Lincoln Obscure

Presented below are 76 images of telegram memos written by President Abraham Lincoln. The telegrams were sent from March 17, 1864 to May 31, 1864. These images are part of a larger effort to present Lincoln telegrams from a one year period from March 1864 to his death in April 1865. The images presented here were scanned using a Cannon microfilm scanner at 200 dpi and are stored on Flickr.

On a recent visit to the National Archives, I read over a series of telegrams sent by president Lincoln to various people in his administration, military leaders, and on rare occasion to political and even personal contacts. Lincoln became a prolific user of the telegraph. The short series of photos is a somewhat impressionistic look at a few of the telegrams. These photos of microfilmed telegrams were taken in the National Archives using an iPhone.

NOTE: This post is part of a series of replies to NC State students’ project work presented on the Digital History and Pedagogy Project lab website at http://lab.dhpp.org.

One most unfortunate aspect of Lincoln’s life was the constant and inescapable aura of death that surround his time in office. One a daily basis, Lincoln had to deal with death and dying as he considered the implications of his actions on the thousands of soldiers in the battlefields, and as he offered condolences and remembrances to the thousands who died. In fact, Lincoln’s most memorable words came at one such memorial. Drew Gilpin Faust has recent written about this aspect of not just Lincoln’s life, but also the culture and psyche of the nation in her book This Republic of Suffering.

In separate works that are a part of the Digital History and Pedagogy Project, NC State students Rebekah Cole and Rachel Palmer highlight a letter written by Lincoln to Eliza B Gurney, widow of the British Quaker Joesph John Gurney.

In Rebekah’s work, she explores the tension between Lincoln’s public and private views of God. Writing about the Gurney letter, Rebekah lays describes this tension arguing that the Gurney letter “seems to contradict the public concerns regarding Lincoln’s apparent lack of public religion. The uniqueness of this letter lies in the personal nature of it. Lincoln appears to be exposing some of his own challenges in that he references his concerns about his own conscience and actions he has taken in the public sphere. While Lincoln’s writing often tends to go to the commonly held beliefs that God’s will be done. Here he clearly wonders about his own contributions to the violence and strife that have affected the country, ‘Surely He (God) intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make, an no mortal could stay.’”

Rachel suggests in her work that the letter “gives the greatest glimpse into the man that Lincoln was.” She goes on to make some interesting inferences. “When he refers to the conflict that the Quaker population must feel between oppression and war, it seems as if he is speaking of an internal struggle he is having.  He demonstrates a profound faith in a God in this letter.  While he expresses frustration with the length of the war, he seems to believe that God knows the outcome of the war.” We know that Lincoln was a sporadic church goer and many have suggested that he was an agnostic. This letter suggests otherwise, illustrating the depth of faith which Lincoln possessed.

Below is a copy of the letter Lincoln wrote to Eliza P. Gurney. A transcription is available from American Memory here

NOTE: This post is part of a series of replies to NC State students’ project work presented on the Digital History and Pedagogy Project lab website at http://lab.dhpp.org.

Sue Carter has written quite persuasively about Lincoln’s passion for Shakespeare. Of course, Lincoln was a ardent theater attendee and probably some of his last words and thoughts were about the theater. Sue tells us that one of Lincoln’s last acts may have also been related to his love of Shakespeare. In her work on Lincoln and Shakespeare, Sue tells of an invitation dated February 25, 1864 from “which Lincoln most likely attended  Booth’s performance of Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice on February 26, 1864.” 

NOTE: This post is part of a series of replies to NC State students’ project work presented on the Digital History and Pedagogy Project lab website at http://lab.dhpp.org.

In this presentation, Abbey Heilmann carefully describes Lincoln’s habits and behaviors as related to entertaining at the White House.

Perhaps the most interesting document reviewed was a letter from Ward Lamon warning of, as Abbey put it,  ”eavesdroppers and traitors ‘lurking’ around the White House.” This letter was sent on August 17, 1861 just months after Lincoln assuming office. 

Lincoln wrote these notes January 4, 1855