Block \u2709, Jessica

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Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUNews and Events University Communications2009Alum Lends Lincoln LikenessesJessica Block '09Illinois Wesleyan UniversityThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Recommended CitationBlock '09, Jessica, "Alum Lends Lincoln Likenesses" (2009). News and Events. Paper 2.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/news/2Cutline: George Allison, Illinois Wesleyan Class of 1951, and Meg  Miner, archivist and special collections librarian at The Ames Library,  pose with photos of Abraham Lincoln Allison has loaned to The Ames  Library for display.  February 9, 2009                 Contact: Jessica Block '09, (309)  556-3181  Alum Lends Lincoln Likenesses  BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - On Friday, Feb. 6, a display in The Ames Library (1  Ames Plaza, Bloomington) became the temporary home of two Abraham  Lincoln photographic reproductions on loan from Illinois Wesleyan  alumnus George Allison, Class of 1951.    The prints will join other Lincoln memorabilia, including faculty  meeting minutes that announce the University's closure for the 16th  president's funeral in Springfield, Ill., in the display commemorating  Lincoln's 200th birthday.   The images, which depict a beardless Lincoln posing pre-election at the  Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, were taken by Alexander Hesler  on June 3, 1860.  "They confirm the power of the man himself," said  Allison. "When you look at his picture, you can see the integrity and  the determination of the man even then.  You can imagine the effect he  must have had on his contemporaries and realize why the images are  called the 'pictures that elected a president.'"   Over 100 years after Hesler made the original glass wet-plate collodion  negative, which was damaged beyond repair in 1933 during transit to the  Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., Allison acquired prints of the  photograph from his friend, the late King Hostick, a historical  document dealer and Lincoln specialist.     Hostick located Hesler's positives of the image, the only known set of  undamaged plates in existence today, among items from George Ayres'  estate. "What is amazing is that the copies were unlabeled and unknown  since 1866 and that they survived after that period of time," said Meg  Miner, University archivist and special collections librarian.   "It was terribly exciting when Hostick told me he found the  photographer's own duplicate set of plates," said Allison.  "They're  special to me because I was sort of on the inside of the discovery."   Hostick commissioned prints from Josef Karsh, who made 125 copies using  a gold wash technique before destroying the negative he made from  Hostick's plates. Allison acquired two of these copies from Hostick in  1975.    For additional information about the display, contact Miner at (309)  556-1538.  For additional information about the photographs, contact  Allison at (765) 642-7982.  --  Office of University Communications Illinois Wesleyan University P.O. Box 2900 Bloomington, IL 61702-2900 (309) 556-3181 univcomm@titan.iwu.edu 

Alum Lends Lincoln Likenesses

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Alum Lends Lincoln Likenesses

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