Putting on Hairs: A political print and Lincoln's beard

On February 16, 1861, Lincoln's train stopped at Westfield, N.Y. on the way from his home in Springfield, Illinois to his inauguration in Washington, D.C. During his remarks to the crowd that had gathered, Lincoln mentioned that he had received a letter from a young girl who lived in Westfield and asked to meet her. This letter was written during the presidential race the prior autumn by 11 year old Grace Bedell.

Oct 15. 1860

Hon A B Lincoln
Dear Sir

My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only eleven years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brother's and part of them will vote for you any way and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is a going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try and get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter dir[e]ct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chatauque County New York

I must not write any more answer this letter right off
Good bye
Grace Bedell

Lincoln was obviously touched by the letter and replied just a few days later:

October 19, 1860
Springfield, Illinois

Miss. Grace Bedell
My dear little Miss.

Your very agreeable letter of the 15th. is received.

I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters. I have three sons -- one seventeen, one nine, and one seven, years of age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family.

As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now? Your very sincere well-wisher

A. Lincoln

Despite his demurring to her suggestion, within a few weeks Lincoln began to grow a beard. While Grace's letter was likely not the sole reason Lincoln decided to become bewhiskered, it seems likely that it had some influence on this decision. What is interesting to me is that Grace was prompted to write her letter after viewing "[Lincoln's] picture and Mr. Hamlin's" which her father had acquired at the Chautauqua County fair.

It has been determined that the print which spurred Grace to write to Lincoln was H.H. Loyd's "National Republican Chart. Presidential Campaign 1860." This is an 3' x 2' hand-colored wood engraving which included the Republican platform, quotes from Lincoln's speeches, demographics, a map of the United States, and portraits of the first fifteen presidents. In the pride of place are portraits of Lincoln and his running mate Hannibal Hamlin, each surrounded by a rail fence. Grace liked the fence ("I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty.") but obviously thought the portrait of Lincoln with his almost cadaverous face indicated he needed a cosmetic makeover.

What is cool about this is here is an example where a popular print seems to have had a significant impact on history, even if only on a presidential coiffure. And even if Grace's letter had only a tangential impact on Lincoln's decision, certainly this episode is a nice example of how popular prints had a great impact on the general population. As Holzer, Boritt and Neely state in The Lincoln Image, this is "indicative of the importance such images held for the picture-hungry society of the 1860s" (p. 73)

Most popular Currier & Ives prints

The latest issue of Imprint came out recently and among its excellent articles is one entitled "What Currier & Ives Prints Were Most Popular in the Nineteenth Century?" Written by my friends John Zak and James Brust, this article and related topics are the subject of today's blog. Before I get to that, however, I will use the publication of this article as an excuse to again put in a pitch for the American Historical Print Collectors Society, which is the publisher of Imprint.

One of my first blogs was about the AHPCS. I mentioned Imprint but didn't really emphasize what a great publication this is. It is the only journal specifically focused on American historical prints and the last issue completed its 34th year of publication! While there are many reasons to join the AHPCS, the subscription to this biannual journal is by itself well worth the $50 membership fee.

As it happens, however, this year the AHPCS is making a special offer of a reduced membership for new members for only $25. If you are at all interested in American prints, don't miss the opportunity to join at this low price and see what a great journal Imprint is. Just visit the AHPCS web site for more information. You can mention you read about this reduced membership on the Antique Prints Blog. As a further incentive (note I get nothing from promoting the AHPCS other than to support an organization I think is great), I will guarantee your satisfaction. If you join and receive your first issue of Imprint and do not think your membership was worth the $25, you can cancel your membership and send me the issue of Imprint you received, and I will personally reimburse your $25 plus the cost of mailing the journal to me. I don't think anyone will take me up on this, but I don't want any reader to hesitate if they are at all tempted to join...

So, now back to the article in question, Zak and Brust's article on what Currier & Ives prints were the most popular in the nineteenth century. What the authors do is use primary documentary evidence to try to analyze the market for Currier & Ives prints at the time they were issued. They used a series of original Currier & Ives sales lists and catalogues to see which types of prints were most often issued by the firm. The argument is that Currier & Ives (always the smart businessmen) would have issued more prints of the types which sold the best than of those which were less popular, a reasonable assumption. There are no sales records for the firm we can study, so we cannot determine how many examples of each print sold, but if a type of print was selling well, the firm would naturally issue more of that type than they issued of prints with a more limited appeal.


