a surgeon in new haven, practiced at yale. he is a marvelous writer. he writes wonderful essays. , he series of essays concludes the human soul -- and i love this -- that the human soul resides in its wounds. he said whenever he performed surgery on someone and watched them heal, he knew wherever he helped the patient overcome their wounds was where the human soul was, that persistent search for life. he says the soul is shaped by the wounds it works to overcome. i love that. i apply that to searching for america's soul. in hisng to dr. galzo fatherse founding established principles of liberty and democracy that were interpreted differently in the north and south. didhe north, these foster believe in free labor and growing mistrust in human vonage. in the south, they produced a dedication to states right and defensive posture on slavery. census,g to the 1860 there were over 4 million enslaved humans in america. andromise was impossible, the civil war began. according to the civil war trust, union and confederate onces collided in gettysburg july 1, 2, 3. engaged in the battle in the small pennsylvania town. labor including up to 30,000 slaves were forced to serve the 70 army -- southern army. 790 captured or missing. of the wounded, approximately deaths inruesome impromptu hospitals over the next few months. when the battle ended and the surviving soldiers retreated, the field grounds of gettysburg were incomplete this relation -- in complete desolation. a nurse who arrived in gettysburg from upstate new york and found wounded men lying in the streets and feared walking around them as she passed by. they lay like trees uprooted by a tornado as their lives ebbed away. she was very young and tough. there are great accounts of arguments with doctors and so on. she held her ground. she was very tough. she was in her late 20's. i visited the battleground on several occasions. and for the first time soon after the conflict when the lay on every hand, i had grown familiar with death. that is a picture of her. i had grown familiar with death so closeshape, yet g at it touched me hunvv sleeve of army blue and i could not help but feel him moment of shudder. giant as it thrown by a hand in their battered and decaying condition. freshly turned earth denoted the pits. lifted up ass were a pleading to be finding a earth to keep them from the glare of the date. a deep wound. november 18, 1863, president lincoln arrived in gettysburg to make a few appropriate remarks dedication of the newly opened national cemetery the next day. i'm going to make my own case for lincoln. location ofe exact america's soul can be found in gettysburg. i believe that america's soul of theined by the wounds civil war, was born at the precise moment lincoln concluded his gettysburg address on november 19, 1863. the strength and character of his words, shaped the horrific battle -- by the horrific battles, ignobled the nation's sacrifice and make sure our sacred charters of freedom. ,he declaration of independence the constitution. and forever changed the course of american history and world history. so, why do i obsessively paint abraham lincoln? because i am painting the exact location of america's soul. [video clip] resolve this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> thank you. [applause] wendy: before i begin the second anybodymy talk, does have any questions they would -- yeah?sk, or portraitsy lincoln have you painted? are like- wendy: they my children. i don't put them up for sale. i didn't have a favorite until a few years ago when i painted a very large canvas, that is now in a building you can see it from the square in gettysburg. the corporation that is bought -- that is there bought the painting. that is one of my favorites, because it was very fast, very free-flowing. i love the colors. i'm very happy with that painting. how many paintings? probably close to 400 now. i do school visits. [laughter] >> i just wondered how they react, and any stories you might have of their reaction? >> they go nuts. i do k through college, and even the young kids, i bring gigantic blowups of my paintings and turned them around, and i have the kids help me. we talk about the gettysburg address. even nursery school. it's just fun. one of my most favorite things is doing school visits. and the high school kids are really interesting, because they want to know about the business of art, so we get into that, and that is kind of fun, too. one subject, lincoln. you look at someone like monet who did one subject, the water lilies, i don't know how many times, but always the same style. yours, you have a multitude of different styles. wendy: that's what i thought would be my direction, as a postmodern artist. take one subject, i do paint other things but my focus has been lincoln, take one focus and then different styles. i thought that was sort of flipping art on, you know, around. >> you went from one style to another, one style, then another, another. not all one style, then another. wendy: right now because it is the wintertime, and i just want to do my paintings, i have five canvases going on, different styles, even different mediums. i've been painting a lot. most of the paintings you saw are done in oil. i've been painting in acrylic lately. i never liked it that much, until recently. it has been interesting. i like to experiment with media as well. to figure outg how i felt, as each of those pictures went up. keptlmost all of them, it getting better and better. wow. this makes me feel right, good. i had a different reaction to the one where he was faded. now, you spoke highly of the woman's style you were trying to but seeing him almost disappear