21st-Century Abe was active February 12, 2009-August 31, 2009.
To mark Lincoln’s 200th birthday we explored why we in the 21st century are still obsessed with this 19th-century man. Abe is everywhere, from advertising to political punditry. What does this popular Abe have to do with the historical Abe? 21st-Century Abe took six months to tackle these questions. We asked scholars and artists to get the ball rolling, but visitor responses have defined 21st-Century Abe.
To find out about our current projects, check out www.Rosenbach.org.
The 21st-Century Abe blog is the place to find out what’s been happening on 21stcenturyabe.org and what fun, exciting or downright ridiculous things the curatorial team have discovered in their search for Lincoln.
The blog is no longer being updated. But please check out our older posts.
This project has been funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program with additional support from the Marketing Innovation Program. Additional support has come from the Samuel S. Fels Fund and The Raab Collection.
This past Thursday, the city of Louisville unveiled a new Lincoln statue. Lincoln had his first adult contact with slavery in Louisville, making the location a particularly poignant space in his historical legacy. The display also includes four bas-relief sculptures which help tie together a lager narritive.
Created by Ed Hamilton, the statue depicts Abe as a 40 year old man. He sits reading a law book. The problem, as pointed out by fellow enthusiast ALO, the statue just doesn’t quite look like Abe.
The local Louisville Paper (Courier-Journal) notes the statues intent to remind of Lincoln’s legacy in Kentucky. Hamilton wishes to remind visitors of Lincoln’s struggles as well.
Let us know what you think about the statue - is it a surprising depiction? Does it ring true of your vision of Abe?
And, while at it, give us a hand by completing our online survey. It’s quick, promise, and will help us to get a better understanding of how the site has served you.
One week left to enter yourself in the May drawings for poster prize, pundit prize, and best original content. We know you have lots to share in our quest to find Abe, and we also know that you probably want an awesome hat to wear this summer.
So, get to it! Head over to Create, and make some history!
As you’ll remember, looking for Lincoln tattoos is a fun side line for us here at 21stcenturyabe. We’ve discovered some good ones, on all different bodies, and with all different associated meanings. One guy, a kayak instructor, has a Lincoln tattoo as an ode to his home state. Another, Rick Ross, decorated his chest as a reminder of a constant quest for money.
Today I found a new image of Abe - on the back of Lil’ Ms. Edith. Now, she is obviously not a person and is clearly not actually tattooed. But, the aesthetic connects and her piece is pretty nice. I have actually seen Edith around a few times, yet for some reason never explored the full range of her ink.
This might be the first toy x tattoo connection we have found for Lincoln. Anyone know of others? Or, know of any out the box Lincoln inspired toys? And, of course, more Lincoln tattoos are always appreciated. Keep us posted!
Thanks to Toxiferous Designs for highlighting Lil’ Ms. Edith and Mr. Percy.
Kathy has been hard at work prepping Finding Lincoln: 21st-Century Abe, our on-site exhibition. Opening next week, Finding Lincoln draws together all the wonderful artifacts and artistic responses from this site in real space. Additionally, we will be highlighting some of our favorite works and creations from site visitors.
The exhibition is split into two rooms. One room allows visitors the opportunity to view the selected Lincoln documents from the site with a view to connecting the themes throughout. To guide, Kathy has produced a podcast with our scholar, Douglas Wilson, offering some amazing insight and stories. If the document viewer has got you excited, now is your chance to get a little closer to Lincoln’s hand.
The second room features the artistic contributions of our project team. Original artwork from Maira Kalman, notes from Bryce Dessner and Archive, as well as some great photographs of 1812 Productions at work pepper the walls and cases. Here is where our visitor content sits as well, bringing the full experience of the site full circle.
In each space there is also a chance to hop on the computer and join the digital conversation.
Since putting together an exhibition can be a bit of a mystery, I thought I’d get a few shots of Kathy’s installation process to share. See more of those after the jump.
