I received an email from Timothy Wroten of The New-York Historical Society concerning the upcoming museum exhibit on Abraham Lincoln’s famous 1860 Cooper Union speech. In his speech, Lincoln covered the topic of slavery and how to deal with that issue in new territories, the characterization of the Republican party as a “sectional” rather than national party, and what he perceived to be a ruinous course by Southerners on the slavery issue. Lincoln also sat for a photo at famous 19th Century photographer Mathew Brady’s studio on the same day he gave his Cooper Union speech. Lincoln himself personally believed these two events launched him to the Presidency.
Details of the exhibit are as follows:
New-York Historical Society Marks 150th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address with Lincoln and New York
Exhibition Brings to Life Lincoln’s History-Changing February 27, 1860 Speech
WHAT: Lincoln and New York turns back the clocks to Lincoln’s epoch-making address at the Cooper Union and the photograph for which he posed on the same day, which would together launch his national career. Lincoln himself once said, “Brady and the Cooper Union speech made me President.” Exhibit highlights include:
·A video reenactment by actor Sam Waterson of Lincoln’s February 27th Cooper Union Address, shown adjacent to the exact lectern he used.
·A recreation of Mathew Brady’s studio, whose photograph of Lincoln
would become an icon and begin the continual reinvention of Lincoln’s public image.·A copy of Brady’s original photograph, historical political cartoons and illustrations based on it, and an original copy of the widely distributed printing of Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address.
WHY: Lincoln and New York brings visitors face-to-face with tumultuous relationship between America’s greatest President and its greatest city, from Lincoln’s decisive entrance into the city’s life at the start of the 1860 Presidential campaign to his untimely departure from it in 1865 as a secular martyr.
WHEN: Saturday, February 27, 10AM—6PM and ongoing through March 25
WHERE: The New-York Historical Society
Two West 77th Street at Central Park West
New York, NY 10024ADMISSION: Adults: $12, Seniors: $9, Students: $7
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