Abraham Lincoln and eBay

One of my favorite activities (my wife would call it an addiction) is to head to the land of eBay and seek out Abraham Lincoln collectibles. I've been an eBay member since its earliest days, before it was even called "eBay" (it was then known as "Auction Web"), beginning in the summer of 1997. I've had transactions with fellow members from around the world and I love the thrill of the hunt, so to speak. Now that Brian Birck has regrettably halted his outstanding "A. Lincoln Blog" I suppose it will be OK if I take over for him and occasionally post links to fun Lincoln items I spot on eBay. I always enjoyed those postings of his titled "Abe on eBay."

At any given time there are roughly 800 to 1,000 Abe Lincoln collectibles on eBay, ranging from cheap trinkets like fridge magnets and postcards to truly astounding items such as authenticated Lincoln autographs, letters, and rare campaign items which bring thousands of dollars. I typically search only for "Abraham Lincoln" because it finds the most items, but some sellers list items as "Abe Lincoln" and those searches return 200-300 items.

Without further adieu, here is the first batch of Lincoln items I'd like to share:

• An 1860 biography in rough condition. I include this here because it was published as campaign literature prior to the election of 1860. It also includes information about Lincoln's first vice-president, Hannibal Hamlin. It's fairly common. Please note that this is NOT the first Lincoln biography, however. That distinction belongs to the famous "Wigwam Edition" published during the Republican Convention at the Wigwam in Chicago. Lincoln was such an unknown even at that point that the biography is titled "Honorable Abram Lincoln", getting his first name wrong. Those biographies are quite scarce, but you can occasionally find one on eBay, as I did a few years ago. I fortunately won the bid and it is the cornerstone of my Lincoln collection.
• A lock of Old Abe's hair. The seller states authenticity and it may well be real. I'm not an expert, but I've seen so many supposed locks of hair from Lincoln listed on eBay that if they were ALL authentic, then Lincoln was surely bald-headed when he was buried. I'd be careful.
• Here's a very nice campaign item featuring Abe and a top hat. Seller says it's an 1864 campaign item, but again, I'd be careful. It very well could be from a later Republican campaign or from the Lincoln centennial in 1909. I've not seen one of these before and I'm watching the auction closely, but will not bid.
• This signed legal document is in Lincoln's handwriting and dates from 1853. I would trust this item with no hesitation as the seller is extremely reputable. I've purchased from them previously and they have impeccable service. This item is authenticated by a trustworthy outfit as well. Bid is already over $2500, so I don't think I'll be buying it.
• A nice souvenir of the centennial of his birth is this small medallion. At just $2.58 currently, this is a cool and affordable item.
• An ashtray showing a representation of the Derringer which shot Lincoln. This is weird.
• An old print from 1866 titled "The Death Bed Of Lincoln." This looks authentic. I believe it's a Currier and Ives print. The actual room at the house where Lincoln died is much smaller than shown in the print and all of the people couldn't have possibly fit there at once.
• How about a piece of a brick from Abe's house? These were available after the renovation of Lincoln's home in Springfield.
• Here is another 1864 campaign item, a good looking photo pin. This I believe to be real.
• Finally, let's close for now with an original newspaper containing the news of Lincoln's assassination. This item appears to be legitimate, based on the seller's history and the high current price of $660.00. Please be careful when purchasing supposed historical newspapers, especially if you see the famous New York Herald edition of the assassination for sale. The Herald edition of April 15, 1865 is a highly valuable newspaper, but it has been reprinted countless times. You have to know what you're doing so you don't get taken in by one of these reprints. Always buy from a reputable seller! I own a copy of my hometown's paper trumpeting the tragic news. I purchased it from Wes Cowan's "Historic Americana" auctions. He's highly respected and is an expert appraiser on Antiques Roadshow.

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Fight Over Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Is Settled

The long-running fight between the state of Illinois and various contractors over cost overruns at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has finally been settled. The total project, including the library, museum, visitors center, parking garage and park took longer to plan and build than did the Civil War and cost a whopping 145 million dollars. An ugly dispute between the state and the contractors began even before the complex opened.

