Abraham Lincoln's secretaries . view in the Cannon HouseOffice Building in Washing-ton, , through March,1981. The only really respectableart, popular or otherwise, inthe Victorian era was senti-mental in content. Satire hadat best a marginal respectabil-ity. Even humorists as greatas Mark Twain ran afoul of thegenteel tradition as late as theend of the nineteenth Lincolns day joke bookswere sold more at trainstations than by respectablebooksellers. As the previousissue of Lincoln Lore showed,Lincolns own reputation forwit was something of a liabil-ity. The graphic arts do not le
Abraham Lincoln's secretaries . view in the Cannon HouseOffice Building in Washing-ton, , through March,1981. The only really respectableart, popular or otherwise, inthe Victorian era was senti-mental in content. Satire hadat best a marginal respectabil-ity. Even humorists as greatas Mark Twain ran afoul of thegenteel tradition as late as theend of the nineteenth Lincolns day joke bookswere sold more at trainstations than by respectablebooksellers. As the previousissue of Lincoln Lore showed,Lincolns own reputation forwit was something of a liabil-ity. The graphic arts do not lendthemselves to subtle inter-pretations of events. Subtletyis the realm of the word. In thepictorial and popular view ofthings, John Wilkes Boothwas the tool of the devil, andangels carried Lincoln toheaven. There he was greetedby George Washington. Whenprintmakers needed non-controversial images, theycould always turn to religionand to the Father of HisCountry. The immediateassociation of Lincoln withWashington was SATAITEMPTING BOOTH TO THE MFKDER mm PjRESfOENT FIGURE 1. The simple view of the assassination. Lincolns association with him was possible because the CivilWar had saved the Union Washington had founded. It wasthe sort of association that a printmaker wanted to makeonly when it was a safe bet. Although there are many prints ofWashington and Lincoln together, none bears a date before1865. Statesmanship on a par with George Washingtons wastruly within the ability only of dead politicians. Another part of the sentimental counterattack which hadlasting effects was the development of what might be calledthe Cult of the First Family. Lincoln never realized thepower of this, and the printmakers were surprisingly slow todo so. When they caught on, however, they launched a phenom-enon now visible at everynewsstand and grocery storecheck-out counter in America,as glossy magazines vie witheach other to blazon forthcolor pictures and pulp storiesabout the President
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