Abraham Lincoln: Portrayed in the Collections of the Indiana Historical Society (review)

This lavishly illustrated, coffee-table-type volume by the prolific Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer takes measure of the Indiana Historical Society's growing importance in Lincoln studies. In 2003, the IHS supplemented approximately 300 pieces of Lincolniana in its holdings by acquiring roughly 800 items from the Jack L. Smith Lincoln Graphics Collection. Around the same time, the society purchased the Daniel R. Weinberg Lincoln Conspirators Collection (artifacts, photographs, pamphlets, etc.) about Lincoln's assassination and the original collodion wet-plate negative of Alexander Gardner's famous 1863 portrait of Lincoln. Sculptor Daniel C. French later relied on this image for his Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

Holzer divides his work into six sections: (1) a fifty-seven-page introduction to printmaking about Lincoln; (2) 141 pages about the Smith collection; (3) sixteen pages on the Weinberg collection; (4) three pages on the Gardner glass plate negative; (5) an eighteen-page survey of the society's other pictures about Lincoln and his times; and (6) a twelve-page treatment of the society's Lincoln-related manuscript holdings (in various collections). For each section (when applicable), Holzer describes the IHS's subdivisions of the material and provides separate listings for each item by title, often inserting annotations within the listings. Most descriptions identify artist or publisher, date, medium, physical dimensions, framing status, and how the item is cataloged. About 150 well-chosen reproductions, some in color, accompany the text, including such intriguing ephemera as an undated metal cigar company sign emphasizing Lincoln's call for malice toward none and a fifty-cent currency note from the Reconstruction period. The IHS Press positioned many images on or directly opposite the page where the relevant annotation appears, making cross-referencing easy and straightforward. Manuscripts are arranged by type (by Lincoln, to Lincoln, Certificates and Endorsements, about Lincoln) and date.

Holzer's introduction explores such subjects as printmakers' reactions to Lincoln's presidential nomination in 1860, their prioritizing marketability over partisanship, how Mathew Brady's portrait photographs of Lincoln influenced lithographers and engravers, how Lincoln's growing a beard following his 1860 election upset traditional rhythms of political printmaking, and the transformation of Lincoln's image as the war progressed. Holzer argues that prints conveyed a "quintessentially civilian" (22) image of Lincoln almost to war's end by failing to embed him in the presence of military figures. He also observes that in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation printmakers hesitated before ultimately portraying Lincoln as a great liberator, but that they never wearied of associating him with George Washington or presenting him in family contexts, even though he spent relatively little time with his wife and children during the war.

These images and annotations address, but cannot resolve, many issues of concern in current Lincoln scholarship. Is it significant, for example, that Lincoln was photographed with his son Tad, but never with his wife Mary? They also remind us that the doctoring of photographs is about as old as the taking of them. Thus, Mathew Brady "perfected the concept of composite images by grouping individual photographs into a single photograph" (86), and a supposed photograph of Lincoln funeral proceedings in Indianapolis is actually one of a historical reenactment since heavy rain impaired photography on the day of the actual event. It is unfortunate that this book lacks an index, and I question Holzer's strategy of repeating annotations word for word in cases when they apply to more than one image. But this publication provides an invaluable introduction to the Lincoln materials in Indianapolis and demands slots on the bookshelves of both Lincoln scholars and buffs alike.