O Say Can You See?

Thanks for doing your part to #rememberabe

On Monday, April 26, 2010 we wrapped up our special eleven day program to commemorate the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln on the anniversary of his assassination. It was great to meet some of the many visitors who come to the museum every day.

Scott and Steven Stanton, Amy and Chris Smith

I caught up with Monday's visitors, a family of four from New Hampshire, while they were looking at the prison hoods worn by conspirators of Lincoln’s assassination.

Amy Smith was surprised to hear that John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, did not do so alone. “I never realized that Booth wasn’t the only conspirator, but [thought] that he was alone.” She commented, “I didn’t realized that they targeted his whole cabinet. I thought Booth was just crazy.”

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton ordered that the imprisoned conspirators wear hoods at all times. These canvas hoods with rope ties were made for this purpose. The accused wore the hoods in their cells and on their way to trial.

When considering how assassinations have changed security for our presidents, Chris Smith commented, “I think they [presidents] are well protected.” He mentioned motorcades and their ability to stop traffic as evidence that everyday people see of presidential protection. “I think they have quite a support staff.”

After we headed up to the museum roof, Chris expressed his feelings on Lincoln. “I think he was a great man. I’ve learned a lot of things I didn’t know [about Lincoln] during this trip.”

Amy agreed and pointed out, "I didn’t realize that Lincoln had a patent."  As someone who loves learning new things about Lincoln, I too am always interested to find something unique about our 16th president.

 

 Photograph by Alexander Gardner in Washington, D.C., 1863, probably taken 11 days before Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. Courtesy Library of Congress.

But it was Scott Stanton, 13, who succinctly summed up what many Americans feel about Lincoln, “I find Lincoln inspiring.” So do we, Scott.

Editor's Note: You can read all of the blog posts in the "Remember Abe" series. Let us know how you remember Lincoln and his legacy by using the comments feature at the bottom of each post. You can also follow our special series of tweets by searching the #rememberabe hashtag on Twitter.

Johanna Mutz is a Floor Manager at the National Museum of American History.

Lincoln's words live on

Who among us hasn’t had to memorize or study Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address? To this day, it is Lincoln’s words that live on, and their longevity only seems appropriate as memento of a man who knew the power of words. As the museum continues its exhibition Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life, we’ve been selecting groups of visitors to receive a special trip to the rooftop terrace of the museum and a signed copy of the exhibition book. As April marks the anniversary of Lincoln’s death, it is especially poignant to explore the live and legacy of our 16th president.

 While visiting their brother, Michael, in D.C., Adra Steen and Crystal Bourgeois stopped by the museum (Saturday, April 24) with the rest of their family, Carrie and Larry. We selected the group as they were looking at the wedge Lincoln used to split rails in his youth. When informed that the wedge was kept as a token of friendship, and asked if any of them had a token of friendship as well, Adra mentioned she made a poster board puzzle with her friends in middle school, with each of them taking a piece. When we asked her if she would give up her puzzle piece to the museum if one of her friends became famous in 50 years, she laughed, and said, “If you wanted it!”

Larry Griffith, Carrie Griffith, Adra Steen, Crystal Bourgeois, and Michael Williams

Michael speculated that the reason Lincoln was so well-liked during his presidency was because his photograph was so widely available, and helped people really feel like they knew him. He mentioned that when Lincoln died, the funeral train traveled to many states, which allowed people to experience, and mourn, his death personally.

Elli Atchison and Margaret Valley, on a mother-daughter trip from Florida, were found examining an artifact from Lincon’s death, a funeral pall, when we invited them to share their thoughts about Lincoln (Sunday, April 25). Elli thought the pall was put on display because it helps express the mourning of the country at his loss. She spoke of the tragedy of his coming to office, seeing the Civil War come to an end, and then not getting a chance to enjoy the reunited country he fought to save. Margaret appreciated finally seeing objects directly related to the man she heard so much about throughout her lifetime.

