© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library
© 2011 University of Chicago Library
This collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Lincoln Collection. American Political Cartoons, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Rev. William Eleazar Barton (1861-1930) The Rev. William Eleazar Barton (1861-1930) was one of the early twentieth century's most prominent writers and lecturers on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Born in Sublette, Illinois, in the same year Lincoln assumed the presidency, Barton grew up in an environment heavily influenced by reverence for Lincoln. After pursuing undergraduate studies at Berea College in Kentucky, Barton earned his divinity degree from the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1890. He served parishes in Tennessee, Ohio, and Massachusetts before becoming the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Oak Park, Illinois, a position he held until his retirement in 1924. Four years later, Barton accepted an appointment as lecturer at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, where he also organized and served as pastor of the Collegeside Congregational Church.
Barton's work as a writer produced a number of denominational manuals for church organization and a series of books presenting the wisdom and parables of a character he named Safed the Sage. For the last ten years of his life, however, Barton was best known to the public as a prolific author and lecturer on Abraham Lincoln. His publications about Lincoln included The Soul of Abraham Lincoln (1920), The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln (1920), The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1925), The Great and Good Man (1927), The Women Lincoln Loved (1927), and The Lincoln of the Biographers (1930).
In the course of compiling material for his writings and talks, Barton visited Lincoln sites in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; interviewed surviving Lincoln relatives and acquaintances; and traveled as far as California and England to collect information and conduct genealogical research on the ancestry of the Lincoln family. While acquiring a large collection of books, periodicals, pamphlets, manuscripts, and ephemera related to Lincoln and the Civil War era, Barton also purchased privately or at auction historical materials amassed by other Lincoln collectors such as John E. Burton and Osborn H. Oldroyd.
These American Political Portraits and Cartoons form a portion of the Center's Lincoln Collection. It is comprised of gloss copies of the original engravings, lithographs and drawings dating from 1754 to 1865. This collection of portraits and political cartoons were obtained from libraries, historical societies and magazines. When the place of acquisition is known, specified by the materials accompanied with each piece, this information was included in the detailed description of the inventory.
The majority of the copies are accompanied by an index card which relays the origin of the image's acquisition and a brief typescript description of the prevailing political issues and moments of historical significance of the time. The details of these brief narratives serve to shed light on the statements of opinion and political critique represented in the cartoon by the artist. The historical instances addressed in the cartoons include the War of 1812, The Civil War, the Jackson Era and the events which took place during the subsequent years of Lincoln's presidencies. The collection is organized into four series.
Series I, Colonial and Early America, contains cartoons addressing the issue of relations between Britain and the Colonies between the years of 1755-1802. The feelings towards the tariffs placed on every day commodities by the British in laws such as the Townsend Act and the founding of the American Republic are examples of some of the issues represented in the images housed in this series.
Series II, the War of 1812 and the Era of Good Feeling, houses cartoons addressing the events of the years prior to the Revolution. The cartoons in this series address the relations between the Colonies and Britain and the battles between the two during the years of insurrection of The War of 1812 from 1808-1814. Several of the cartoons in this series depict the image of John Bull, the national personification of Great Britain adopted by American cartoonists. Also housed in this series are cartoons from during the Era of Good feeling, a period of good-will in United States' political history.
Series III, The Jacksonian Era, is comprised of cartoons between the times of 1824-1852 when Andrew Jackson was in office and the period after his presidency when the influence of his supporters was still strong. Cartoons in this series depict interpretations of the 1824 presidential race among Henry Clay, Jackson and John Quincy Adams; included are depictions of Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet". Cartoons representing the altercations between the Whig and Democrat parties over the annexation and slavery annihilation in Texas, the admission of Texas into the Union, and the ambition of the country's expansion to the Pacific coast under the slogan "manifest destiny" are housed here. Also one of the first images of Andrew Jackson riding on the back of a donkey—what would earn fame as the symbol of the Democratic Party by the American cartoonist, Thomas Nast—is located in this series.
Series IV, The Lincolnian Era, contains cartoons relevant to the presidential campaigns of Abraham Lincoln as well as materials addressing the battles and events that took place prior to and during the Civil War. The cartoons in this series address issues pertinent to the platforms of the Whig, Republican (newly formed in 1852), and Democratic parties at the time of campaigning in the 1856 Presidency elections. Among the images in this series are also a number of cartoons depicting Lincoln during his campaign for his presidency in 1860. Also in this series are cartoons addressing the mounting controversies between southern and free states precluding the Civil War as well as the course of events that took place in US political history during the years of the war.