Identifier: abrahamlincolnsp1860linc_36 (find matches)
Title: Abraham Lincoln's political career through 1860
Year: 1860 (1860s)
Authors: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Lincoln Young Men's Wide Awake Club Presidents
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Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: Friends of The Lincoln Collection of Indiana, Inc.

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n,burst the Roman candles of every celestial hue. Herbert R. Collins, in his 44 page pamphlet PoliticalCampaign Torches, Museum of History and Technology,Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (1964) hasidentified nine differene tin torches used in the 1860 Pres-idential campaign, and three different tin lanterns usedin 1864. Four of the 1860 torches were mounted on swiv-els while three of the four featured a ring to form a re-volving and oscillating frame. One of the torches ident-ified by Collins bears the slogan Hurrah for Lincoln.The remaining torches are designated as rifle, plat-form, eagle and firemans. The torches with the ex-ception of the one designated rifle were, of course, at-tached to long poles. Very few of the campaign torches that appear in mu-seums and collections today are marked with any typeof identification, and only a very few were patented.With the hundreds of thousands of torches used in themany political campaigns it is surprising that so fewhave survived.
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Grand proce.ssion of Wide Awakes at New York City on the evening of October 3, 1860 from Harpers Weekly, October13, 1860. As this is a drawing, the artist depicted all of the torches to be alike. A photograph of the same scene wouldlikely have revealed many different types of torches. This drawing was made when the Wide Awakes marched alongNews paper Row as the Tribune and Times buildings are depicted along with the City Hall Park at the right of the picture. The Republican marching clubs, called the WideAwakes, formed parades carrying mineral oil torches.The men wore oilcloth capes and glazed caps to protecttheir clothes from the dripping oil. The cheering,singing of campaign songs, and the torchlight pro-cessions were very effective in the election ofAbraham Lincoln. The Wide Awakes political token was one of theearliest medals struck for the 1860 campaign and wasin honor of the Hartford Corps of Wide Awakes, thefirst to be organized and the model for all the latergroups, The unique

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