from the picture, that to me was not the lincoln that i wanted to see. wendy: i am sorry. [laughter] >> but perhaps is more emblematic of what we have today, the articles i passed around, where everybody is trying to grab a piece of the guy and he is disappearing from us as a result. wendy: that has been a theme recently. i have been painting these paintings have lincoln on paneling, wood, then i paint over it and scratch off the paint, as if trying to find lincoln again. to your point, the one about being faded away, that painting doesn't come across really well on the screen as it does in real life when you see the painting. it was really, really hard to do, one of the most difficult paintings i'd ever done. very little difference between the color palette, but you can still tell it is lincoln. very difficult painting. whenat are you feeling, you paint more vibrant, or less vibrant? wendy: when i was in high school or college, i was an athlete and they talk about being in the zone, that muscle memory feeling. when i paint -- [laughter] once or twice here. but that same sort of feeling where you are not really thinking. you are just painting. affection with looking at him. something about his eyes, the eyes are not symmetrical, but there is a sadness, a depth. give us your input on just capturing his eyes in all these different styles. wendy: i think we can all feel that way, when we look at his portraits. most of the photographs taken for artist scrap, you can't, you know, it's funny. all the stories about him being ugly, nothing could be further from the truth for me. he's one of the most human, beautiful faces i have ever seen, and yeah, that one eye they said hewell, loved having his photo taken. it was once described, it was like he was looking down the barrel of a gun. he was very good at having his photograph taken, and he loved it. but he had a stunning face. -- even though it feels very flawed, it is not flawed at all, and i think you can get a sense from those photographs of his compassion and empathy. i am maybe reading too much, but i do. a very trusting face, i think. you look at other photos taken during that time, even with the same black and white feeling, you don't get that same feeling you get from lincoln. and maybe that is because of all the great things he did. but he has a wonderful face. i am just drawn to it. just beautiful. a beautiful, american face. the other thing in the gallery, we get people from all over the world coming to the gallery. people love lincoln. my goodness. we had friends come from china, visitors. have to leave with a poster of the gettysburg address with one of my paintings. just marvelous. any other questions? i will move on to my next presentation. it is much shorter, about my 100 nights of taps. let me get that. i might need your help. i'll first explain. the scholarship -- thank you. the vice president of the lincoln fellowship of pennsylvania, and we put on dedication day on november 19, every year, annually, and invite speakers. a wonderful program. i am sure some of you have already been. i also have the honor of being the emcee, which i love, and it has been a real honor to do that . contribute to the the nationalnk park service sends to schools, a wonderful program and we support that. we also support, you know the lincoln statue down in the square? that is our statue and we maintain that statute. the though gettysburg is largest statue garden in the world, i think that statue in the square is probably the most photographed statue in gettysburg with tourists. then, a few years ago, this will 'll justourth year, i begin with the program. gettysburg, this year will be 2020. in the summer of 2001, i visited the very special world war i battlefield in ypres, belgium. battlefield, ihe witnessed the most amazing ceremony, the nightly sounding of the last closing of the gate at ypres, its full name is the memorial to the missing, dedicated to the british and commonwealth soldiers killed in ypres during world war i whose graves are unknown. in 1928, the year after the menin gaten at the memorial, a number of prominent citizens in ypres decided there should be a way to find and express their gratitude to the belgian nation -- of the belgian nation towards those who died for its freedom and independence. they chose to honor the braves by sounding the last post every evening at 8:00, this is fascinating, except for the occupation by the germans during world war ii when the ceremony was conducted in surrey, england, the ceremony has been carried on uninterrupted since july 1928. when the germans occupied ypres, they moved the ceremony to england. they never missed a night. the evening the polish forces liberated ypres in the second world war, the ceremony was menin gatethe in spite of heavy fighting still taking place on the others of town. in 2009, i brought the idea of this type of ceremony to the gettysburg national military park, and was graciously turned down. i know, because i didn't have enough thought behind it, and put too much of the burden of the program on the already burdened park service. but i carried the idea around me every day. summer 2016, i brought the idea in the form of a more fleshed-o ut proposal to the lincoln fellowship during one of our summer retreats. i got the board's full support, and then i reached out to jeffrey spangler, then he put me mr. villanueva, probably the most renowned bugler in america, very amazing. he was in my studio the next day and gave his full support. he's retired from the united states air force, where he served 23 years as a trumpeter, drum major and staff arranger with the united states air force band in washington, d.c. he's nationally and internationally recognized as the leading expert on military bugle calls. 