Abraham Lincoln statues

[AussieMick]

" we wandered a little " ..... ????

More like a trip to the moon followed by a cruise around the world, with a double pike and front triple twist.

But very enjoyable. Well done to all.

[David Lockmiller]

Your last post was very impressive, Gene.

[David Lockmiller]

The 1619 Chronicles

By Bret Stephens
Opinion Columnist for the New York Times
October 9, 2020

An early sign that the project was in trouble came in an interview last November with James McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Battle Cry of Freedom” and a past president of the American Historical Association. He was withering: “Almost from the outset,” McPherson told the World Socialist Web Site, “I was disturbed by what seemed like a very unbalanced, one-sided account, which lacked context and perspective.”


Washington Post Opinion by George Will - 12/17/2021: "The malicious, historically illiterate 1619 Project keeps rolling on"

A new book by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, "The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story."

The New York Times is like God, who, if Genesis reported Creation correctly, beheld His handiwork and decided “it was very good.” The Times is comparably pleased with itself concerning its creation, “The 1619 Project.”

This began in August 2019 as a special edition of the paper’s Sunday magazine. Now it has become a book by which the Times continues attempting to “reframe” U.S. history. In the Times, an advertisement for the Times’s book describes it as “a dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism.” That description damages journalism’s reputation for respecting facts, which the 2019 writing that begot this book did not do. The 1619 Project’s tendentiousness reeks of political purpose.

The Times’s original splashy assertion – slightly fudged after the splash garnered a Pulitzer Prize – was that the American Revolution, the most important event in our history, was shameful because a primary reason it was fought was to preserve slavery. The war was supposedly ignited by a November 1775 British offer of freedom to Blacks who fled slavery and joined British forces.

Addressing the American Council of Trustees and Alumni last month, Gordon S. Wood, today’s foremost scholar of America’s Founding, dissected the 1619 Project’s contentions. When the Revolution erupted, Britain “was not threatening to abolish slavery in its empire,” which included lucrative, slavery-dependent sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean.

[Gene C]

Here's some good news.

From Fox News, Lincoln Statue Back On Display At Cornell University Library After Abrupt Removal

https://www.foxnews.com/us/lincoln-statu...pt-removal

[David Lockmiller]

(11-17-2022 07:24 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Here's some good news.

From Fox News, Lincoln Statue Back On Display At Cornell University Library After Abrupt Removal

https://www.foxnews.com/us/lincoln-statu...pt-removal

Just ahead of Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, he agreed to sit for a teenage female sculptor named Vinnie Ream, who captured the 16th president’s "resolve" and the "weight of the war" that was etched on his face.

[nice photo of girl with her statue of President Lincoln; photo caption below]

American sculptor Vinnie Ream (1847-1914) poses beside her bust of Abraham Lincoln. Created when she was only a teenager, she was both the first woman and the youngest artist to be commissioned by the U.S. government for a statue. (PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

After President Lincoln’s death, Ream became the youngest artist and first woman to ever be commissioned by the federal government for a statue: the Lincoln statue that is featured in the U.S. Capitol’s rotunda.

Elaine L. Westbrooks, Carl A. Kroch University's librarian said:

"Cornell proudly possesses an enviable Lincoln collection, including one of the five known copies of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln’s handwriting, and one of 14 manuscript copies of the 13th Amendment with the original signatures of Lincoln and members of Congress who voted for it. In addition to the Lincoln bust, the university also owns and displays a Lincoln statue in Uris Library."

[David Lockmiller]

There is no reference to Vinnie Ream in Professor Burlingame's book Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Vol. 2.

Googling and Wikipedia provided a book source - Vinnie Ream, an American Sculptor by Edward S. Cooper (2004) p. 17-18:

During the summer [of the 1864 election year), President Lincoln and his family stayed at the Soldier's Home, north of the city, and traveled every day on horseback or by carriage to the White House. Vinnie often saw him coming down Pennsylvania Avenue with his cavalry escort, and became fascinated with his rugged appearance. She wanted him to sit for her. He had, after all, allowed Leonard Volk to take his life mask, and Francis Carpenter had set up a studio in the White House to paint the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. If the president sat for her, her reputation would be made. Three of her new political connections agreed to approach the president for her.

Senators James Nesmith and Reverdy Johnson, along with Representative James Moorhead (both Nesmith and Moorhead were to sit for Vinnie) called on Lincoln, who said he did not want to pose, adding that he could "not imagine why anyone would want to make a likeness of such a homely man." As the men rose to leave, Nesmith, a Democrat from Oregon, remarked: "This will be a disappointment to the young artist who selected you as her subject. She is a little Western girl, born in Wisconsin. She's poor and has talent, and we intend to encourage her in this work, in which we feel she will excel, by giving her an order for a bust in marble . . ."

Lincoln cut him off. "She's poor, is she?" he asked. "Oh, well, that's nothing against her. Why don't you bring that girl up here? I'll sit for my bust."

The timing appears, based on additional text, to have been around the time before the creation of the "Blind Memorandum" on the morning of August 23, 1864.

[David Lockmiller]

Vinnie Ream, an American Sculptor by Edward S. Cooper (2004) p. 18:

Vinnie came for a half-hour session with the president on most days when he was in the White House. She recalled that there was little conversation at these times. Lincoln would roam around the office, apparently lost in thought, or slouch at his desk with bowed head. . . . Often he would stand by the window and look out upon the White House lawn. He told Vinnie that he used to watch his son Willie play there every afternoon and added that Vinnie reminded him of Willie, who had died two years before. Tears would sometimes stream down his face as he talked about his lost son. Vinnie said later that Lincoln, known for his frontier humor, "never told a funny story to me. He rarely smiled. He rarely smiled." Her enduring impression of Lincoln was one of profound sorrow.