I will consider only the author's conclusions for small folio prints (there are some interesting differences for these results compared to those for medium and large folio prints) for these are particularly interesting. Their analysis shows that it was primarily juvenile, "beautiful girls," religious, sentimental, animal and domestic scenes which were the most popular. What is surprising about this is that these are among the least popular subjects today. The prints that are most popular (and thus generally most expensive) today are railroad, yachting, historical, hunting and landscapes. Those subjects, according to Zak & Brust's article, were considerably less popular than the other subjects in the nineteenth century. As they say, “It may be a surprise to the twenty-first-century collector, living in an era when Currier & Ives catholic subjects go begging in the marketplace while small folio railroad scenes sell for thousands, that in the heyday of the C&I firm, the former may have outsold the latter twenty to one.”

I found this article quite exciting to read and ponder. It is a terrific example of using prints and related documents as primary resources in order to try to understand our past. Today we look at Currier & Ives prints in light of our own world-view and obviously those purchasing prints in the nineteenth century saw them in a different light. The work that Zak & Brust have done can help us to look (at least to some extent) through the eyes of our ancestors. Zak & Brust conclude their article with these interesting thoughts:

For the modern collector, Currier & Ives evoke romanticized images of American life in the nineteenth centry. But those who bought C&I prints at the time they were issued were living in that era, not looking back at it, and its realities were often very unromantic. Many were immigrants. Their lives included religion, family, and perhaps nostalgia for the places they had come from. These small folio buyers could have chosen the fancier or more romantic topics in that size for the same price as the religious or sentimental, but seem much less likely to have done so. Instead, they appear to have purchased the topics they were familiar with, and perhaps those that would help them feel better; the cute children, pretty women, and devotional images might well have gratified them emotionally and spiritually.

Back in 1991, I did some similar analysis on the popularity of Currier & Ives prints. Beginning in 1988, the AHPCS decided to "redo" the Best 50 Currier & Ives prints lists which had originally been compiled in 1932-33 (the first year, the best large folio prints were selected, followed the next year by the best small folio prints). The original lists were selected by a small group of dealers and collectors and the new lists were voted on by the entire AHPCS membership. A book, Currier & Ives. The New Best 50 was published, for which I wrote an article "A Comparison of the Original and New Best 50 Currier & Ives. Some statistics and thoughts."

Most of my analysis was focused on the differences in the tastes of collectors in the early twentieth century compared to those of collectors later in the century, but I came to similar conclusions about the reason for the popularity of certain prints today:

Perhaps in a world that is frantically paced, with news of worrying events constantly bombarding us from all sides, we look to Currier & Ives prints to transport us back to an earlier time of simple values. As much as any, Currier & Ives prints graphically embody this image of our past, and this indeed may be the core of their continued popularity.

Zak and Brust use different methodology and it is thought provoking to see them expand on these ideas and bring up new ways of understanding Currier & Ives prints, especially in the context of the period when they were issued. To some extent we are at the beginning of the serious study of "popular" prints of the nineteenth century and it is quite exciting to read articles like this and to think about all the further research that can and will be done by scholars like Zak and Brust (and much of which will appear in future issues of Imprint).

New curator of graphic arts at the American Antiquarian Society

In a number of previous blogs, I have written about the American Antiquarian Society and its graphics collection, interviewed curator Georgia Barnhill, and posted my experience at the CHAVIC conference held there last autumn. I know that it may seem like I am biased towards the AAS, but today’s blog is an interview with Lauren B. Hewes, the institution’s new Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts. At last year’s conference it was announced that Georgia would be taking on a new position as head of CHAVIC and that Lauren, previously Georgia’s assistant, would be taking over as curator of the graphics collection. The AAS is very lucky to have had such an able person right in house to take over and so I thought the good news warranted an interview with Lauren….

1. How did you end up getting involved with prints?

My first experience with prints was actually in high school where I took a print-making class for an art requirement and just loved it. We had a great big etching press, acid baths, fume hoods, etc -- it was a very complete shop, so I got to try pretty much every technique except lithography. I first set type in the historic print shop of Shelburne Museum in Vermont where I worked as a curator for several years and learned all about letterpress and the book arts from the craftspeople who worked there as interpreters and printers. In graduate school I was hunting around for a work study position and Rafael Fernandez, the Print curator at the Clark Art Institute had posted a job in his print room. I worked with him for two years and learned a lot about the connoisseurship of fine prints and how a print study room operates.

