Lincoln's Ghosts

LINCOLN’S GHOSTS: THE POSTHUMOUS CAREER OF AN AMERICAN ICON Kimberly N. Kutz A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: John F. Kasson W. Fitzhugh Brundage Bernard Herman David Morgan Heather A. Williams ©2013 Kimberly N. Kutz ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT KIMBERLY NOELLE KUTZ: Lincoln’s Ghosts: The Posthumous Career of an American Icon (Under the direction of Professor John F. Kasson) American cultural productions repeatedly have depicted Abraham Lincoln as “living on” as a spirit after his assassination in 1865. The unprecedented death toll of the Civil War coupled with the uncertain future of African American citizenship in the years after the war led Americans, both black and white, to imagine and reimagine how a living Lincoln would have responded to contemporary issues in the United States. As they grappled with Lincoln’s legacy for American race relations, artists, writers, and other creators of American culture did not simply remember Lincoln but envisioned him as an ongoing spiritual presence in everyday life. Immediately after the Civil War, when the American Spiritualist movement encouraged the bereaved to believe that departed loved ones watched over and comforted the living, popular prints and spirit photography depicted Lincoln’s ghost remaining to guide the American people. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, actors who played Lincoln on the American stage presented themselves as embodied forms of his spirit, in the process eschewing Lincoln’s political achievement of Emancipation in favor of sentimental portrayals of his boyhood and family life. Fine artists and illustrators, such as Norman Rockwell and Palmer Hayden, turned to Lincoln’s spirit as they attempted to use their work to promote African American equality. Walt Disney, creator of the Lincoln Audioanimatron theme park iii attraction, used technological means to bring to life a robotic Lincoln that could never die. And ordinary Americans from all walks of life have been drawn to the places that Lincoln lived and the objects that he owned in the belief that they serve as a conduit to his spirit. These case studies demonstrate how memory functions not only as a set of ideas about the past but also as a living force in the present. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am sure that someone has invented a pithy quote that Abraham Lincoln supposedly uttered about gratitude, and equally sure that it is apocryphal. Whatever it is, it cannot come near to encapsulating my thankfulness for the many great mentors, friends, and family that I have in my life, who have supported me through the long years of graduate school. First among these is my adviser, John F. Kasson, without whom this project would never have started, ended, or been nearly as good. I endeavor one day to become half the scholar or a tenth of the human being that he is. I am very thankful for the excellent scholars whose help and guidance aided me throughout this project. The members of my committee, Fitz Brundage, Heather Williams, Bernie Herman, and David Morgan, have provided excellent ideas and even better criticism on my chapters as they have emerged. I am also grateful to Bill Barney, Jodi Bilinkoff, Stephen Birdsall, Bob Cantwell, Kathleen DuVal, Crystal Feimster, Philip Gura, Jerma Jackson, Kathy Merlock Jackson, Matthew Frye Jacobson, Joy Kasson, Jim Leloudis, Laurie Maffly-Kipp, Louise McReynolds, John Ott, Theda Perdue, Don Reid, and Jay Smith for their ideas and contributions. I am so fortunate to call my colleagues in the graduate program at UNC my friends. Special thanks to Mikaela Adams, Sarah Barksdale, Friederike Bruehoefener, Kathleen Conti, Greg Daddis, Aaron Hale-Dorrell, Nora Doyle, Rosalie Genova, Will Griffin, Josiah Grover, Jonathan Hancock, Rachel Hynson, Bethany Keenan, Anna v Krome-Lukens, Pam Lach, Liz Lundeen, Josh Lynn, Zsolt Nagy, Brad Proctor, Mark Slagle, and David Williard. Generous grants from the National Colonial Dames of America and the Mowry Dissertation Fund helped to fund my research for this project. I would also like to thank the staff and curators at the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library, the University of Chicago Special Collections Library, the Chicago History Museum, the Lilly Library, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Margaret Herrick Library, and the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. I am so thankful for the friends and family whose love and support have made all the difference in my life these past six years. Thanks to my sister Kelly and my aunt Yvonne, Kate and Ben Broussard, Casey Chestnut, Dean Dorrell, Glenn Elliott, Hannah Fuhr, Rick and Andrea Grazzini, Patricia Hale-Dorrell, Kevin and Kristy Kling, Betsy Krome, Nora McCall, Bob and Marilyn Monath, Bob and Lynn Phillips, and Lisa Shaffren. Finally, Lincoln put it best when he said, “All that I am or all that I hope to be I owe to my angel mother.” I gratefully dedicate this work to my mother, Suzanne. