Guide to the Lincoln Collection, Cartoons, Drawings and Photographs 1860-1930


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Table of Contents

• Descriptive Summary
• Information on Use
• Access
• Citation
• Biographical Note
• Scope Note
• Related Resources
• Subject Headings
• INVENTORY
• Series I: Lincoln’s Life and Presidential Campaigns
  • Subseries 1: Life and Campaigns
  • Subseries 2: British "Punch" Cartoons
  • Subseries 3: L. H. Stephens Cartoons
  • Subseries 4: Lincoln’s Handling of Civil War
• Series II: Civil War Cartoons and Drawings
  • Subseries 1: Britain Responses to American Civil War
  • Subseries 2: The Issue of Slavery in the American Civil War
  • Subseries 3: Soldier Life
  • Subseries 4: Mythical and Iconic War Cartoons and Drawings
  • Subseries 5: Effect and Outcome of the American Civil War
• Series III: The Canada Fires of the Fenian Raids
• Series IV: Photographs
• Series V: Addenda

Descriptive Summary

Information on Use

Access

The collection is open for research.

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Lincoln Collection. Cartoons, Drawings, and Photographs, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

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.

Scope Note

The Lincoln Cartoons, Drawings, and Photographs collection forms part of the William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana. The vast majority of the collection consists of cartoons, drawings, and lithographs from the American Civil War period. Subject matters of these cartoons vary in scope in their relation to the war and have been organized to distinguish issues addressed in the materials.

The collection is organized into four series. Series I, Lincoln’s Life and Presidential Campaigns, is divided into four subseries and contains materials related to Lincoln’s presidential and pre-presidential life as well as commentaries on his consecutive presidential campaigns and his handlings in the efforts of the Civil War.

Series II, Civil War Cartoons and Drawings, is divided into four subseries and contains materials related to the Civil War. Subseries 1 houses materials covering Britain’s responses to the American Civil War through cartoons published in the “Punch, or the London Charivari” British magazine; in this series, depictions of the American and British personifications of Brother John and Jack Bull can be found. Subseries 2 contains materials related to the issue of slavery before and during the Civil War. Britain’s comments on the American dilemma of the right to own slaves are housed here as well as a coterie of lithograph illustrations from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Subseries 3 contains drawings and lithographs illustrating life of the soldier and Civil War battle scenes. A catalogue testing the effect of cannon shots is also housed in this subseries. Subseries 4 contains representations of Civil War figure-heads as Greek Mythology icons or novel characters; mainly from texts such as those written by William Shakespeare. Subseries 5 contains commentary on the result effects of the Civil War; the outcome and reconstruction of the post-war period and its effects on the country as a whole.

Series III, The Canada Fires of the Fenian Raids, contains materials from the “Punch” magazine. Cartoons and drawings focusing on the United States inaction to aid British Canada when it was invaded by the Fenian Brotherhood are housed here.

Series IV, Photographs, contains photography from the time period of William E.

Barton. This includes an image of Graham White, aviator.

Related Resources

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Subject Headings

• Barton, William Eleazar, 1861-1930
• Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
• Hanks, Lucy, d. 1825
• Hanks, Nancy, 1784-1818
• Collectors and collecting -- United States
• Slavery
• Antislavery movements
• United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865

INVENTORY

This series is composed of cartoons, lithographs, and drawings related to Lincoln’s eras of presidency. The materials housed here are divided into four subseries whose subject matters include Lincoln’s presidential campaigns and genealogy, publications where he is represented from the "Punch" magazine, a sequence of cartoons by L.H. Stephens, and opinions on his orchestration of the Civil War. Please note there is also an instance of correspondence between R.E. Townsend and William E. Barton in Folder 3 with the Stephens cartoons.

Materials housed in this series focus on issues surrounding the American Civil War. These prints, drawings, and lithographs are mainly publications from the "Punch, or the London Charivari" British magazine and center on Britain’s political relations with America during their Civil War. The issue of slavery, Britain’s association to America during the war, and the effects and outcomes of it are the focuses dealt with in the cartoons housed here. Also included are cartoons which utilize mythological icons to personify figure-heads during the war as well as the confrontation of America invading Canada. Included here are a series of illustrations from the novel "Uncle Tom’s Cabin".

The cartoons and drawings housed in this series are "Punch" magazine commentaries on the United States inaction to aid British Canada when their neutrality was violated by the Fenian raids.

Housed in this series are photographs taken during the time period of William E.

Barton.