There has been a quality discussion about how the Victorians viewed and celebrated Lincoln on the Victoria Web listserve of late. At 21st-centuryabe, we are lucky enough to have an artist team interested in Lincoln abroad, so our wheels have been turning on that note for some time. However, our thought about Lincoln and the Victorians has been limited to date.
Kathy has noted several times the statue of Lincoln in Manchester. Rightly so, she’s discussed its erection and the inscription at the base expressing gratitude to the Manchester Cotton Workers that supported the Union Cause in the Civil War.
Through Victoria Web, we have learned that the story of the statue is not quite as straightforward as originally thought. The initial intent was to mount the work in Westminster (London), but that placement was considered too controversial, as the pose of the statue is “unstatesmanlike.” Conversly, that is just what the people of Manchester liked about it. Lincoln as man.
Even so, Manchester might not even have been second choice for the statues eventual home (and even there it has lived in two locations). Only after learning that Liverpool might recieve it did a group from the Manchester City Art Gallery petition to bring Lincoln to the city.
The statue, however, does not express the full story of Victorian attitude to Lincoln (it is also worth mentioning that it was not installed until 1919). Hot and Cold is one way to describe it. Admiration was more or less universally expressed after the assassination, but prior journalistic accounts of Old Abe were a mixed bag.
We do know that the Queen expressed her sympathies to Mary Todd following her husbands death. Some minor notes have been made about Dicken’s and his thoughts on Lincoln. Yet, no firm and solid findings from our team thus far.
May I suggest that what the Victorians thought about Lincoln is good fodder for our “Pundit Prize.” We all know the British Press loves a bit of gossip, so why not employ our Page Sixteen look? Or, simply go out and find more information about Abe and England to submit to found Abe.
Help Kathy and I out, we really do want to know what Abe ment to our friends across the pond.
We’ve been talking hats for sometime. Pumping them as prizes. Telling you all there is something special for those that win one of our CREATE prizes.
Well, today we can show you the fruits of our labor, and the work of Quintin. We worked with Brett Wiley, Quintin’s founder, to create a hat that merged Abe’s style with the 21st-century. A top hat, finished like a ball cap. The hat is all American made, with a wool body and a satin lining.
One of the things we wanted to do was follow the story of Abe using his hat to store notes. On that front, we printed the March 9, 1861 note to Gideon Welles inside.
We think the hat is really fun. Want one? Head to CREATE and submit. Only 24 were made, only for our prize winners.
Working with artists to explore mixed media reaction to Lincoln has been one of the true joys of developing and building 21stcenturyabe.org. We’ve spoken often (and highly) of our team. From comedy with 1812, to Bryce’s music, and Maira Kalman’s illustration (not to mention Archive and Douglas) we’ve got a great swatch of artistic response here on site.
That said, we are always looking out for more. The personal connection artists bring to the subject, simply put, continually excites us. Thanks to ALO we learned about Bill T. Jones commission for the Ravinia Festival. With his company, the Arnie Zane Dance Company, Jones will find shape and movement for his piece through a very close engagement with Abe.
Jones has made a name for himself choreographing pieces exploring issues of identity and social commentary. Listening to the announcement above (via youtube), you’ll see how Jones’ connects with Lincoln.
With the project set for staging on September 17, 2009, we will no doubt continue to follow its growth and development. Very exciting to see the story translated to dance, a medium that we here at 21stcenturyabe HQ have been discussing since the start of our work.
After a month of fantastic submissions to our poster prize contest, we are proud to announce that Kristine B. from Lincoln’s home state of Illinios has been chosen as winner. Her poster will soon pepper the streets of Philadelphia drawing visitors to our museum and generating a good deal of admiration for her design skill. We are really excited and can’t wait to push these into production.
Still want to make a poster? Don’t worry, the opportunity is still there, and monthly winners from now on will be treated to some pretty good prizes too.
We are also proud to announce that Michele Paliament is the second winner of the original media prize. Her work, Land Of Lincoln, will be displayed here at the Rosenbach, and she is up for the grand prize trip to Philadelphia. Congratulations Michele. See her work here, get inspired, and join the fun!
