Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Abraham Lincoln Statues



I have been collecting postcards of Abraham Lincoln statues for several years. Above is one of my favorites that shows the Lincoln statue that was in front of the Avondale School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although  the view of this statue isn't very good, I like the postcard because of the school children surrounding the statue. This is a bronze statue with a woman half-kneeling at the base. It was sculpted by William Granville Hastings, who died before this statue was dedicated in 1902.

There is a copy of the Cincinnati Lincoln statue with the woman in Bunker Hill, Ill., and copies of the Lincoln statue only in Jefferson and Sioux City, Iowa. The postcard of the Bunker Hill statue shows Lincoln and the kneeling woman more clearly.


I never thought that I would end up collecting Lincoln statues. At one time Lincoln postcards were fairly popular with collectors, but few collectors are interested in them now. I got my start with my first postcard collection when I was in 6th grade and my family visited Springfield and New Salem, Illinois. Lincoln's New Salem is a reconstruction of the village where Abraham Lincoln spent his early adulthood and Springfield is where he lived for many years before leaving for Washington to become President. It was on that trip that I bought my first postcards ever. A couple of years later, my 8th grade trip was to the same area, and I bought some more Lincoln postcards.

Here is a photo of me (on the left) with my mother and sisters in front of Lincoln's home in Springfield.



I don't have photos of any statues from my trips, but I do have a postcard of a Lincoln statue in New Salem State Park that was among the first postcards I bought. This is a nine foot statue of Lincoln as a young man in New Salem. It shows Lincoln as a frontiersman and student. It was sculptured by Arvard Fairbanks and was presented to the state of Illinois in 1954.



When I started seriously collecting postcards many years later, I kept my Lincoln souvenir postcards apart from my main collection. I started giving them a second look in 2009, which was the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. I bought a book "Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography in Postcards" by James D. Ristine that was published in 2008. That book includes a chapter on "Monuments & Memorials." I was surprised at how many Lincoln statues there are and how many have appeared on postcards. I now have nearly 70 different Lincoln statues on postcards and am still looking for more. You can see my collection here: Abraham Lincoln Statues, Monuments, and Memorials.


For More Vintage Images

http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2014/03/sepia-saturday-220-22-march-2014.html

23 comments:

  1. Great collection of Lincoln Statues. I actually have a few myself. But I thought the picture of you in Springfield with the rolled up jeans and the Rah Rahs was swell. Rah Rahs thats the saddle oxfords. Rah Rahs nick name because they were cheerleader shoes. I wore a few pair of jeans with rolled up cuffs and saddle oxfords in my day. Didn't everybody?

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  2. You are one serious collector! How many postcards do you have in all? I'm impressed. The Lincolns are very nice & wide ranging. I wore saddle oxfords, but more than anything I remember wishing I could have white bucks. When I found out how many babysitting jobs I'd have to take to afford them, however, I decided the saddles were good enough. :))

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    1. I have never tried to count my whole collection. I actually got some white buck saddle shoes not long after that picture was taken.. There was a "saddle" that was white buck like the rest of the shoe. The thing that I used to clean them was called a "bunny bag."

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  3. One of your sisters doesn't look too happy :)
    I like to hear about life-time collecting and I think you might you might fit the bill!

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    1. I stopped collecting and almost got rid of my old postcards in the 1970s, but then started collecting again in the 1980s.

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  4. How many Lincoln statues are there? I suppose about as many as there are statues of Queen Victoria in this country. I wonder which used up more bronze - a tall slim chap or a little fat woman?

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    1. They are still making new Lincoln statues in various materials and sizes. I doubt that is true of Queen Victoria statues.

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  5. Your talk of nearly throwing things away reminds me of all the things I have disposed of in the past which I now wish I had kept. An interesting reminder of Lincoln's place in American history. Thanks.

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  6. What's with the kneeling woman, anyway? Great shot of you in your jeans, flannel shirt and saddle shoes...

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  7. Fascinating to see lesser known LIncoln Statues, apart from the memorial in Washington DC, I featured the one in Edinburgh in my post this week - so do add it to your collection, as I don't think it is very well known.

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  8. Your Lincoln postcard collection must be impressive. I hadn't appreciated how many statues of him there would be.

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  9. I enjoyed reading about how you got into postcard collecting. I think collections are really fun, but having a niche within the collection is even better.

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  10. Great photo in front of his Springfield home...I think I stood there too in 8th grade...but in a skirt! We bussed up from St. Louis for a school field trip. Great fun, horrible box lunches.

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  11. How lucky for us you didn't get rid of the postcard collection in the 1970s. In my house, I'm notorious for not ever getting rid of anything, but it has significant drawbacks, of course. Having people around a statue or monument makes the photograph/postcard much more interesting. I wish that more postcard photographers had done that, but it seems that the convemtion was to have as few people as possible.

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  12. They are watching the movie "Lincoln" on dvd in the other room right now, here at my house. What a fitting background for this post.

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  13. Well I can see why that first one is a favourite; there’s something appealing about all those schoolchildren gathered around the great man.

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  14. Great Abe post, and so cool to your photo at one of his houses. I was able to make the tour of his houses, the entire little village and walk the same streets as he did. Also, to see his three holed outhouse too, it was a first for me.

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  15. Wow, I had no idea he was on so many cards. I have one photo I took in the mid-'60s of a statue out in the middle of somewhere when we were crossing the country to visit my grandparents in Pennsylvania. I recently saw a photo of the statue. When I was there there was nothing around it. Now it's all built up.

    I don't think I have any Lincoln cards. I'll have to keep my eyes open.

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  16. WOW! That is a great collection. Some very interesting statues too.

    I am glad that you didn't stop collection. So do you have most of them in albums?

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  17. Great post. The Lincoln Monument in Washington DC would have to be the most famous one, wouldn't it? I wonder how many millions of photographs have been taken of that!

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  18. Australians have nearly as much dedication to past leaders as the USA. I doubt there'd be many with collections they treasured like yours over here!

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  19. Even without his tragic death, Lincoln words and physique would surely have inspired many sculptors. However I note that in your long list of Lincoln monuments there are none in the southern states, except for that modern one in Florida which has now disappeared.

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