Lincoln funeral procession in Chicago
The nation was
in deep mourning 150 years ago following the assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln. At 11:00am on Monday May 1,
1865 the funeral train arrived at Union Depot in Chicago. The procession, which proceeded down Michigan
Avenue to Lake Street and then on Clark Street to Court House Square, was said
to rival New York’s in terms of size and grandeur. The coffin was placed in the Court House and opened
for public viewing at 6:00pm, remaining open through the night and all of the
next day. It is estimated that 7,000
people per hour filed passed the coffin.
At 8:00pm on Tuesday May 2, a hearse carried the coffin to the depot of
the St. Louis and Alton Railroad and the funeral train departed for its final
destination - Springfield.
One of the most
popular objects on display in the house is the bronze life mask and hands of Abraham
Lincoln, which occupy a place of honor on the library desk. The following information relates how the
objects were made and how John Glessner came into possession of his set.
The next month,
Volk was on the train to Springfield
when he heard the news of Lincoln ’s
nomination by the Republicans. He
arrived in Springfield
and rushed to Lincoln ’s
house, announcing to the astonished candidate, “I am the first man from Chicago , I believe, who
has the honor of congratulating you on your nomination for President.” Volk insisted that he now must execute a
full-length statue of Lincoln ,
and Lincoln
agreed to provide Volk with appropriate photographs of himself, while Volk
would take his measurements as well as make casts of his hands. Volk appeared at the Lincoln ’s home on the next Sunday morning and
set to work in the dining room. He
suggested that Lincoln
should be holding something in his right hand for the cast. Lincoln
disappeared to the woodshed and returned whittling off the end of a piece of
broom handle. When Volk said that was
not necessary, Lincoln
remarked cheerfully, “I thought I would like to have it nice.” Volk noticed that the right hand was still
severely swollen from the handshaking of Lincoln ’s
latest campaign – a difference that is visible in the casts. Volk commented on a scar on Lincoln ’s left thumb, and Lincoln explained that it was a souvenir of
his days as a rail-splitter. “One day,
while I was sharpening a wedge on a log, the ax glanced and nearly took my
thumb off.” After the casts were
completed, Volk set off for Chicago
with the molds, photographs, a black suit left over from Lincoln ’s 1858 campaign, and a pair of Lincoln ’s pegged boots.
Leonard W. Volk
Volk never
completed the statue, and later gave the casts of Lincoln’s face and hands to
his son Douglas, himself an artist, who later passed them on to a fellow art
student, Wyatt Eaton. During the winter
of 1885-1886, Richard Watson Gilder saw the casts in Eaton’s studio and
immediately grasped their significance.
On February 1, 18 86,
Gilder, along with his friends Augustus St. Gaudens and Thomas B. Clarke, sent
out a letter to a select group of individuals which read in part:
“The undersigned have undertaken to
obtain the subscription of fifty dollars each, from not less than twenty
persons, for the purchase from Mr. Douglas Volk of the original casts taken by
his father, the sculptor, Mr. Leonard W. Volk, from the living face and hands
of Abraham Lincoln, to be presented, together with bronze replicas thereof, to
the Government of the United States for preservation in the National Museum at
Washington.
“The subscribers are themselves each to
be furnished with replicas of the three casts, in plaster or bronze. If in plaster, there will be no extra charge
beyond the regular subscription of $50; if the complete set is desired in
bronze, the subscription will be for $85 . . .
“Those wishing to take part in the
subscriptions will notify at once either of the undersigned.”
Subscriptions
were apparently received rapidly.
Frances Glessner recorded the following entry in her journal on May 30, 18 86 :
Last week we got a bronze cast of Lincoln ’s life mask and
hands made by Douglas (sic) Volk – a few
copies have been made to raise funds enough to give the originals to the
government.”
The underside of
the life mask contains the following inscription:
“THIS CAST WAS MADE FOR J. J. GLESSNER A
SUBSCRIBER TO THE FUND FOR THE PURCHASE AND
PRESENTATION TO THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OF THE ORIGINAL MASK MADE IN CHICAGO APRIL 1860 BY
LEONARD W. VOLK FROM THE LIVING FACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. THIS CAST WAS TAKEN FROM THE FIRST REPLICA OF
THE ORIGINAL IN NEW YORK CITY
FEBRUARY 1886. COPYRIGHT 1886 BY LEONARD
W. VOLK.”
The stump end of
each hand contains the following inscription:
“COPYRIGHT 1886 BY LEONARD W. VOLK. THIS CAST OF THE HAND
OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS MADE FROM THE FIRST REPLICA OF THE ORIGINAL MADE AT SPRINGFIELD ILL THE SUNDAY FOLLOWING
HIS NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY.”
In December
1887, when the Glessners moved into their new home on Prairie Avenue, the mask
and hands were placed on display in the library, where they remain today for
visitors to appreciate.
In 1888, the
original plaster mask and hands, together with the first bronze casts, were
presented to the National Museum (now the Smithsonian Institution) along with
an elaborate illuminated manuscript which read in part:
“This case contains the first cast made
in the mold taken from the living face of ABRAHAM LINCOLN by Leonard W. Volk
sculptor in Chicago
in the year 1860. Also the first casts
made in the molds from Lincoln’s hands likewise made by Leonard W. Volk in
Springfield Illinois, on the Sunday following Lincoln’s nomination for the
Presidency in May 1860. Also the first
bronze casts of the facemold, and bronze casts of the hands. Presented to the Government of the United States
for deposit in the National
Museum by Thirty Three
Subscribers.”
The list of subscribers
includes the name of J. J. Glessner, as well as J. Q. A. Ward, Frances
Glessner’s first cousin, a talented sculptor who created the bronze standing
Shakespeare on display in the library.
Ward and St. Gaudens were close friends, and it is possible that Ward
suggested that St. Gaudens include John Glessner on the mailing list, when the
original subscription letter was mailed in February 1886.
Original mask and hands on display at the Smithsonian
along with an original death mask
along with an original death mask
BEYOND THE MASK
John Glessner
was a Sustaining Member of the Lincoln Centennial Association, organized in
1909, and renamed The Abraham Lincoln Association in 1929. His library contained over three dozen books
and booklets on Lincoln ,
which he kept on a shelf in the southeast bookcase in the library. The books include such standards as Carl
Sandburg’s two volume Abraham Lincoln:
The Prairie Years, as well as more obscure titles, many of which were
issued by the Association. An
interesting volume, of which only 750 copies were printed, is Abraham Lincoln in New Hampshire, which
recounts Lincoln ’s
visit to that state in 1860. The author,
Elwin L. Page, was a friend of George and Alice Glessner, and Alice presented the volume to her
father-in-law upon its publication in 1929.
John Glessner
also owned a photograph of Lincoln . The cabinet card, featuring an image taken at
Eaton’s Studios, carried the following inscription: “For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, from whose pious
hand I accepted the present of an Oxford Bible twenty years ago. Washington ,
D.C. , October 3, 18 61 . A. Lincoln.”
Lucy G. Speed was the mother of Lincoln ’s
closest friend, Joshua F. Speed, and had presented the Bible to Lincoln during his visit
to the Speed home in August 1841, in the hopes of relieving his depression and
melancholia. The original photograph
remained in the Speed family until the 1990s, so apparently copies were made,
one of which was purchased by John Glessner.
The photograph was donated to the Chicago Historical Society in April
1940 by Frances Glessner Lee.
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