The Lincoln Image

[Gene C]

The Lincoln Image
Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print
by Harold Holzer, Gabor S Boritt, and Mark R Neely Jr.
copyright 2001, about 210 pages of text, plus intro and index.
Nicely illustrated

"Focusing on prints produced in Lincoln' lifetime and in the iconographically important months immediately following his death, this lavishly illustrated volume pairs original photographs and photographs with the prints made from them. ....the juxtaposition reveals how the printmakers reworked the original images to refine Lincoln's appearance, substituting his image for those of earlier politicians or adding a beard to images of him that originally appeared clean shaven."
(from the book cover)

The focus is on the prints made following Lincoln's nomination, since hardly anyone knew what he looked like, the time of the emancipation proclamation, and his death.

"In truth, however, prints had not really succeeded in capturing Abraham Lincoln in the endless variety of moods his contemporaries described in their written reminiscences; no medium had. The 'flexible face' of which Schuylar Colfax wrote and which artist of the period later admitted they found so difficult to portray remained - and still remains - an enigma. His photographs do not show the real Lincoln, and neither do his paintings or sculpture from life. At best, each medium succeeded in capturing only a part of the living man: photographs, the frozen expression required by the primitive camera; the fine arts, the formal, rigid dignity dictated by artistic convention; and print portraits, the Lincoln "for the people" - more active, more romanticized, more colorful than in any other medium, though also necessarily far less accurate. None had completely captured the man whom observers found at once homely and captivating."

"In a sense, though, the print makers had not failed. They had introduced Lincoln to millions of Americans; made his unconventional appearance palatable; helped create an image for him of honesty, patriotism, and strength; chronicled his changing appearance as he headed for the White House; commemorated his war and his decision to emancipate the slaves; and ultimately provided a visual accompaniment to an emerging folklore. The Lincoln they helped chisel into
America's increasingly pictorial consciousness was inseparable from the nation he helped preserve." (page 215-216)

I enjoy and appreciate the book more after reading it and looking back at the illustrations, than I did while in the process of reading it.
For me, it became more enjoyable to read when I got a little over half way through.

I purchased a new, softbound copy, it is much less new expensive than a hardback copy
https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Image-ABR...737&sr=8-1