Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln

Gallery 2

An 1888 “tobacco card” issued by Honest Long Cut Tobacco depicting Robert T. Lincoln of Illinois as a presidential possibility for that year. Lincoln’s card was one of twenty-five issued in the series, both Republicans and Democrats, which included politicians such as Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. Author’s collection. “Preparing for a Ten Strike,” political cartoon from a May 1888 issue of the Daily Graphic, showing 1884 Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine preparing to bowl down his opponents for the 1888 nomination. Robert Lincoln’s head is on the pin second from the right. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Robert Lincoln (back row, second from right) and his nineteen-year-old daughter Mamie (bottom row, center, wearing hat) in Paris, July 14, 1888, during a tour of Europe that father and daughter took partly so Robert could be absent from America during the Republican national nominating convention that June. Courtesy of Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, Vermont. “The ‘Press View’ at the Candidate Show,” an 1895 political cartoon showing men representing different newspapers, some with magnifying glasses, viewing presidential candidates for the 1896 election. The ultimate winner, William McKinley, sits far right with a sword labeled “protectionism”; former president Benjamin Harrison is front right wearing professorial garb with a sign stating, “My friends say I am not a candidate”; Robert Lincoln stands in the back row, third from right, below a coat suspended above him (fit for his father), in front of a sign reading, “Bobby Todd Lincoln, there is a good deal in the name.” Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Robert Lincoln depicted in 1897 during his brief tenure as president of the Chicago Telephone Company. Artist Lloyd Ostendorf was renowned for more than fifty years for his excellent drawings of scenes from the life of Abraham Lincoln. While Ostendorf occasionally included a young Robert in Lincoln family scenes, this is the only drawing by Ostendorf that focuses on Robert as an adult and as the main composition subject. Illustration by Lloyd Ostendorf, author of Abraham Lincoln: The Boy, the Man, reproduced courtesy of publisher Phil Wagner, Springfield, Illinois, www.abelincoln.com. Lincoln “Linc” Isham and his father, Charles, posing on the south porch of Hildene, around 1908. Courtesy of Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, Vermont. Jessie Harlan Lincoln Beckwith and her children, Peggy (left) and Bud, around 1912. At the time of this photo, Jessie was nearing age forty, Peggy was fourteen, and Bud was eight. Courtesy of Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, Vermont. Robert T. Lincoln in a studio photograph taken sometime around the turn of the twentieth century, while he served as president of the Pullman Company. In this photograph, Robert looks every inch the self-assured captain of industry that he was. Courtesy of Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, Vermont. Robert Lincoln’s summer home, Hildene, from a 1909 postcard. Courtesy of Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, Vermont. “Hoo’s Hoo To-day” cartoon published across the country by the Associated Newspapers syndicate in 1914 poking fun at Robert Lincoln’s well-known aversion to publicity. The artist sent a copy of the cartoon to Robert and told him the drawing and accompanying rhymes “have been written in the spirit of fun, and the author trusts to the good nature of the victims to accept them in that light.” Lincoln’s reaction, if any, is unknown. Courtesy of Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, Vermont. 1918 Life magazine cartoon depicting Robert Lincoln’s angst over the George Gray Barnard statue of Abraham Lincoln that Robert called “a monstrous figure which is grotesque as a likeness of President Lincoln and defamatory as an effigy.” Lincoln spent two years publicly denouncing the statue and preventing its placement in London. Author’s collection. Robert Lincoln, age seventy-seven, at the Chevy Chase Golf Club, outside Washington, D.C., sitting with two of his favorite things: a golf club and a cigar. Courtesy of Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, Manchester, Vermont. Robert Lincoln posing with his survey equipment on the...