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Lincoln’s Legacy

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“We are able to create a Lincoln for all seasons.” - Catherine Clinton, University of Texas, San Antonio

Lincoln’s assassination left a lasting impact on this country, and is still felt today. How is his legacy represented?

Each generation since his death has found new aspects of the man and myth to emphasize. Lincoln’s deeds and words shaped one of the most crucial periods in U.S. history. People around the globe, both past and present, take heart in Lincoln’s leadership and thought. Still others see Lincoln as representing the worst of presidential leadership.

His impact on American society and culture can be seen all around us in symbols and memorials, currency and advertising.

Conduct Your Own Investigation:

As you see about how different people around the globe remember President Lincoln, consider…

  • How have different generations chosen to portray Lincoln?
  • What aspects of Lincoln do people most often remember? Why?
  • How did Lincoln’s legacy and its controversial nature evolve over time?
  • Why would people want to attach Lincoln’s name to their own project?
  • How does each image or quotation represent Lincoln’s Legacy?

Memorials to Lincoln

15 Photos
After Lincoln’s assassination, a group of formerly enslaved people raised funds to erect a statue of Lincoln. The Western Sanitary Commission, a mostly white group that took charge of the funds, rejected this design by Harriet Hosmer in 1868. Image from Art Journal, 1868, courtesy Getty Research Institute via Internet Archive. Instead of Harriet Hosmer’s design (previous image), the Western Sanitary Commission chose this work by Thomas Ball. Frederick Douglass spoke at the statue’s dedication in Washington, D.C., in 1876. Deeming its depiction racist, protestors demanded the statue’s removal in 2020. Photo by Carol Highsmith; Library of Congress LC-DIG-highsm-10341. Since 1909, all U.S. one-cent coins have featured an image of Abraham Lincoln. Before that, most people were against using portraits on coins in the United States, but public sentiment at the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birth upended the long-standing tradition. He is also pictured on the five-dollar bill. Image by Lost Dutchman Rare Coins via Wikimedia Commons. In the early 1900s, private groups built highways across the United States. Automobile entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher planned the Lincoln Highway, running from New York to San Francisco, as a living memorial to his personal hero. As a counterpoint, the United Daughters of the Confederacy named highways for Confederate leaders. Photo by David Monack via Wikimedia Commons. In 1922, those who planned the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall thought of it as a spot to showcase post-Civil War reconciliation. The memorial has since been the site of protests on issues like war and peace and racial justice. Photo by TJH2018 via Wikimedia Commons. Opened in 1932, the Arlington Memorial Bridge is a major artery over the Potomac River, a physical and symbolic divider of the "North" and the "South." The bridge was meant to show the strength of a reunited nation by literally and symbolically joining memorials on either side of the Potomac representing the Union (the Lincoln Memorial, bottom) and the Confederacy (the Robert E. Lee Memorial, top). Library of Congress, LC-DIG-hec-38178. Henry Fonda, who starred in Young Mr. Lincoln in 1939, was among the many actors who have portrayed Lincoln on film since the first movie about the 16th president appeared in 1911. Image via Wikimedia Commons. Completed in 1941, Mt. Rushmore’s massive stone carvings sit on a cliff high above the Black Hills of South Dakota, on unceded Lakota land. The faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln embody who Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor, considered the most important leaders in U.S. history up until the early 20th century. Image Via Wikimedia Commons. When police arrested Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in 1995, he was wearing a T-shirt with Lincoln’s face and the phrase “Sic semper tyrannis”—thus always to tyrants—that Booth yelled after shooting Lincoln. Courtesy Oklahoma City Memorial and Museum. Until 2003, Richmond, Virginia, one-time capital of the Confederacy, had no statues of Lincoln; statues of Confederate leaders predominated. This statue of Abraham and Tad Lincoln, commemorating their visit after the U.S. Army captured the city in April 1865, sits near the Tredegar Iron Works, today home to the American Civil War Museum. Photo by David McKenzie. After years of restoration, President Lincoln’s Cottage—where he and his family spent summer months—opened as a historic site in Washington, D.C., in 2008. The site joined many other places preserved because of their associations with Lincoln. Photo by Carol Highsmith; Library of Congress, LC-DIG-highsm- 04297. More than 15,000 books have been written about Lincoln. The Ford’s Theatre Center for Education and Leadership, opened in 2012, contains a four-story sculptured tower of 6,700 books, with room to add more—showing that the last word on Lincoln has not yet been written.

From The Blog

Investigating Washington, D.C.’s Emancipation Memorial

I recently had dinner with some friends who live a mile East of the U.S. Capitol near Lincoln Park. The conversation found its way to Lincoln (as it usually does when I’m in the room) and “that problematic statue in the park.”

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