Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln

Paper accordion-style lantern with metal handle and interior candle holder. Exterior design comprises red and white vertical stripes with a blue central band, featuring stars encircling the word "UNION" on one side and stars encircling a Union shield on the other. Height approximately 5 in. (127 mm); diameter 7 3/8 in. (190 mm). A few small holes or losses and separations along lantern folds; some now repaired with japanese tissue.

A RARE RELIC FROM LINCOLN'S 1860 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN.

The 1860 presidential election was one of the most contentious in the history of the United States. Throughout the 1850s, the divide between North and South had grown wider and wider, and the prospect of a country lawyer becoming president, who many believed had openly expressed his enmity towards slavery, was too much for many voters to bear.

Amid the chaos there was excitement, and few were more excited about the idea of Abraham Lincoln winning the White House than Willie Lincoln and Willie's best friend, Henry Remann. Henry's mother, Mary, was a German immigrant who ran a boarding house at the end of Lincoln's block. Children were particularly drawn to Lincoln, and the three young Remanns were no different. Neighborhood children were said to rig strings across two trees whenever they saw Lincoln coming; when his tall hat was knocked from his head and he bent down to pick it up, the children would mob him, a game which nobody seemed to tire. Whenever Lincoln would take his children to the circus, he would bring the Remanns and other neighborhood children along. When Henry's mother required clothes for her growing son, Lincoln gifted her the clothes of his son Eddie, who had passed away in 1850. No one was more delighted than Lincoln when Henry's older sister Josie married Albert S. Edwards, one of Mary Lincoln's nephews.

Paper lanterns such as the present example utilized thin paper to allow candlelight to pass through and illuminate the colorful designs. Political demonstrations during the 19th century included evening parades during which marchers carried torches, lamps, and paper lanterns to create a glowing, sometimes provocative, spectacle. This lantern is purported to have hung outside of Mary Remann's boarding house throughout the 1860 campaign. The friendship between Willie and Henry continued even after the Lincolns moved into the White House. In later years, Henry would pass the lantern which had hung outside of his mother's boarding house, on to his great-niece Mary Edwards Brown, who was then the custodian of the Lincoln home in Springfield.

In Historic Furnishings Report: The Lincoln Home (Menz, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1 November 1983), an affidavit, dated 2 May 1925, is given by Mary Edwards Brown (1866-1958), grand-niece of Mary Todd Lincoln and former custodian of the Lincoln family home in Springfield; it lists a "Paper lanterns which were used to decorate Mrs. Remann's porch during Lincoln campaign for President" (item 13). Brown's testimony is as follows: "I, Mary Edwards Brown, of the City of Springfield, in the county and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that I am the grand-daughter of that Ninian Edwards who, in 1833 married Elizabeth P. Todd, a sister of Mary Todd, afterwards the wife of Abraham Lincoln; that Mary Todd lived with her sister, Mrs. Ninian Edwards, and was married to Abraham Lincoln at her home in Springfield, Illinois; and that the articles hereinafter enumerated belong to me, having come into my possession by inheritance from various members of the Edwards family", pp. 388-391.


Provenance:

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California

Exhibition:

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America, at the Huntington Library, October 1993-August 1994