By: nschon@gmail.com
January 5, 2009
Ever the diligent researcher, Kathy has uncovered two rather intriguing Abe themed t-shirts. The above two are from Thinkin’ Lincoln, a web-based comic by 26-year old Miles Grover. In Grover’s world, Abe’s character travels through time and interacts with a rather bizarre cast of characters ranging from Rasputin to Queen Elizabeth II. This is, at essence, one of those examples of Lincoln’s position in popular culture. A figure with clearly understood base characteristics often molded for individual uses.
The t-shirts, as one can clearly see, are as fanciful as the comic.
We’ve now found Abe in space, Abe shooting lasers and Abe carrying an Ipod on t-shirts. Will we find any with true historical value? Can you find any?
By: khaas@rosenbach.org
January 1, 2009
There are now officially 42 days remaining before Abe’s birthday and the launch of the full 21st-Century Abe site on February 12.
In honor of New Year’s Day, here’s the Rosenbach’s copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln enacted on Jan. 1, 1863. Our copy is an official State Department version, printed a couple of days later.
By: khaas@rosenbach.org
December 30, 2008
All of the talk about Obama’s plans to take the oath of office on the same Bible as Abe got me thinking about Abe and the Bible. One of the Rosenbach’s documents we’ll be showcasing on the full 21st-Century Abe site starting in February is a letter from Lincoln’s old law partner William Henry Herndon insisting that Lincoln was an “infidel”
Here’s an excerpt of what project scholar Dr. Wilson had to say about this document:
“What is thought to be the character of Lincoln’s religious beliefs comes almost entirely from other people. He himself was careful to say virtually nothing for public consumption on the subject. Those who knew him as a young man agreed that, while he read the Bible from an early age and was the offspring of believing Baptist parents, he refused to join a church. When he left his family and lived for six years in New Salem, Illinois he seems to have been receptive to the writings of Thomas Paine and Constantin de Volney, writers who were skeptical and notably critical of Christianity. He was also reported to have written at that time a substantial paper that openly questioned the credibility of basic Christian doctrine.
When he first lived in Springfield, beginning in 1837, he reportedly ridiculed parts of the Bible and scandalized some of his closest friends by his impiety… As he grew older, he became more discreet about discussing religious matters, but his earlier reputation came back to haunt him…Lincoln continued to be known in his mature years as a religious skeptic, but there is evidence that he privately represented this to some as a misfortune, something he would be glad to overcome. His wife admitted, after his death, that her husband “had no hope & no faith in the usual acceptation of those words.” His law partner and the author of this letter, William H. Herndon, with whom Lincoln was on intimate terms for many years, got himself in no end of trouble by publicly challenging those who claimed, after the assassination, that Lincoln had been a believing Christian…
But Herndon had very little contact with Lincoln after he left Springfield, and many scholars have detected a shift in Lincoln’s religious views. While it seems likely that he always believed in a creator, and that before 1861 he possibly thought of the creator, or Providence, as “but another name for fate,” as Herndon testified, this view seems to have changed in the course of his presidency to accommodate the possibility of a God operating in a moral universe. This is the possibility that Lincoln explored in a number of documents in the year 1864 and finally raised and seemed to endorse in his Second Inaugural Address – a God who could sanction a war to destroy slavery and punish those responsible for it”
Of course many other people have expressed opinions about Lincoln and religion–including this book which takes a Hindu perspective, supposedly based on a statement by Yogananda, and claims that Lincoln was reincarnated as aviator Charles Lindbergh (but not as Barack Obama). Oddly enough, Lindbergh also features prominently in another Rosenbach project–our current exhibit on Maurice Sendak entitled “There’s a Mystery There”
By: khaas@rosenbach.org
December 29, 2008
21st-Cnetury Abe, ALPLM
Ok, as the short-sleeve shirts will indicate, this picture was taken at the ALPLM last summer during our research trip to Springfield, but we thought it had a nice holiday feel. And in the holiday spirit of overeating, here is Nick tucking into a “Horseshoe” –a venerable Springfield speciality.
For the record, Lincoln himself wasn’t much interested in food. According to his secretary John Hay, Lincoln “took a little lunch–a biscuit, a glass of milk in winter, some fruit or grapes in summer…He ate less than anyone I know.” For more great info on Lincoln’s eating habits, see the Food Timeline.
By: khaas@rosenbach.org
December 23, 2008
More good news–21st-Century Abe just received an endorsement from the Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Please visit the PA ALBC website for information on other Bicentennial events in the state of Pennsylvania
