Loomis, Pascal Swift, James F Lincoln, Abraham Nagel, Louis Nahl, Charles

Description

After Lincoln’s assassination, Northern families often displayed in their homes lithographic prints of the man they believed to be the savior of their nation. Printmakers published numerous prints commemorating the late president in order to both illustrate and capitalize upon the nation’s woe. This graphic memorial to Lincoln, circa 1865, displays his profile upon a stone monument. Below his portrait, an inscription reads, “To Abraham Lincoln, The Best Beloved of the Nation.” Atop the memorial rests an urn draped with an American flag. Three owls sit around the urn, symbolizing wisdom. A weeping Columbia leans against the monument on the left, while a freed slave weeps to its right. At the base of the shrine rest a broken shackle, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the slain corpse of a dragon, representing rebellion and secession. Above, an angel with clasped hands looks down upon the memorial. In the background, a field strewn with the bodies of men and horses and the wreckage of cannons serves as a reminder of the destruction of the war.Louis Nagel was born in Germany around 1817, and was working in New York as early as 1844. There he was involved in two partnerships, Nagel & Mayer (1846) and Nagel & Weingaertner (1849-1856). In 1857, he moved to San Francisco. Charles Nahl was born in Germany around 1818, and emigrated to America in 1849. With his half-brother, he travelled to work in the California gold fields, before settling in San Francisco, where they worked as photographers and commercial...

Record Contributed By

National Museum of American History

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution