Rare Book Monthly
Articles - November - 2004 Issue
Lincoln: You can collect him but you can not own him
Lincoln at his second inaugural shortly before his death.
Lincoln in a woman's dress is available as one of the novelty images in lot 9088. This is a small image which may explain how it survived. In some circles, following Lincoln's assassination, possession of this disrespectful image might have cost you your life. Today it is part of a lot that will cost you much less. It is estimated at $800 to $1,200.
Lot 9200 is a photograph of Lincoln with an accompanying patch/parcel/handful of his hair (40 to 60 strands). These hairs are identified as having been taken from his head after the assassination. Such a lovely idea: the harvesting of the Presidential crop. Enough such examples exist that it seems likely Lincoln was a Wooly Mammoth. Someday DNA testing will be standard procedure for collectors of such necrophilia.
Mary Todd Lincoln may also have died bald. Lots 9203 and 9204 include clumps of hair. The estimates are $1,000 to $2,000 and $3,000 to $5,000 and include images that are the principal reason for the estimates.
While we are in the after-life there is lot 9198, eleven items relating to Lincoln's Tomb. For the estimate of $800 to $1,200 one can have this Lincoln Halloween lot.
A photograph of the Lincoln home in Springfield in full mourning regalia is $2,000 to $3,000. A group of congressmen stand along the front edge blocking the view.
Of greater interest is an 8" by 6" image of Lincoln's catafalque at the intersection of Broadway and Astor Place in New York City. The nation mourned its fallen leader. Lot 9191 is estimated at $1,000 to $2,000. In this lot you can feel the anxiety.
Lot 9186 is a 13 1/2" by approximately 19" funeral broadside which begins "To the Citizens of Concord, Funeral of President Lincoln." Lincoln was paid $25,000 as President. Following his assassination a proclamation in some form was printed in virtually every town and city newspaper in the United States. This one is estimated at a 2 to 4 weeks of his salary: $1,000 to $2,000.
There are four lots of John Wilkes Booth images. The deus ex machine of the Lincoln assassination flits across the stage in lots 9176 to 9179 at an aggregate low estimate of $5,700.
Lot 9163 is a group of Civil War views that includes a train wreck that would earn someone a bonus at Fox News for grisly reporting. It is one of 9 images in the lot. The estimate is $1,500 to $2,000.
