Lincolniana: All Things Lincoln Part II

0 Comments06/21/11

No, it’s not a newly discovered species of flora. Lincolniana is a term used to described any material—photographs, newspaper clippings, prints, cartoons, maps, letters, documents, books, or other collectibles—pertaining to Abraham Lincoln. The thirst for new information about Lincoln’s life and death seems unquenchable. As of 2011, this singular historical figure was already the subject of some 16,000 books written over a span of 150 years. Milestone Documents editors have combed through heaps of Lincoln-related data and come up with some interesting links for our readers. In Part I of this series, we offered links to Lincoln materials ranging from the Emancipation Proclamation to a new Steven Spielberg movie about the famed president. Today, in Part II of the series, we highlight several additional items related to Lincoln.

• The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln brought a fragile nation nearly to its knees. Most students of U.S. history know that an actor named John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in April 1865. What many people don’t realize is that after Booth leaped onto the theater’s stage and made his escape, he eluded capture for twelve days. Booth was on the run from April 14 to April 26. In Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (New York: William Morrow, 2006), author James L. Swanson retraces the assassin’s steps during those twelve days as he fled from Washington, D.C., to Maryland and across the Potomac into Virginia. In an NPR Morning Edition interview, Swanson elaborates on Booth’s motivations, the role his co-conspirators played in Lincoln’s death, and the showdown in a tobacco barn in Virginia that ended the chase.
• Few public figures have left an imprint on history as deep as that of Abraham Lincoln. It seems Abe has joined the ranks of the twenty-first century’s pop-culture icons, as well. The publication of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2010) blends Civil War–era history with the seemingly unquenchable thirst (no pun intended) for vampire fiction. Simultaneously bizarre, irreverent, and intriguing, this historical fiction–fantasy–thriller was written by the same author who gave us Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009). Grahame-Smith portrays Abe as an ax-wielding slayer of the undead whose mission is fueled by the death of his beloved mother; a freshly unearthed diary kept by Lincoln reveals that his mother died not from “milk sickness” but from a vampire attack. Check out the publisher’s tongue-in-cheek video promo for the book. Grahame-Smith also wrote the screenplay for a film of the same title, which is scheduled for release in the summer of 2012.
• On a more serious note, we turn to the mystery surrounding the last known photographic image of Abraham Lincoln. Several fakes have been circulated over the years, but only one authenticated photograph of the president in his coffin is known to exist: It was taken by the American daguerreotypist Jeremiah Gurney, Jr., on April 24, 1865, in New York City. Considerable controversy surrounds the preservation of the image, which was supposed to have been destroyed after Lincoln’s burial. The Northern Illinois University Libraries’ Historical Digitization Project has preserved a key article on this “lost” photograph of the president lying in state. Originally published in the autumn 1952 issue of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, the article features a copy of the image; explains Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton’s role in its disappearance; and documents when, where, and how the last remaining proof was found.

See more News and Opinions >