2. What is your favorite subject / type of print in the AAS collection?

This is a fairly impossible question – it is a bit like asking someone to pick their favorite child! One area of focus during my student years was nineteenth-century American history, so prints that were produced in that period hold a special interest for me, but I really do not have a favorite. I should admit that lately, due to our various re-housing and inventory projects, I find that I am especially drawn to the rich ephemera collections at the Society – those small, carefully printed tickets for medical lectures, calling cards for Boston ladies, and valentines to Civil War soldiers etc. etc. – these are not really considered prints, but the printing and design are often exquisitely done.

2b. What is your favorite print in the collection?

Whichever print I am working with at the time you ask me! I tend to be very enthusiastic about each object in the collection and the scholars and researchers who work in the library often bring interesting perspectives to the prints and drawings under my care.

3. What do you see as the greatest strength of the AAS graphics collection?

Access! Our cataloguing records are just outstanding and I credit this to the staff over the years who carefully recorded the lithograph collection and the engravings before 1820. We are currently about a quarter of the way through an NEH grant called “Prints in the Parlor” to item-level catalogue a good portion of our 19th-century engravings, as well. Additionally, we have wonderful finding aides for many sub-collections that are not included in our larger catalogue, including collections of the works of David Claypool Johnston or our European Political Print collection. You can see many of these finding aides on our Library Collections page.

4. What part of the graphics collection would you most like to strengthen?

The Society’s graphic arts holdings are very strong and broad. A description of the collection can be found on our website and reveals the real pillars of the print collection – the 18th century engravings and the 19th century lithographs and engravings. Since the collection is already so exceptional, I try to add strength by providing better access to collections that we already hold. Over the past few years we have really been trying to increase the availability of the Society’s photography holdings, for example.

5. Is there any one print or type of print not in the collection that you would like to add?

I always try first to fill in gaps of any pre-1820 separately published engravings that we may lack or any that are unrecorded in CAEP. This is an area identified as a priority in our collection policy. Also, I am always interested in anything related to the history of the book or American history – portraits of authors or specific events.

6. Now that you have become the curator, following Georgia Barnhill, what is the biggest task facing you?

Working with Gigi Barnhill is one of the best parts of my job! I was fortunate to be her assistant for several years and she has been a very gracious, kind, knowledgeable mentor. There are several large cataloguing projects ahead that Gigi and I have discussed over the years, one of which is the fantastic map collection that we hold. Currently this collection is available only via a card file. I am hoping to prepare a grant for the coming years that will permit us to catalogue the maps and make them accessible to readers.

7. Will you and Georgia Barnhill be working together?

Oh yes! Gigi is currently the Director for the Society’s Center for Historic American Visual Culture and the programs that she organizes in that capacity usually draw on the graphic arts collection.

8. What projects do you have underway or planned for the AAS for the future?

I have already mentioned two of these – the NEH-funded project that involves the separately published 19th-century engravings (which also has a component involving gift book illustrations) and the map project, which will organize and item-level catalogue our collection of maps. We are also processing our large holdings of ephemera and I will be rehousing and inventorying the Society’s collection of 19th-century valentines over the next year or so. We will continue to work to provide increased access to all aspects of the collection. There are plans underway to digitize our Paul Revere engravings in order to create a web-based inventory of these for teachers and scholars.

9. What long-term goals do you have for the graphic collection at the AAS?

To continue to provide high-quality access and control of the collection. One of the collections that I have under my care is the collection of sheet music – all 60,000 songs! Currently these are indexed in a card file available only in our reading room. Wouldn’t it be great to have a digital resource like the Lester Levy Collection at John Hopkins where you can search by composer or lithographer or key word? It will take a very long time to complete, but that is one of my goals for the collection!

10. What is your favorite print repository / institution besides AAS and why?

I spent time in a lot of print rooms during my work as a bibliographer for the Print Council of America, so I have several answers for this. One of my favorite places to look at prints is the New York Public Library – the staff is great and the collections are outstanding – plus they have a lot of material on New York that we lack. The Boston Public Library and the Library Company in Philadelphia are rich resources for print research, as well. The print room of the British Museum would be up near the top, too, just to include a non-American venue in the mix!

