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Lot 83
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Mary Lincoln Owned & Signed "Life of George Washington," From Lincoln Family Library, Dated 1860, During Presidential Campaign & Cooper Union Speech
Mary Lincoln Owned & Signed "Life of George Washington," From Lincoln Family Library, Dated 1860, During Presidential Campaign & Cooper Union Speech
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Description:

Mary Lincoln
New York, NY, ca. 1860
Mary Lincoln Owned & Signed "Life of George Washington," From Lincoln Family Library, Dated 1860, During Presidential Campaign & Cooper Union Speech
Signed book

Life of George Washington, Volume I, ca. 1860, by Washington Irving and published by G. P. Putnam of New York from the Lincoln family library. Bound in full leather with gilt-tooled spine panels and marbled end papers, this volume bears the bold period ink inscription "Mary Lincoln / 1860" on the front flyleaf, indicating personal ownership by the Lincolns during the same year Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. The binding remains sound, with some loss to the board edges and corners, as well as moderate rubbing and shelf wear typical of mid-19th century personal library volumes. The inscription page is overall clean and well-preserved, with Mary Lincoln's signature boldly intact. The book measures 5" x 7.5" x 1.25."

Ex. Lincoln Family Library, with Mary Lincoln's ownership signature; Louise & Barry Taper Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum.

Published, and dated by Mary, during the campaign for Abraham Lincoln's eventual election year of 1860, this volume belonged to the definitive five-part biography of George Washington completed by Irving in 1859. On February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln delivered his critical Cooper Union Address, which elevated him to national prominence. In that speech, Lincoln invoked the legacy of George Washington to argue for the constitutional limits on the expansion of slavery, quoting directly from Volume V of this very series: "Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address." Although this copy is Volume I, it belongs to the same series that Lincoln likely consulted and referenced. Volume V of the set includes an entire chapter devoted to Washington's Farewell Address, the very source Lincoln quoted in his pivotal Cooper Union speech.

Mary Lincoln's ownership signature within this volume which is dated 1860, the same year her husband was campaigning and preparing to take the nation's highest office, makes this a profoundly symbolic artifact. It forms a powerful connection between George Washington, the nation's founding president, and Abraham Lincoln, who would soon be called to preserve the Union through its greatest crisis.

That symbolic connection only deepened once Lincoln assumed office. On March 13, 1861, Mary Todd Lincoln received an invitation from the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association to visit George Washington's estate in Virginia. The group offered her exclusive use of the steamer Thomas Collyer for a private visit to the mansion and tomb. But just weeks later, following the attack on Fort Sumter, Virginia passed its Ordinance of Secession, placing Mount Vernon in Confederate territory. A year later, President Lincoln himself sailed down the Potomac toward Mount Vernon, but, citing security concerns, never disembarked, remaining aboard the vessel due to the threat posed by Confederate control.

On July 26, 1862, Mary Lincoln wrote to Commissioner Benjamin Brown French to report that she had purchased books for the White House library using a $250 appropriation, spending $75 in Washington and $150 in New York. She noted that she had replaced the worn sets of Waverley and Shakespeare with new editions and mentioned that Abraham Lincoln had personally paid for a history of Washington, acquired from New York bookseller T. J. Crowen. While the volume in question is not the same title obtained during that New York trip, it is reasonable to believe that President Lincoln, having completed Irving's works on Washington, began collecting additional related volumes just two years after the family added this set to their library and he was elected to the presidency.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 5" x 7.5" x 1.25"
  • Medium: Signed book

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