The contractors, including the architect, claimed that Illinois still owed them millions, while Illinois blamed them for huge delays on all phases of the project. To settle the dispute, Illinois will collect 3 million dollars from the contractors and in turn do not owe them a dime.

If you've never been to the Library and Museum, which is by far the most-attended of all the Presidential complexes, I would recommend it highly. I made a "pilgrimage" there a couple of years ago and found it to be informative and entertaining. To be sure, it's a little bit over the top with its "Disney-like" exhibits such as holographic presenters and a "recreation" of Lincoln's boyhood log cabin, but it also provides the casual visitor with accurate and detailed information about Lincoln and his family. When I visited, the Museum had a temporary exhibit about the assassination, titled "Blood On The Moon" and it was fascinating. The Museum gift shop is first rate with an excellent selection of books and other mementos for the more serious Lincoln fan, and the usual t-shirts and such for kids.

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Public Comments About Lincoln Museum Wanted

In recent posts, I've been covering the upcoming closure of the famed Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, scheduled for June 30. The museum serves as a repository of priceless Lincoln artifacts, including documents, photos, and literally tens of thousands of reference materials which Lincoln scholars have used for decades in research.

Now a committee made up of members of the Friends Of The Lincoln Museum is seeking comments from the public about the closing. The committee is asking for letters of support and is also soliciting any ideas about how to keep the collection in Fort Wayne. The members of the committee remind anyone that the submitted ideas must be constructive and realistic, considering the position taken by Lincoln Financial, the operator of the museum.

An informal meeting is scheduled to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 10, with its purpose to bring together individuals and groups who are interested in the future of the museum collection.

Comments and letters should be sent to:

Friends of the Lincoln Museum
P.O. Box 7863
Fort Wayne, IN 46801-7863

This information is courtesy of WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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Outstanding Lincoln Exhibit In Oregon

Since this past December (2007), the Oregon Historical Society (Portland) has been putting on an exhibit which appears to be outstanding. The exhibit, titled "A House Divided, Lincoln: In His Own Words" features priceless Lincoln letters, campaign memorabilia, political cartoons, rare plaster casts of his face and hands, and a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The reader might wonder, as I did, about what ties Lincoln could have had to Oregon. I didn't know that Lincoln was actually offered the governorship of Oregon Territory in 1849, an offer which he turned down.

I would encourage the reader to look at a very entertaining and informative video about this exhibit on the Society's exhibit homepage. In this video, a Lincoln re-enactor is seen strolling along the sidewalk in front of the Society museum, sees his own statue and walks inside. There, a local Lincoln scholar gives "Mr. Lincoln" a quick tour of the exhibit, while "Lincoln" offers various comments about the items on display. The re-enactor doesn't appear to have the height of the original, but he looks pretty close to the original. And the re-enactor is wise enough to use an approximation of Lincoln's frontier dialect, not quite "hillbilly," but definitely using terms like "reckon." At the end of the video, the scholar asks "Mr. Lincoln" to not be so long between visits and states "we need you here." How right he is!

The video is about 8-10 minutes long and is well-done. I wish Ohio wasn't so far from Oregon, because I'd love to see the exhibit in person. It runs through April 27, 2008, so there's still a month left to see it. Here is a local review of the exhibit, taken from OregonLive.com

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Obama's "Lincoln Moment"

Much has been made in the past week of Barack Obama's "Lincoln Moment" speech he gave in Philadelphia after the firestorm of controversy raised by his former pastor's (Jeremiah Wright) church sermons in which Wright repeatedly stated "God Damn America" due to racial injustices, past and present.

Reaction to Obama's speech (the complete text is here), has been mostly positive, including Chris Matthews of MSNBC who labeled it as "worthy of Abraham Lincoln". But while the speech was incredibly eloquent and meaningful, as nearly all of Mr. Obama's speeches have been, was it indeed "Lincolnesque" or not?