Miami Map Fair

Today is the second day of the Miami Map Fair and I thought I'd post a few thoughts about the first day... The Miami Map Fair has become probably the most important map fair of the year, especially for those interested in American maps. Most of the major American map dealers and many of those from Europe and a scattering of other dealers are all present, displaying an amazing variety of maps. Many map dealers who do not exhibit at the fair come by, as do map collectors from around the world (though mostly American), and a reasonable number of locals also come by. It is a lot of fun to be able to see and chat with so many colleagues and those who share my enthusiasm for antique maps.

One thing of note is the number of American map dealers. There are 50 dealers over all, of which 28 are from the U.S. (and two from Canada). These range from fairly small dealers who bring their entire stock of maps to larger shops who can bring only a small percentage (we probably bring about 5% of our map stock, though most of the better items). Given that antique maps remain a fairly specialized market, with most Americans not even knowing you can buy original antique maps, it is somewhat surprising that there are that many map dealers around the country (I would guess that there are maybe another dozen that many more who do not exhibit here). This is especially interesting if you think how few major print dealers there are in the country. While there are lots of shops which sell a small range of prints, there are very few print shop which sell a wide range of "important" prints. Here just in Miami for the fair is a larger number of dealers with such a stock of antique maps. I am not sure why this is, other than perhaps that there are more "collectors" of antique maps than of antique prints. Anyway, an interesting phenomenon.

Another thing that jumps out at you in the fair is how many of the same maps there are. For instance, you might see six copies of the Ortelius map of North & South America or four copies of the Blaeu map of Virginia, and similar number of other rare maps of America from the sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth century. I do not use the term "rare" ironically, for these really are rare maps. It is simply that this is the biggest fair for people selling American maps and pretty much every example of these maps for sale anywhere are probably on the floor in Miami. There is also something of a matter of chance. It just seems that some years one map or other seems to be ubiquitous (this year it is the Hondius/Blaeu map of the Carolinas), but then the next year no one has one. It can still be something of a shock for a map collector who can spend years looking for a particular map to see three or more copies for sale in the same place.

The fact that the map dealers all know each other and are known by most map collectors, and the fact that map collectors are as a group very internet savvy, means that the market for maps is much more accurate or sensitive in its prices than that for prints. With antique prints, there are so few major dealers and many prints do not make it onto the internet, so prices can range very widely. With maps there is much more information on prices available so prices are much closer from dealer to dealer. Generally price differences reflect differences in condition or color. While it can be harder to find a "deal" at the map fair, you do know that generally you are paying a fair price.

One final observation is that I would say that this fair confirms for me every year what a knowledgeable and nice group of people the international map sellers are. It is a fun group who really enjoy talking about maps, with each other and the general public, and every year I enjoy my visit to the fair. Every year I also learn something new from another dealer and often something new from a collector who comes through and talks to me about his/her passion. If you like antique maps, I strong urge you to try to visit this fair, or simply visit one of the map dealers around the country , for you will find them welcoming and happy to share their knowledge.

Time to head over for the second day of the fair....

Map Jokes

The blogs for the next week or so may be a bit sporadic as I have been on vacation the last week and am heading off tomorrow for the Miami Map Fair. This has become the most important (and fun) map fair in the world and it will be held in Miami this weekend. Not only are many of the preeminent map dealers in the country putting up displays (including The Philadelphia Print Shop), but a large audience of other map dealers, collectors and scholars descend on Miami for this terrific event put on by the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. If you can make it, either this year or in the future, it is well worth a visit to the Miami Map Fair.

As I have not had a lot of time to write up blogs over the last week nor will I in the next week, I am going to have to fall back on something I worked up over ten years ago! I had been asked to present a talk on collecting maps. This didn't worry me, as I often talked on this topic, but I thought that it would be great to start the talk with a map joke. However, I couldn't think of one. There are chicken jokes, elephant jokes, light bulb jokes, and so forth, so why weren't there map jokes? Were maps not funny (not to spoil the blog, but the answer to that appears to be no!).

So I decided that I would launch a contest to find the World's Greatest Map Joke. I advertised and sent out notices everywhere, sure that I would be inundated with map jokes. Ah... that really wasn't the case, but I did receive a number of entries. How about these...

What is smarter, longitude or latitude?
Longitude, because it has 360 degrees

Why do paper maps never win at poker?
Because they always fold....

In desperation, I wrote to my favorite wit (who one time hailed from Philadelphia, but now is in Miami), Dave Barry. I asked if he knew a good map joke. His reply was:

Why did the chicken cross the road depicted on the map?
To get to the other side of the road depicted on the map.