Elli Atchison and Margaret Valley

Both groups ended their visits by talking about the power of Lincoln’s words. Elli and Margaret went to the Jefferson Memorial and both of them found his words to be somewhat inaccessible, whereas they felt Lincoln’s words had great meaning in understandable simplicity. Michael agreed, marveling at what a wordsmith Lincoln was. Through his youth to his death, Lincoln’s words live on.

Anna Doorenbos is a facilitator at the National Museum of American History.

Back to the Eco-Future!

So many of the sustainable environmental technologies of today hold promise but are distinctly futuristic—from nanotechnology-based photovoltaics and engineered biofuels to a full-blown vision of the hydrogen economy. Some of those may be in the offing, while others seem, if not impossible, at least so far in the future as not to be particularly helpful in getting us out of our current eco-predicament. Most also require heavy financial investment, and thus involve a significant financial gamble for society.

For example, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility, dedicated almost a year ago, offers the promise of cheap, limitless energy through controlled nuclear fusion—the power in the H-bomb and our sun. In theory, the facility’s powerful lasers, 192 of them, will fire at once on a tiny bead of hydrogen, heating it up to the temperatures inside stars, thereby converting it to helium and releasing astronomical amounts of energy. But even if laser fusion succeeds experimentally, which remains to be seen, any practical benefits are probably at least fifty years into the future.

So, why not try something radically different, like looking to the past—the far distant past? History can be a source of simple but elegant solutions to some of today’s most intractable energy problems. Humans have always been adaptive animals, and adjusting to climate, food, and resources has brought forth great ingenuity since the dawn of civilization. The ancient technology of wind power, for example, has made a conspicuous comeback in the increasingly common sight of wind farms feeding the electrical grid.

Badgir in Dolatabad Gardens, Yazd, Iran, 2005. Photo by Fabien Dany

There is no need to stop there, however; there are many other beautiful technologies to mine from our ancient past. Just to name two, badgirs, or wind towers (also known as windcatchers), and underground water tunnels called qanats offer tantalizing possibilities as methods of passive cooling and irrigation in semiarid or desert regions. The city of Yazd in central Iran boasts some of the world’s tallest traditional wind towers to provide natural ventilation in buildings. At the top of the towers are ports facing in several directions. By closing all the ports except the one facing away from the wind, the chimney uses the resulting pressure gradient to draw cool air from the basement and allow it to circulate around the building.

Diagram of a building cooled by a qanat and wind tower. Illustration by Samuel Bailey

Often used in tandem with the wind tower is the qanat, a water delivery system for arid and semiarid regions, invented in ancient Iran but used throughout the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and even the Americas. Consisting of a series of downward-sloping tunnels, qanats carry groundwater from the foothills of mountains to villages and fields below while minimizing evaporation. When wind towers are used in tandem with qanats to draw up the cooled air surrounding these underground waterways, the combination makes for a remarkably efficient air conditioner.

Many of these traditional systems are still in use today from the Middle East to China. Fortunately, a number of creative start-up companies are now experimenting with updated variants of this elegant passive-cooling system as alternatives to modern air-conditioning, a notoriously wasteful and environmentally harmful technology. When things get difficult, it is sometimes important to look back as well as forward. Who knows what else the past will bring?

Art Molella is the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Director of the National Museum of American History’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.

Presidential hands and bloodstained cuffs

What do you think of when you see the name “Abraham Lincoln”? Do you think of the Gettysburg Address? How about the Civil War? Do you get a mental image of him?

The museum continues its commemoration (April 14-26) of the extraordinary life of Abraham Lincoln on the anniversary of his assassination with special activities across the Web and around D.C. Each day, a group of visitors is selected to receive a special trip to the rooftop terrace of the museum and a signed copy of the exhibition book, Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life.

As actress Laura Keene cradled the president’s head, drops of his blood stained her cuff. She gave the cuff to her niece who preserved it throughout her life.

On Thursday (April 22), Howard and Kathie Chapman from Long Beach, California, were viewing the cuff worn by Our American Cousin leading actress Laura Keene when Lincoln was assassinated. Keene rushed to the president’s box with water. As she held his head, drops of blood stained her cuff.

