For admirers of Abraham Lincoln, all roads lead to the US capital starting this month. It was here that the unschooled politician from the Western frontier guided the nation through its greatest crisis, preserved the union, freed the slaves †and was assassinated. It is fitting, therefore, that a number of museums in the city have organized special exhibitions to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Great Emancipator.
Leading the way is the National Museum of American History (NMAH) †dramatically transformed by a two-year renovation †with a comprehensive exhibition, “Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life,” that will be on view through 2011. This interesting, revelatory show features more than 60 objects associated with Lincoln’s life, plus more than 50 portraits, photographs and cartoons. The useful accompanying book is written by the exhibition’s curator, Harry Rubenstein, chair of the museum’s division of politics and reform.
Through objects and wall texts, visitors can explore Lincoln’s early life (a gold pocket watch from his days as a Springfield, Ill., lawyer); his presidential campaign (a Lincoln-Hamlin campaign banner); experiences in the White House (his black suit and Mrs Lincoln’s purple dress); and the Civil War, including issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation (the inkstand on which it was drafted), his murder (the eight prison hoods of the conspirators) and the national mourning that followed (Mrs Lincoln’s mourning watch).
Other notable objects include an iron wedge and a rail split by Lincoln in Salem, Ill., in the 1820s‱830s, his patent model for lifting boats over shoals in shallow waters and two plaster casts of Lincoln’s face and hands.
Insights into Lincoln the man conveyed by the exhibition reflect curator Rubenstein’s effort to “present a more personal and intimate look at Lincoln&” In his book by the same title, Rubenstein suggests that more than any other American, Lincoln’s life was intertwined with the nation’s history and culture and has inspired others to believe in America’s promise of opportunity; his success in saving the Union and abolishing slavery are among the nation’s greatest achievements, and his death is an American tragedy.
“An Extraordinary Life” is accompanied by another exhibition, “America’s New Birth of Freedom: Documents from the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum,” on display until March 22. Organized by the Lincoln Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., it is highlighted by a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and by letters that reveal Lincoln’s views on emancipation and deployment of black troops and his unwavering demands for peace.
The importance of the Emancipation Proclamation to Lincoln’s legacy is stressed throughout these exhibitions. The National Archives has a special showing of the original, signed proclamation, February 12‱6.
Issued as the Civil War approached its third year, the proclamation declared the freedom of all slaves in the Confederate states and fundamentally altered the nature of the conflict. Its issuance clarified and strengthened the position of the Union government, decreased the likelihood of European support of the Confederacy and eventually brought freedom to slaves in the South. The proclamation invited African Americans to join the Union Army and Navy, resulting in the enlistment of about 200,000 blacks.
Moreover, while the proclamation did not end slavery in America, it placed the issue firmly at the top of the wartime agenda. It added moral force to the Union cause and was a significant factor in ratification of the 13th amendment to the Constitution in 1865, formally outlawing slavery throughout the nation.
“Lincoln’s words,” observes Brent D. Glass, director of the NMAH, “transcend time and speak in powerful ways to a global audience.”
Another Smithsonian museum, the National Portrait Gallery, has mounted, “One Life: The Mask of Lincoln,” on view through July 5. Drawing on the gallery’s extensive collection and curated by its historian David C. Ward, it explores how Lincoln used the emerging technology of photography to convey his image and craft his persona for the American public.
The more than 30 likenesses include the “tousled hair” photograph of a fresh-faced Lincoln in 1857, the portrait taken by Mathew Brady just before Lincoln’s breakthrough speech at the Cooper Union in 1860 †known as the “photograph that made Lincoln president” †and a series of photographs of the bearded, careworn president during the Civil War. A special treat is the rarely displayed “cracked-plate” photograph of Lincoln by Alexander Gardner, one of the last formal portraits taken of the president. A plaster life mask by sculptor Clark Mills, taken in 1865, captures the sunken cheeks and brooding nature of the soon-to-be-martyred chief executive.
A drawing by Lambert Hollis represents an eyewitness rendering of Lincoln’s dramatic arrival in Richmond, Va., the Confederate capital, two days after the rebels evacuated the city in 1865, and an engraving recalls the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lincoln’s awkward “appearance disarmed people,” observes curator Ward, “causing both his friends, rivals and enemies to underestimate him.” Adds Ward, “this seemingly country bumpkin” constantly amazed “the Northern political establishment, including his own cabinet,” that he “was able to outwit them politically and outthink them intellectually.”
Ward makes much of the mystery surrounding Lincoln and underscores the intellectual prowess that enabled him to overcome ostensibly better educated rivals. “In the 200th year since his birth, Abraham Lincoln remains as much a puzzle as he was to his contemporaries,” says the gallery historian. “That he came from nothing and was an obscure figure, almost to the moment of his nomination for the presidency, only adds to his mystery.”
Ward suggests that this “very mysteriousness is the key to his character and personality,” which, combined with “a supreme confidence in himself and an almost providential sense of his personal mission, was incredibly adroit in his ability to adapt to circumstances and shape events.”
Representing the “new [and highly ambitious] men of the American West,” says Ward, Lincoln helped found the Republican Party after the Democratic and Whig parties collapsed over the issue of slavery. “Lincoln, gawky and awkward in his personal appearance,” became the Republican candidate for president. “His finely honed intelligence, his political acumen and his sense that he spoke for †indeed, embodied †the Union, made Lincoln one of the most charismatic and powerful figures in American history.”
Ward concludes that in his pictures Lincoln hides more than he reveals, that he “remains, despite all the words that have been written about him, essentially mysterious.”
