RisingFree

African American History
in South Central
Pennsylvania:
the 19th Century

The card in figure 7 is a much more complex rendering of the liberator theme.    Illustrated by Cyrus Durand Chapman (whose distinctive style is recognizable in figure 1) for International Art Publishing Company, it is dominated by the figure of Liberty holding the federal shield in one hand and a liberty pole, surmounted with a Phrygian, or liberty cap.  An eagle, laurel leaves, and other patriotic motifs are at her side.  Inset is a view of the Emancipation Memorial, sculpted by Thomas Ball and dedicated in Washington in 1876.

The memorial depicts Lincoln in much the same pose as in the Nash view, standing over a kneeling, chained slave who is in the motion of rising.  The president holds an open copy of the Emancipation Proclamation.  The slave in this statue actually depicts a historical person, Archer Alexander, said to be the last slave captured under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. 

  Triumph over slavery is also represented by the liberty pole and cap held by the allegorical figure Liberty.  The significance of the pole and cap predate the Roman Empire, when freed slaves of Troy and Asia Minor wore felt caps to cover their shorn heads.  When Salturnius began his conquest of Rome, he encouraged slaves to rise up out of bondage and join his army, placing a cap upon a pike and holding it aloft for all to see.  Sculptor Thomas Crawford, in an early version of the twenty-foot statue Freedom, which surmounts the U.S. Capitol, depicted that allegorical figure wearing a liberty cap.  Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, well aware of the symbolism of the cap, ordered project head Captain Montgomery Meigs to tell Crawford to change it to a helmet, signifying America’s victory over tyranny.  Crawford did so, and sent a plaster model of the altered version to Bladensburg, Maryland to be cast in bronze as the final product.  Ironically, it was slave artisans who converted the small plaster model to the full size master that would be used to make the mold for the casting.  Lincoln himself made political use of the statue when it was raised to the top of the dome in 1863, saying Lady Freedom symbolized the unification of north and south.

To the modern observer, it may seem that these early twentieth century postcard artists were attempting to crowd too much symbolism onto a three-inch by five-inch canvas, and that surely the people who sent and received these cards did not understand all of the symbolism, allegorical meaning and political undertones present on a simple view of the sixteenth president.  But we must remember the importance of symbolism and subtlety to this period in history, when life’s slower pace allowed people to study illustrations closely.  Indeed the enjoyment and study of illustrations, pictures, prints and paintings were a chief source of leisure activity.

The average working person certainly understood the classical and national symbolism present in Lincoln Centennial postcards, and sent, received and collected them not only because they liked the pictures of  “The Martyred President,” but also as a way of participating in the national movement to pay homage to the man.  It did not matter that these images did not hang in an art gallery, or that they could be bought cheaply.  Their significance lay with the intent of the users—common, working people—as a tribute to a beloved American hero.

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The author wishes to thank James Schmick of Civil War and More, Mechanicsburg, PA, for the use of the postcards in this series.