[Gene C]

I have read this book and left a review here - https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...innie+Ream

[David Lockmiller]

"The only personal request [Vinnie Ream] made of [President Lincoln] was that he sign a copy she had made of the Emancipation Proclamation. He signed it and had Secretary of State William Seward sign as well."

Vinnie Ream, an American Sculptor by Edward S. Cooper (2004) p. 18.

I tried to find the location of this actual "Lincoln" document with Google but without any success. What would be the monetary value of such a document?

[David Lockmiller]

(11-19-2022 02:58 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  "The only personal request [Vinnie Ream] made of [President Lincoln] was that he sign a copy she had made of the Emancipation Proclamation. He signed it and had Secretary of State William Seward sign as well."

Vinnie Ream, an American Sculptor by Edward S. Cooper (2004) p. 18.

I tried to find the location of this actual "Lincoln" document with Google but without any success. What would be the monetary value of such a document?

I found the following reference in the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress:

Vinnie Ream and R. L. Hoxie Papers
See bottom, page 6.
BOX OV 2 not filmed Copy of Emancipation Proclamation (signatures of Abraham Lincoln and William H. Seward not in their respective handwriting)

"not in their respective handwriting" may be a mistake by the archivists

Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79026674

If it is real, it would be nice to have the actual document on display in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum along with materials on Vinnie Ream's Lincoln Bust at Cornell University library and the Lincoln statue in the rotunda of United States Congress.

[David Lockmiller]

I googled the Library of Congress website. There was an "Ask a Question" feature to submit a question and provide the basis for the question. I made the following entry:

Original Question
Nov 22 2022, 03:15pm via System

"The only personal request [Vinnie Ream] made of [President Lincoln] was that he sign a copy she had made of the Emancipation Proclamation. He signed it and had Secretary of State William Seward sign as well."

Vinnie Ream, an American Sculptor by Edward S. Cooper (2004) p. 18.


I found the following reference in the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress:

Vinnie Ream and R. L. Hoxie Papers
See bottom, page 6.
BOX OV 2 not filmed Copy of Emancipation Proclamation (signatures of Abraham Lincoln and William H. Seward not in their respective handwriting)

Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79026674

Would not stating that President Lincoln’s and Secretary Seward’s signatures are “not in their respective handwriting” be a logical inconsistency with Vinnie Ream's biographer, Edward S. Cooper?

True "Lincoln history" in the Library of Congress should not be lost by a simple mistake!

Less than an hour later, I received the following response:

Manuscript Division Reference Librarian
Nov 22 2022, 04:11pm via System

Hello,

Your message was referred to the Manuscript Division, which holds the Vinnie Ream and R. L. Hoxie Papers. If Abraham Lincoln and William H. Seward did sign a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation for Vinnie Ream, it is not the document that is in the Oversize series of the Hoxie Papers at the Library of Congress. Neither signature is consistent with the known handwriting of either Lincoln or Seward, for which the Manuscript Division has multiple samples.

Regards,
Michelle A. Krowl
Civil War and Reconstruction Specialist
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
mkrowl@loc.gov

[David Lockmiller]

It would appear that this gift from Vinnie Ream to the American people "walked" into private hands even before trained Library of Congress staff were able to catalog Vinnie Ream's gift originally signed by both President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward.

[RJNorton]

(11-19-2022 02:58 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  "The only personal request [Vinnie Ream] made of [President Lincoln] was that he sign a copy she had made of the Emancipation Proclamation. He signed it and had Secretary of State William Seward sign as well."

Does the author give a source for saying this is what happened?

[David Lockmiller]

(11-24-2022 05:48 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(11-19-2022 02:58 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  "The only personal request [Vinnie Ream] made of [President Lincoln] was that he sign a copy she had made of the Emancipation Proclamation. He signed it and had Secretary of State William Seward sign as well."

Does the author give a source for saying this is what happened?

The Source Notes are in order by chapter and show the final two Chapter 1 Notes to be from "VR interview, Washington Sunday Star, Feb. 9, 1913." The reference to the Vinnie Ream's Emancipation Proclamation request is on page 18 (next to last page of the chapter).

At the very beginning of the Notes section, the following statement is made:

"Unless otherwise noted, correspondence to and from Vinnie Ream [VR] along with material from her scrapbook and journals, are from the Papers of Vinnie Ream and Richard L. Hoxie [VPR] in the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division.

It stands to reason that the author, Edward S. Cooper, when given the opportunity to do research at the Library of Congress, would have thoroughly examined this ORIGINAL of Vinnie Ream's Emancipation Proclamation and would himself have discovered the fraud at the time, would then have notified appropriate Library of Congress staff, and made prominent note of these facts in his book that was published in 2004 (18 years ago).

Previously, I tried to find out more about the author. I did not find much. As I recall, he served in the military during World War II and later became a partner in a very successful electronics firm. The firm became so successful that the partners took turns taking sabbaticals to pursue personal interests. Edward S. Cooper became a researcher and writer of history. In the Acknowledgments section of the book, he wrote: "All the effort [researching and writing the book] would not have seen the light of day were it not for Anita Miller who had the courage to publish an unknown author."

All of this tends to indicate that the possible theft of the original Vinnie Ream copy of the Emancipation Proclamation may have occurred subsequent to the book being published in 2004. In fact, it may have been the book itself that led directly to the commission of the crime.

[RJNorton]

Thank you, David. As you may recall I have some doubts whether Vinnie Ream was ever really at the White House. Please see the thread here.