Lincoln Discussion Symposium
Who is this person? - Printable Version

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RE: Who is this person? - LincolnToddFan - 12-30-2014 11:12 AM

(12-29-2014 07:00 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  
(12-29-2014 05:54 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  According to Wiki in 1851:
http://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Seward_1851.png#mw-jump-to-license
The file history reads it was first published in "McClure's Magazine'', November 1906, p. 16.

Thanks, Eva.

I wouldn't have recognized him either, Toia, because of the steely look in his eyes. In fact, that photo reminds me of some photos I've seen of Lincoln. Most of the photos that we see of Seward show him with a more genial expression.

YAYYYY!! It's not just me!Big Grin I came thiclose to answering that it was Lincoln, but I didn't want to look like a big old dummy if I got it wrong. But I am glad to read that others thought the same, that it looked like AL.

RE: Who is this person? - RJNorton - 01-01-2015 10:15 AM

Let's try another one. Who is this person?

[Image: misteryeye.jpg]


RE: Who is this person? - STS Lincolnite - 01-01-2015 10:18 AM

(01-01-2015 10:15 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Let's try another one. Who is this person?

[Image: misteryeye.jpg]

Edwin Stanton?

RE: Who is this person? - RJNorton - 01-01-2015 01:00 PM

Excellent guess, Scott, but it is not Edwin Stanton.

RE: Who is this person? - Eva Elisabeth - 01-01-2015 01:02 PM

Robert T. L.?

RE: Who is this person? - RJNorton - 01-01-2015 01:13 PM

Amazing, Eva! I really thought I would have to give some clues on this one. Yes, indeed it is Robert T. Lincoln. You win very best wishes for a wonderful 2015.

[Image: 640px-Robert_Todd_Lincoln_-_Harris_and_Ewing.jpg]
Robert T. Lincoln


RE: Who is this person? - Eva Elisabeth - 01-01-2015 02:50 PM

Thank you, Roger, that is a great prize!

When I saw this photo the first time, it slightly gave me the creeps, especially look of these eyes. Seemed so cold to me. As a child it would have scared me.

RE: Who is this person? - RJNorton - 01-01-2015 03:06 PM

Eva, I can see what you mean about the photo. Robert had a problem with his right eye in his youth. In 1894 Robert wrote, "I have been pulling along with only one eye for many years..." Jason Emerson writes that "...Robert eventually became blind in his right eye." I believe the photo I posted was taken in 1915, so Robert was 72 at that time. So I am thinking Robert was most likely blind in the right eye at the time of the photo.

RE: Who is this person? - Eva Elisabeth - 01-02-2015 04:27 AM

Are there any details known about the eye surgery he allegedly had as a teen?

RE: Who is this person? - RJNorton - 01-02-2015 05:11 AM

Jason Emerson mentions several possibilities, but he concludes exactly what was done with Robert's eye cannot be firmly established. The most graphic account I have ever seen is in Irving Stone's Love is Eternal. Stone mentions that Robert was nicknamed "Cockeye" by the neighborhood youths as he was growing up. According to Stone, this eye condition was corrected via such a painful operation that young Robert had to be tied down (with a stout rope against a high leather-covered chair) as a surgeon cut the overactive eye muscle which released the eye to its normal position. Robert writhed in pain. The surgeon was Dr. Sanford Bell, and he followed a surgical procedure developed in Germany by a Dr. Dieffenbach as outlined in the book "Ueber das Schielen und die Heilung."

Stone writes that the operation was a success. After healing took place Robert's right eye moved normally in both directions.

Stone's book is historical fiction but IMO very well researched.

RE: Who is this person? - Rogerm - 01-02-2015 09:35 AM

Apparently, the German title of the book by Dr. Dieffenbach means "About Cross-Eyedness and its Healing."

RE: Who is this person? - RJNorton - 01-02-2015 09:50 AM

(01-02-2015 09:35 AM)Rogerm Wrote:  Apparently, the German title of the book by Dr. Dieffenbach means "About Cross-Eyedness and its Healing."

Thanks, Roger. Irving Stone writes that the book had drawings of how the overactive eye muscle was cut so the eye could return to its normal position. Stone says Mary was shown these drawings before agreeing to allow Robert to undergo the operation.

RE: Who is this person? - Eva Elisabeth - 01-02-2015 10:17 AM

Thanks Roger, fascinating info about the use of J.F. Dieffenbach's method! He was the first to successfully perform a myotomy for the treatment of strabismus (on a seven-year old boy in 1839), and the basic principles of his method have changed little since (just been refined).

You can read/download the book here, the drawings are in the very back, p.221ff.:
https://archive.org/details/ueberdasschielen00dief

RE: Who is this person? - RJNorton - 01-02-2015 12:45 PM

Thanks, Eva. I wish I could say this operation, as described by Irving Stone, happened with 100% certainty. Jason Emerson writes that the evidence for the operation is "scanty and speculative." He also mentions that the operation was rarely done on children.

Irving Stone's book is not footnoted so I do not know his source for the quite detailed description of the operation which he provided in his book.

RE: Who is this person? - Linda Anderson - 01-02-2015 01:25 PM

(01-02-2015 12:45 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Thanks, Eva. I wish I could say this operation, as described by Irving Stone, happened with 100% certainty. Jason Emerson writes that the evidence for the operation is "scanty and speculative." He also mentions that the operation was rarely done on children.

Irving Stone's book is not footnoted so I do not know his source for the quite detailed description of the operation which he provided in his book.

Roger, the Irving Stone Papers are at Berkeley.

"Consists of Stone's correspondence; research material, drafts, publicity, and ephemera related to his writings; professional and personal papers; and subject files, along with some papers of his wife, Jean Stone. Stone's correspondence reflects his many activities as both a private person and a public figure. His writings contain files for all his major works, chiefly biographical novels, but also including biographies, history, novels, short stories, dramatic works, articles, speeches, and reviews, as well as books he edited himself or with Jean Stone, and works by others to which he contributed segments. Also includes files related to Stone's appearances, interviews, travels, bio-bibliographic information, contracts, honors and awards, and teaching, along with family correspondence and some personal miscellany."

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt067nc3q6/