Lincoln and New York
The New-York Historical Society, as a culminating event of bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, hosted an exhibit last Oct. 9 through March 25, 2010, incorporating artifacts, images and hand-written documents of the Civil War related to the life and times of Lincoln. This volume, a beautifully illustrated catalog of the exhibit, includes a series of thematic essays by notable Civil War-era historians. Holzer has assembled eight prominent historians’ essays examining Lincoln and New York City. As Holzer notes in his introduction, the purpose is to “explore Abraham Lincoln’s vastly under-appreciated impact on New York and on New York’s equally astonishing impact, in turn, on Abraham Lincoln.” Lincoln and New York is much more than an exhibition catalog. The over-sized book is a wonderful panorama of contemporary newspaper images and political cartoons, sepia-toned photographs, and full-color artwork of the time. Artifacts of the period, along with copies of original hand-written documents (such as Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain”) are visually rendered. Of the eight essays, Holzer observes, “The book will show how the city’s politicians, preachers and publishers — its citizens, white as well as black, rich as well as poor — continued variously to aid, thwart, support, undermine, promote, and sabotage Lincoln and his political party, and how Lincoln, in turn, came to influence the evolving history of New York.” Jean Baker, biographer of Mary Todd Lincoln and James Buchanan, contributes a study of the evolution of “Lincoln’s Men,” New York’s Republican Party. A historian of New York, Barnet Schecter, examines Lincoln’s New York opposition, those who perceived him as a radical. In this context, Schecter portrays the city’s draft riots as a result of opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation and the draft. Naval historian Craig Symonds focuses on the economics of Civil War New York and concludes it was “the economic, financial, and manufacturing strength of the city that constituted New York’s most significant contribution to victory.” Author of numerous titles on the role of African Americans during the Civil War, James Oliver Horton examines “Black New York and the Lincoln Presidency”; he traces the developing role of African Americans in New York City and its environs. Holzer, author of several dozen books on Lincoln, contributes an essay analyzing the production and display of Lincoln images in a city that produced more images of the 16th president than any other. Retired Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams describes the state of civil liberties in the city he terms “a political hotbed.” He presents a probing inquiry into Lincoln’s unconstitutional actions and why they were necessary. Mary Todd Lincoln biographer Catherine Clinton discusses the many visits Mrs. Lincoln made to New York and, as a backdrop, explores the views, reactions to the war, and war efforts of the city’s women. Social historian Michael Kammen writes the concluding article on written and image memories in New York following Lincoln’s death. He, like Holzer, provides a meaningful study of the images and events portrayed by the New York media during the Lincoln administration. Lincoln and New York is highly recommended as a powerful tour de force of President Lincoln’s effect on the city and its diverse population. For the first time a single volume provides an overview of the city’s media, social, financial and social world during the Civil War. The illustrations and text complement each other. The quality of this publication makes it a fine addition to the library of anyone interested in American 19th century history. Reviewer: Michael Russert Michael Russert, a member of the North Shore Round Table of Long Island and the Company of Military Historians, has a MALS plus 60 hours in American Studies. He is Coordinator of The New York State Veteran Oral History Program.
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Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index, 277 pp., 2009, New- York Historical Society,