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures………….……………………………………………………………..…..ix Introduction: Ghost Stories…………….…………………………………………………1 Chapter I. The Ghost and Mrs. Lincoln: Images of Lincoln’s Spirit in the Immediate Post Civil War Period ………………………………17 The Ghosts of Politicians Past………………………………………………...…24 The Ghost of Lincoln…………………………………………………………….34 Lincoln Among the Spirits ………………………………………………………63 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….69 II. Becoming Mr. Lincoln: Creating an Abraham Lincoln for the American Stage…………………………………………………………74 Is it in Good Taste?………………………………………………………………79 Mr. Chapin’s Mr. Lincoln………………………………………………………..92 “There he is! There’s the President. Hurray for Mr. Lincoln!”………………..103 Ready, Willing, and Abe L……………………………………………………..116 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...128 III. Not Pictured: Haunted Paintings and Lincoln’s Ghost………………...132 A Second Look at Norman Rockwell…………………………………………..140 Norman Rockwell’s American History………………………………………...156 A Ghost in Mississippi…………………………………………………….........171 From Peyton Cole Hedgeman to Palmer C. Hayden…………………………...180 vii The Janitor Who Paints…………………………………………………………193 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...197 IV. The Ghost in the Machine: Walt Disney’s Abraham Lincoln Robot at the New York World’s Fair………………………………………...200 The Quest for Artificial Life……………………………………………………204 From Cardboard Hats to Solenoid Coils………………………………………..216 Mr. Disney’s Winkin’ Blinkin’ Lincoln………………………………………..223 A World’s Fair, or a Fair World?……………………………………………….235 Lincoln Goes to the Fair………………………………………………………..246 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...254 IV. The Saint of Springfield, Illinois: Relics, Pilgrimage, and Lincoln Memory……………………………………………………………….258 Image and Pilgrimage in American Culture……………………………………272 The Relic Fiends………………………………………………………………..277 His Mighty Presence……………………………………………………………297 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...…313 Epilogue……………………………………………………………………………...…316 Bibliography…….……………………………………………………………………...323 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 0.1. Edwin Marcus, “The Spirit of the Day.”……………………………………...4 Figure 0.2. Daniel E. Holland, “Out of Date?”……………………………………………5 Figure 0.3. Bill Mauldin, “Lincoln Memorial Sobbing.”…………………………………6 Figure 1.1. William Mumler, Mary Todd Lincoln with the spirit of Abraham Lincoln…………………………………………………………….19 Figure 1.2. Currier & Ives, “The Nigger” in the Woodpile……………………………...36 Figure 1.3. Joseph E. Baker, Columbia Demands Her Children!......................................37 Figure 1.4. Thomas Nast, Victory and Death……………………………………………41 Figure 1.5. J. Gemmel, The Tomb and Shade of Lincoln………………………………...45 Figure 1.6. Gustav Fuchs, The Spirit of Our Martyr Visiting His Tomb……………...…46 Figure 1.7. John Sartain, Abraham Lincoln. The Martyr Victorious…………………….52 Figure 1.8. S. J. Ferris Washington and Lincoln (Apotheosis)…………………………..53 Figure 1.9. Mathew Brady, Confederate Dead behind a stone wall at Fredericksburg, Va………………………………………………………..55 Figure 1.10. Death Bed of Abraham Lincoln./ Died April 15th 1865…………………….57 Figure 1.11. John K. Paine, In Memory of President Lincoln: A Funeral March……………………………………………………………………….62 Figure 1.12. Houdini and the ghost of Lincoln…………………………………………..70 Figure 2.1. Daniel Day-Lewis to Play Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg-Directed Biopic…………………………………………………..73 Figure 2.2. Daniel Day-Lewis Lincoln…………………………………………………..73 Figure 2.3. The sheet music to “How Are You Green-Backs!”………………………….82 Figure 2.4. A brochure for Benjamin Chapin’s chautauqua performance……………….96 Figure 2.5. Current Literature’s substitution of Chapin’s image for Lincoln’s…………………………………………………………………...104 ix Figure 2.6. Frank McGlynn as Lincoln…………………………………………………106 Figure 2.7. Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln…………………………………….114 Figure 2.8. A pamphlet advertising Charles L. Brame’s Lincoln performances………………………………………………………………..118 Figure 2.9. Abraham Lincoln presenters………………………………………………..120 Figure 2.10. Jeffrey Wright as Lincoln in Topdog/Underdog………………………….125 Figure 3.1. Norman Rockwell, color study for Murder in Mississippi…………………135 Figure 3.2. Jarvis Rockwell and Oliver McCary posing as Michael Schwerner and James Chaney……………………………………………..137 Figure 3.3. Norman Rockwell, Boy in Dining Car……………………………………..145 Figure 3.4. Norman Rockwell, Shuffleton’s Barbershop……………………………….150 Figure 3.5. William Sidney Mount, The Power of Music………………………………151 Figure

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