Harold Holzer, one of the leading Lincoln scholars, for one, thinks it was not. In fact, Holzer states that Lincoln's famous "race speech" was actually much closer to the Rev. Wright's sermons than to the speech given by Obama. In an editorial piece from the New York Sun from March 24, 2008, Holzer takes the reader through the "fury" (Holzer's term) of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. Holzer claims that Lincoln unleashed a "stern lecture" on America for permitting slavery in the first place and that God had punished the nation with the terrible tragedy which was the Civil War. He also writes that most people focus on the brilliant closing of the Address, in which Lincoln wished "malice towards none."

It must be remembered that when Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address on Saturday March 4, 1865 (the text may be found here), no one knew that the Civil War was barely just 6-8 weeks away from being over. It had dragged on for nearly four years and brought death to more than 600,000 Americans by the time of his speech. It would be no wonder if Lincoln really did unleash "fury" on his fellow countrymen.

My depth and breadth of knowledge about Abraham Lincoln certainly are not close to that of Holzer's, but I disagree with his claims he makes in the editorial about the Address. In the Address, Lincoln briefly restated the facts that while both sides (the North and South) sought to avoid war, one side sought to make it (the South) while the other chose to accept it (the North) in order to defend their beliefs about the nation. Then Lincoln went on to say how odd it was that each side prayed to the same God for his help in achieving their goals. But nowhere do I personally detect "fury" in Lincoln's Address. Indeed, he even quotes the "judge not, lest we be judged" verse from the Bible. He also states that if it is God's will that the war continue "until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'"

I know that Holzer says the most important part of Lincoln's Address is the section on slavery, but it is due to Lincoln's closing paragraph that I believe that he was not unleashing "fury" at all. He stated " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

If Lincoln really had "fury" in his bosom that day, I highly doubt that he would have shown such magnanimity in his closing. I read no condemnation of America in Lincoln's remarks, rather just an excellent grasp of the events which led to the bloodiest war in our nation's history.

For an in-depth examination of the speech many scholars consider Lincoln's greatest, even above the Gettysburg Address, the book "Lincoln's Greatest Speech" by Ronald C. White, is indispensable and is a must-have for any Lincoln library.

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Turning Abe Into A Tourist Attraction

With the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth less than one year away, it seems that every locale in the United States is trying to cash in on his continued popularity by coming up with some way of attracting tourists. Booneville, Kentucky is no different. In the Lexington, Kentucky Heralld-Leader comes this story about a somewhat mysterious folk art carving of Abraham Lincoln in a sandstone boulder.

It seems that back in the 1930's, a local family cared for an itinerant pack peddler named Granville Johnson, who was sick and needed both care and shelter. As he grew healthier, Mr. Johnson would disappear from the family's home with a hammer and chisel for hours at a time. Later that summer, Johnson finally revealed what he had been working on. It was a life-sized carving of Lincoln, showing him holding a book in his left hand.

Today, more than 70 years later, the carving is still in excellent condition and is registered by the Smithsonian Institute American Art Museum in its folk art repository. Now local officials are proposing buying the property from the current owners and establishing some sort of walking trail which would lead tourists to the carving. There is some minor controversy as there always is when change comes to a community.

The article I pulled this story from shows another photo of the carving in its entirety.

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Lincoln Casket Replica In Nebraska

One of the things I most like about being an Abraham Lincoln blogger is that I come across some weird items which fascinate me, and at least hopefully hold the interest of my readers. Just today, I stumbled upon this little article from the McCook Daily Gazette (Nebraska) which talks about a replica of Abraham Lincoln's casket being on display at the local mortuary.

The photo shows the casket. It's one of three replica Lincoln caskets made by the Batesville Casket Company. It supposedly is an exact replica, but I have no idea if it truly is. There is also a replica casket on display at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois. Thank goodness they don't have a replica Abraham Lincoln body in the casket. That would've been too weird even for me!

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