At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, “The Honor of Your Company Is Requested: President Lincoln’s Inaugural Ball” celebrates the president’s second inaugural ball, conducted on March 6, 1865, in what was then the US Patent Office and is now the museum’s landmark building. That structure, begun in 1836 and completed in 1868, was gloriously renovated a couple of years ago. Poet Walt Whitman, who searched for his injured brother and tended to the wounded when the building served as a Civil War barracks and hospital, praised it as the “noblest of Washington buildings.”
Attending the ball, Whitman reflected on the contrasts with when the spaces were “fill’d with a crowded mass of the worst wounded of the war&To-night, beautiful women, perfumes, the violins’ sweetness, the polka and the waltz; then the amputation, the blue face, the groan, the glassy eye of the dying, the clotted rag, the odor of wounds and blood, and many a mother’s son amid strangers, passing away untended.”
On view in the exhibition is ephemera from the ball, such as the invitation, menu, dance card and a gown worn that evening, as well as engravings illustrating the night’s events and other artifacts. The show, guest curated by Charles Robertson, former deputy director of the gallery, will be up for two years.
The exhibition identifies spaces where ball events took place, like the west wing, venue for a grand, grossly overcrowded buffet supper, which began at midnight and erupted into a wild melee. More than 4,000 guests danced the night away in the north and east wings on the third floor.
Lincoln, dressed in a plain black suit and white kid gloves, was described by The New York Times as “trying to throw off care for a while, but with rather ill success; yet he seemed pleased and gratified as he was greeted by the people.” Mrs Lincoln was “resplendent in costly white satin with a lace shawl and a fan trimmed in ermine and silver spangles,” according to curator Robertson.
Also displayed are images recording events starting with Lincoln’s reelection (political cartoons and campaign posters) and inauguration (an Alexander Gardner photograph) through his assassination (a Currier & Ives lithograph of the scene at Ford’s Theatre and another titled “Death Bed of the Martyr President”) and funeral (another Gardner photo). There are photographs of the conspirators, “wanted” posters for their apprehension and views of their hanging (yet another Gardner photo).
“With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition,” on view at the Library of Congress through May 9, traces Lincoln’s growth from prairie lawyer to statesman and the monumental issues he faced as president.
On display will be the grammar book he studied to master English; notes for debates with Stephen Douglas; his first and second Inaugural Addresses; the Gettysburg Address; spirited letters to Union generals; the 1853 Bible upon which he took the oath of office †as did President Barack Obama last month †and the contents of Lincoln’s pockets the night he was shot. The companion book is In Lincoln’s Hand: His Original Manuscripts With Commentary by Distinguished Americans, published by the Library in association with Bantam Dell Publishing Group.
The National Gallery of Art is displaying, for one year, sculptor Daniel Chester French’s 1,000-pound model for the seated Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and the original wood model of the memorial by architect Henry Bacon. They are on loan from Chesterwood, French’s home and studio in Stockbridge, Mass., and the General Services Administration, respectively.
The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum is exhibiting 11 certified proofs (the last printed proof of the plate before printing stamps) for postage stamps issued from 1894 to 1959. They show Lincoln portraits based on likenesses by, among others, George P.A. Healy, Gutzon Borglum and French.
Ford’s Theatre, where the murder took place, just reopened after a $50 million renovation, with the presidential box and the 650-seat auditorium intact. Things look much as they did on the evening of April 14, 1865, when during the third act of Our American Cousin, a distinguished actor but deranged Southern supporter, John Wilkes Booth, slipped into the president’s box and fatally shot Lincoln. The martyred chief executive died the next morning in the Petersen House across the street, which continues to be open.
The embroidered, bloodstained overcoat the president wore that night will be displayed in a special glass case in the lobby until April 15, when a replica will replace it. The theatre’s refurbished museum, featuring a variety of pertinent exhibits, will reopen in the spring.
The Anderson Cottage, on the outskirts of the city, which the Lincoln family used as a summer residence for a quarter of his presidency, has reopened after a $15 million restoration by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Exhibits suggest why the site was so important in Lincoln’s life in Washington.
Other exhibitions, symposia and activities all over the country, plus the publication of an estimated 60 books about Lincoln in the next 18 months, testify to the enduring veneration for and fascination with the Great Emancipator. This year’s anniversary events offer renewed opportunities to explore the enigma of the complex man many consider the greatest of all Americans.
Many cities and museums across the country have organized Lincoln bicentennial exhibitions and activities. Among the foremost, the New-York Historical Society (“Abraham Lincoln in his Own Words,” February 12⁊uly 12, and “Lincoln and New York,” October 2⁍arch 21), and the Chicago Historical Society (“Lincoln Treasures,” February 12⁔BD, and “Gettysburg Address,” April 1⁍ay 3).
The Library of Congress’s “With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibit” will travel to the California Museum in Sacramento, Newberry Library in Chicago, Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis, Atlanta History Center and Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha.
Among other significant exhibitions: Galena and Springfield, Ill.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Pittsburgh and Swarthmore, Penn.; and Spokane, Wash.
The National Museum of American History is on the National Mall at Constitution and 14th Street. For information, 202-633-1000 or www.americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions .
The National Portrait Gallery is at Eighth and F Streets NW. For information, 202-633-1000 or www.npg.si.edu .
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is at Eighth and F Streets NW. For information, 202-633-1000 or www.americanart.si.edu .
The Library of Congress is at 101st Street SE. For information, 202-707-9779 or www.loc.gov .
The National Gallery of Art is on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW. For information, 202-737-4215 or www.nga.gov .
The National Archives is at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. For information, 202-357-5000 or www.archives.gov .
Ford’s Theatre is at 514 110th Street NW. For information, 202-638-2367 or www.fords.org .
The Anderson (or Lincoln) Cottage is at 3700 North Capitol Street NW, on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home (Soldiers’ Home). For information, 202-829-0436.
