Lincoln Collection. Currier & Ives Lithographs, 1844-1890

© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library

Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas and the Civil War

Visual Arts

This collection is open for research.

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Lincoln Collection. Currier & Ives Lithographs, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Rev. William Eleazar Barton (1861-1930) The Rev. William Eleazar Barton (1861-1930) was one of the early twentieth century's most prominent writers and lecturers on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Born in Sublette, Illinois, in the same year Lincoln assumed the presidency, Barton grew up in an environment heavily influenced by reverence for Lincoln. After pursuing undergraduate studies at Berea College in Kentucky, Barton earned his divinity degree from the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1890. He served parishes in Tennessee, Ohio, and Massachusetts before becoming the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Oak Park, Illinois, a position he held until his retirement in 1924. Four years later, Barton accepted an appointment as lecturer at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, where he also organized and served as pastor of the Collegeside Congregational Church.

Barton's work as a writer produced a number of denominational manuals for church organization and a series of books presenting the wisdom and parables of a character he named Safed the Sage. For the last ten years of his life, however, Barton was best known to the public as a prolific author and lecturer on Abraham Lincoln. His publications about Lincoln included The Soul of Abraham Lincoln (1920), The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln (1920), The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1925), The Great and Good Man (1927), The Women Lincoln Loved (1927), and The Lincoln of the Biographers (1930).

In the course of compiling material for his writings and talks, Barton visited Lincoln sites in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; interviewed surviving Lincoln relatives and acquaintances; and traveled as far as California and England to collect information and conduct genealogical research on the ancestry of the Lincoln family. While acquiring a large collection of books, periodicals, pamphlets, manuscripts, and ephemera related to Lincoln and the Civil War era, Barton also purchased privately or at auction historical materials amassed by other Lincoln collectors such as John E. Burton and Osborn H. Oldroyd.

In 1932, at the urging of Professor William E. Dodd and other faculty members in the Department of History, Barton's collection of books and manuscripts on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era was acquired by the University of Chicago Library. Among the 3,500 books in Barton's collection were most of the significant works on Lincoln published since his presidency, many of them copies signed by the authors; first editions of the printings of a number of Lincoln's pre-presidential speeches; seventy-five volumes from law library of Lincoln and his partner William Herndon; a dozen titles from the collection of Lincoln's secretary John Hay; Herndon's own copy of his celebrated lecture describing Lincoln's relationship with Ann Rutledge; and a broadside copy of the Emancipation Proclamation bearing the signatures of Lincoln, William Seward, and John G. Nicolay.

The manuscript portion of Barton's collection included an array of autograph Lincolniana: briefs, pardons, and commissions in Lincoln's hand; original letters of Mary Todd Lincoln; one of the few extant letters written by Lincoln to his wife; a letter written by eight-year-old Willie Lincoln while accompanying his father on a trip to Chicago; letters written by members of the Lincoln cabinet and other notable political and military figures of the time; Lincoln portraits, photographs, and paintings; and a large amount of ephemeral material related to Lincoln, his parentage, Lincoln homes and sites, and the Civil War.

This collection of lithographs from the Currier & Ives Printmaking Company forms a portion of the William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana. Images located here are related to Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War and issues in politics pertaining to this time and the antebellum north in the second half of the nineteenth century through caricatures of migrant African Americans.

This collection is organized into five series. Series I, Civil war Scenes, contains chromolithograph images of battle scenes. Several images picture clouds of smoke in colored in rosy hues, indicative of the romanticism Currier & Ives were known for.

Series II, Political Cartoons, contains cartoons from the time around the closing of the war. A vast majority of the subject matter addressed in these was the battle of obtaining the presidency in the 1860 election. Lincoln was elected over his three running mates: John bell, John Breckinridge, and Stephen A. Douglas. The campaigner’s party platforms also appear as subjects in the cartoons.

Series III, Lincoln, consists of portraits and images pertaining to Lincoln’s life, campaigns, his assassination, and dedicative memorials. Along with individual bust and full body portraits are also images of Lincoln pictured with his family.

Series IV, Portraits and Miscellaneous, contains portrait images of presidents, soldiers, and statesmen, depicted individually as well as in groups. Among the images of statesmen and soldiers are portrait prints of General Grant on horseback and also images of him with his family.

Series V, Caricatures, consists of chromolithograph prints from the Currier & Ives “Darktown” series. These chromos portray African Americans living in a segregated community. They are showcased portraying an array of negative stereotypes and are pictured attempting to resolve mishaps such as house fires.

Currier & Ives was based in New York City from 1857-1907. The company had been in business since 1834 under different operating names; however, all prints known to have come from this particular company are referred to as Currier & Ives prints. The press produced prints intended for sale to the general public for display in homes and workplaces. The images provided a historical depiction of America’s development from an agricultural to an industrialized society.

Instructions for Use of Collection:

The original description for instructions to accessing this collection was maintained during the 2008 reorganization. The instructions below relate the materials in this collection to the reference aids of Jane Cooper Bland (Currier & Ives, A Manual for Collectors. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Doran & Co. 1931) and Frederic A, Conningham (Currier & Ives Prints: An Illustrated Check List, (updated by Colin Simkin), N.Y. Crown Publishers, 1970.) This system has been kept here to aid the researcher utilizing the collection.

Arrangement follows the classification schedule given in Bland, pp. 297-348. Exceptions are noted and cross-references are given. Entry follows the form given in Conningham.

B# = Bland number

C# = Conningham number

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

• Names
  • Barton, William Eleazar, 1861-1930
  • Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
  • Currier & Ives
• Subject
  • Collectors and collecting -- United States
  • Lithography, American