Marks of Lincoln on Our Land (review)

Book Reviews207 Nation. It all adds up to a variegated, but surprising symmetrical canvas of the War. There is also a certain amount of dross. Most of the battle accounts are unremarkable , and there are too many samples of the canonization school of biography ; the syrupyportraits of Lee and Polk and Joe Johnston are so remote from real people that the names could be interchanged at random without anyone being the wiser. But these are small deficiencies, and perhaps they only serve to make the considerable virtues of The Confederate Reader more impressive. William E. Porter Iowa City, Iowa Marks of Lincoln on Our Land. By Maurine Whorton Redway and Dorothy Kendall Bracken. (New York: Hastings House. 1957. Pp. 180. $3.75.) this selection of forty-one photographs, with text, offers the reader something of an armchair pilgrimage to places and scenes Abe Lincoln once knew. Starting with the Lincoln statue at Hodgenville, Kentucky, and ending with Daniel Chester French's heroic marble in the Lincoln Memorial, the range includes the humble birthplace log cabin, the house in Springfield, and the White House in Washington. While many of the places pictured in this book are only replicas of the original a great deal of care and attention to detail has gone into each reconstruction. Every effort was made to place them on the identical spot once occupied by the building of Lincoln's time. The various Kentucky and Illinois cabins of the Lincoln family are such reconstructions. For the Indiana homestead the cabin is merely outlined with the bottom logs and some stones of the hearth in bronze reproduction. The visitor's imagination is allowed free play under a summer sky and the inscribed marker helps the mind's eye. As the altar of his home . . . this is the hearth set here to mark the place where Lincoln at his mother's knee learned that integrity and strength, that kindliness and love of all beauty . . . have made the memory of his life and work a priceless heritage to all the world. All the sites of Lincoln's early years have a humble, elemental quality that is such a marked contrast to his final place in the American scene. It is with something akin to disbelief that one studies the birthplace cabin and then looks at the spacious grounds or walks through the handsome rooms of the White House. To begin in the first and then rise to the second by individual effort and ability is indeed "making your mark" on the land. Outstanding of all the Lincoln period restorations is the village of New Salem in Illinois. Structures in this little community have been put up on practically the identical spots they occupied in the 1800's. On a conducted tour of the Village, the late Harry Pratt explained that a fantastic amount of research plus a great deal of site excavation went into its reconstruction. Because of this painstaking care to duplicate what was once there the visitor is keenly aware of what life was like in New Salem in the days of young Abe Lincoln. 208CI VIL W AR HISTOR Y The original Vandalia and Springfield Capitol buildings, now courthouses, still stand. In both, lawyer and legislator Lincoln developed his skills and knowledge for eventual statesmanship. The Lincoln home on Eighth and Jackson Streets, in Springfield, is the actual structure bought by the Lincolns in 1844. Within its walls the awareness of the spirit of Mary and Abraham Lincoln is very much a part of the experience of visiting each room. This book is written in good taste and is complete enough to stimulate much interest in following the Lincoln trail. It makes an indispensable guide on any privately conducted pilgrimage and an ideal memento once the trip is completed. A good map could have been the final touch, while students of Lincoln would appreciate a few more photographs of such places as the Great Hall at Cooper Union, Lincoln's church in Washington, the Peterson House, and other old landmarks associated with the man. Beyond such minor omissions, Maurine Redway and Dorothy Bracken are to be complimented for a careful selection of some excellent photographs and a...