Obviously David Barry is not inspired by maps. I did receive about 100 replies, of which (sadly) the following are the best. The winner of the contest appears at the end (don't blink or you'll miss it..)

What kind of projection do three out of four ear, nose, and throat specialists prefer?
A sinus-oidal map projection.

Why didn't true north date magnetic north?
She didn't like his bearing.

What do you call a man with a 1970s Russian map in his hand?
Lost

What do you call a globe-shaped bottle in which you grow plants?
Orbis Terrarium

What do a row of Bacardi bottles and loxodrome have in common?
Both have rum (rhumb) lines. [And you thought map lovers didn't have a sense of humor!]

Why did the dot go to college
Because it wanted to be a graduated symbol.

Why weren't there any parallels on the map?
Because the cartographer didn't have any latitude in his map design.

Finally the winner!

What do you call a map guide in Alcatraz?
A con tour map.

So.....please help and come up with a better map joke that I can use for my next map talk! Anyone who can really make me smile (and the last joke won because it was the only one that actually made me crack a smile) will receive a free copy of our Guide to Collecting Antique Maps.....

I'll try to post some comments on the map fair this weekend and hope to resume more regular posts next week...

E.C. Middleton's chromolithographed portraits

Elijah C. Middleton is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of chromolithography in America. Establishing his engraving firm in Cincinnati at mid-nineteenth-century, Middleton's business benefited from the city's prime location along routes of westward migration. As the city grew, so did a market for printed material - including chromolithographs. Middleton and his partner, W.R. Wallace, ventured from engraving into chromolithography and produced the oldest surviving chromolithograph from Cincinnati (an 1852 certificate for a Cincinnati fire company). Their partnership became the basis for chromo-publishing giant Strobridge & Company, which competed with Ehrgott & Forbiger for prominence in the Cincinnati and Midwestern print markets.


Shortly after Hines Strobridge joined Middleton and Wallace in partnership, Middleton struck out on his own in 1861 as a "Portrait Publisher," advertising his own gallery of printed portraits made with "warranted oil-colors." His finely-rendered portrait of George Washington became an early icon in the world of chromolithography and gained attention as far away as Philadelphia, where lithography giant P.S. Duval commented on Middleton as a competitor.

Middleton did portraits of George and Martha Washington, after paintings by Gilbert Stuart, as well as those of contemporary figures such as Daniel Webster, U.S. Grant, and Henry Clay. Desiring an accurate representation of Abraham Lincoln, Middleton actually solicited the President's advice, sending a proof copy of the print and receiving in return a letter from Lincoln with both compliment and critique. The resulting portrait is the only instance in which Lincoln is known to have advised the artist for one of his portraits. The Lincoln print was popular enough that it was reissued by Thomas Bising and Herman Gerlach when they took over Middleton's firm around 1867, advertising themselves as his successors.

The Color Explosion

I just realized that I was terribly remiss in not writing about a terrific exhibit at the Huntington Library in California which has been going on since October. This exhibit, entitled The Color Explosion, consists of a selection of nineteenth-century, color lithographs from the collection of Jay T. Last. It runs through February 22, 2010 and is well, well worth visiting if you can.

Jay T. Last, founder of Fairchild Semiconductor Corp., became a collector and scholar on the history of American lithography. In 2005, he authored a terrific book, The Color Explosion. Nineteenth-Century American Lithography. This extensively illustrated book discusses the commercial and technological history of American color lithography and includes documentation on many of the most important firms around the country. Jay is one of the leading print collectors and scholars in the country and this book and the new exhibit are wonderful documentations of his collection and scholarship.

Jay's collection, with about 135,000 objects, is the largest private collection of color lithographs in the country and very generously it has been promised as a gift to the Huntington Library. The exhibit includes about 250 items from the collection, including advertisements, art prints, calendars, books, labels, sheet music, toys and games, and trade cards. Many of these prints are very rare and all are eye-poppingly beautiful. This exhibit (and the collection) will knock your socks off! More information can be found on this exhibit on the Huntington web site.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardends is a collections-based research and educational institution for scholars and the general public. It is a gem located in San Marino, California. and even without the Last collection, its graphic arts holdings--with works on European and American printmaking, book illustration and desgin, photography, and cartography--make the Huntingdon one of the best print repositories in the country. More information can be found on their web site.