Posted by on 7/24/2026 to
News
"Historic" and "historical" can be used interchangeably, but do not mean the same thing. An event is historic, while the memorabilia we display in museums and place in our collections, the material evidence, is historical. So, we deal in historical Americana, but sometimes the objects that pass through our hands have a certain resonance, a special feel to them, acquired from having been present when historic events took place. There is no litmus test for it, but you know when an item has it.
Some of the items in this month's Gallery selection have that unique and indefinable "historic" resonance. All date from the 19th century, and many are from the pivotal 1860s, a time of crisis and division that brought to the fore one of our great leaders, Abraham Lincoln. A self-educated frontier lawyer, tall and awkward, some would even say uncouth, he was hardly destined for that role, but he proved to be the man for the moment.
Among the offerings this month: a total of five Lincoln ferrotype badges, a previously unknown early presidential plaque, a fine shell bust, a large folio lithograph, and three rare issues of Harper's Weekly with coverage of the Second Inauguration, assassination and funeral. Also represented: Henry Clay, James Polk, John Fremont, George McClellan, Ulysses Grant, James Garfield, Grover Cleveland and William McKinley.