100lly, in 2017 we launched nights of taps, gettysburg. so every evening between memorial day and labor day at 7:00 p.m., you can relinquish the noise and pressures of the day by strolling through the sacred acres of the gettysburg national military park ceremony to witness the sounding of taps. i've had the honor to participate in this moving ceremony almost 300 times. the actual ceremony stays the same, every evening is different. these gifted musicians and whose patriotism brings them to the ceremony to honor our veterans by sounding taps, a one minute call of gratitude to the interred and a one minute call for the guests in attendance. the musicians travel from all over the nation to be and i -- to be there, and i am overwhelmed by the love and devotion. thanks to our fellowship board members, we also honor veterans and active service members in the audience by bringing them up to the front to pose with the bugler. this should make us all feel really good. alonggroups of tourists, with local regulars, make their way to the ceremony. i also witness every bugler reading -- greeting each and everyone after the ceremony. interestingly, many of the tourists are from different countries, and they are equally moved by this solemn ceremony, by the sacrifice of the brave soldiers buried here in the gettysburg national cemetery, and they are deeply moved by the words spoken by lincoln in 1863. they want to stand where he stood, and this should make us all feel really good. shade coverst, the spot where i stand to introduce the bugler, and i can finally see the audience without squinting. nature in the cemetery is at rest. it is quiet, beautiful, the very definition of american elegance. calm, serene. the 17 sacred acres create a place that should make us all better people. program is the same as last year, commitment to strengthening its core components, most notably through financing to make sure this program endures. i'm in the process of reaching out to gettysburg hotels to offer reduced rates for buglers. mcdonald's offers our buglers free meals, which is really cool. and it has meant a lot to our participants. but ultimately, i just want to get out there and fund raise. one of the most beautiful scenes to unfold at the monument occurs in late august. this uniform monument becomes wrapped, and by the way, this is the symbolic place where lincoln delivered the gettysburg address, the beautiful monument becomes wrapped in shade, except for the liberty statue at its top. even during my presentation, before the bugler sounds taps, i stop the ceremony and make the people in the audience look, because they are not seeing the statue, and when they see the statue i can hear an audible gasp in the audience when they see how beautiful it looks at the very top, lit up like that. a stunning sight. display, i organic stand in honor of the ultimate sacrifice given for freedom by the soldiers interred here, and by the quiet light of lincoln's brief but enduring address. i give thanks to the lincoln fellowship and the taps for veterans and the gettysburg national military park for supporting this poignant ceremony and supporting the chance for all of us to come together to honor the brave in quiet light. >> [inaudible] >> that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom, and a government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ wendy: thank you. [applause] i hope you will come and join us this summer for 100 nights of taps. thank you. thank you. [applause] wendy, thank you very much. most of our meetings deal with talking about lincoln as a man of ideas. what you have shared with us tonight i found profoundly moving, in realizing how that man is portrayed, the image that he leaves is as important as supporting the words we know he left with us. the idea of the taps program bringing into current generations, down to the last generation, the impact of his words at gettysburg, is astounding. thank you very much for what you have done, and for sharing that with us tonight. i'd like you to accept this token of our appreciation. thank you very much. [applause] is there any other business to come before us this evening? meeting ofare this the lincoln group of the district of columbia adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this is american history tv, on c-span3, where each weekend we feature 48 hours of programs exploring our nation's past. >> this is american history tv, exploring our nation's past every weekend on c-span3. next on our weekly series "reel america," the yalta conference, a 1945 war department documentary of the final meeting of joseph stalin, winston churchill and franklin roosevelt, which took place at a crimean resort in ukraine. the decisions taken place here had significant ramifications for post world war ii history. dy"30 minutes, hershel "woo williams recounts his experience as a marine in the pacific in this oral history interview conducted by the world war ii museum. his actions as a demolition sergeant on iwo jima earned him the medal of honor. at 7:00, university of pennsylvania history professor talks about her book information hunters, when librarians, soldiers and spies banded together in world war ii europe. eastern, 5:00 pacific on our weekly series "on the presidency," a panel of scholars respond to previous observations by former bush administration officials in the third and last program, looking back at president george w. surge decisionq to increase american troop levels. that's coming up, here in american history tv. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>