“Well, at first we thought the cuff belonged to the doctor,” remarked Howard. “But then we read a little further and were surprised to find it was actually worn by the actress.”

“The details are very interesting. People always want to know details,” added Kathie.

Howard and Kathie Chapman

The Chapmans were visiting the Smithsonian Castle when they saw a picture of Lincoln’s hat and trekked across the National Mall to see the real thing.

“As a little kid I would spend a lot of time with the older generation,” said Howard. “I have a lot of relatives from Tennessee, and they would take me to Civil War sites. That really got me interested in history. To have a battle and lose 50,000 men is unreal—we lost that number in Vietnam. The casualties of the Civil War were just astounding.”

Flickr photo by libdespot

On Friday (April 23), Jordan Walker, Mary Pat Ryan, and Carol Mingea were on an 8th grade field trip from Colonial Heights, Virginia, when they were selected. The three were comparing the size of their hand with that of a true-to-size model of Lincoln’s hand.

“How often would you be able to put your hand by a president’s hand asked Mary Pat. “That was a really neat thing to be able to do.”

“I think people like to compare themselves to Lincoln—and not just their hand with a model of his, but their character—because of the principles he held,” said Carol. “In many ways he was a man before his time. He freed the slaves and made the nation better when the nation was growing and changing.”

Jordan Walker, Mary Pat Ryan, and Carol Mingea

Who will we pick next for a special trip to the rooftop? It could be you if we spot you in our exhibition, Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life!

Erin Nielsen is a floor manager with the Department of Public Programs at the National Museum of American History. She likes seeing how people react when they find out they’re the lucky visitors of the day.

Political cartoons and pocket watches

The museum continues its commemoration (April 14-26) of the extraordinary life of Abraham Lincoln on the anniversary of his assassination with special activities across the Web and around D.C. Each day, a group of visitors is selected to receive a special trip to the rooftop terrace of the museum and a signed copy of the exhibition book, Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life.

On Tuesday, April 20 we found first time visitors Joline Currie and Doris Currie viewing political cartoons of Lincoln.

Joline Currie and Doris Currie

“I’m quite surprised about the nature if political cartoons during Lincoln’s time. I’ve read Eric Burns book and cartoons seemed to be pretty nasty back then,” said Doris.

“What surprised me is that political cartoons even existed in the 1860s. I didn’t realize they were that old,” replied Joline.

Commenting on a cartoon of Lincoln by Frank Bellew, Joline added, “In a way the cartoon is very demeaning. In another, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Lincoln is seen as a rail-splitter, and to me, a hard worker.”

Regarding the legacy of Lincoln and what he is remembered for, Doris said: “I liken the dependence on slavery then to the dependence on oil now. We know it’s bad but we need it for the economy. The same was true for slavery.”

On Wednesday, April 21, the visitors we selected came to us from England. Their flight at Dulles airport was grounded due to the volcano eruption in Iceland. We found Sean David Ryan and Caroline Miller observing Lincoln’s pocket watch.

Caroline Miller and Sean David Ryan

“He is generally thought of as the father of modern America. He was one of the leaders in the [movement for the] abolition of slavery,” said Sean.

When asked what they thought about the recent discovery of engravings on the inside of Lincoln’s watch Caroline said: “It is very unusual. History keeps renewing itself as things come out. [It is] like a jigsaw, history building up.”

When we asked them if they had any objects they have of personal or historical significance, Sean replied: “I have an old pin. It is a few hundred years old. It is a family clan pin.” Caroline said “Me stepmom got a Victorian boot. I’m not allowed to touch it. It is solid silver.”

Want to be the next museum visitor we surprise? Come to the Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life exhibition. We might just find you.

We invite you to share your thoughts about Lincoln in the comments section below.

Kyle McKinnish Bridges is an intern in the Department of Public Programs at the National Museum of American History. He is particularly interested in military and social history of the American South during the Civil War.