Personal and Presidential : Lincoln Documents Form Largest Single Exhibit Ever Put on at Huntington

Nine pairs of wide eyes peered into the Huntington Library display case, but their owners were stumped about the simple pot inside.

“A cookie jar?” “A teapot?” The sixth-graders from Cerritos Elementary School in Glendale guessed in vain.

“No, it’s a chamber pot,” docent tour guide Vicki Peterson said. “You can tell everybody that you saw Lincoln’s chamber pot!”

They giggled, but their eyes remained wide as they followed Peterson through the rest of the Huntington’s largest single exhibit ever mounted: “The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America.”

Sixth-graders from Cerritos Elementary, 42nd Street School in South-Central Los Angeles and Eagle Rock Elementary were given tours of the exhibit Tuesday morning before it opened to the public at 1 p.m.

About 450 people were waiting when it did, and 700 attended the exhibit by the time it closed for the day at 4:30 p.m., said Ray Roehr, daytime security supervisor.

The exhibit displays almost 100 original letters and documents written by the 16th President, as well as photographs, prints, broadsides and political memorabilia drawn from the Huntington’s collection, the Illinois State Historical Library and the private Taper Collection.

Louise and Barry Taper of Beverly Hills, whose private collection of Lincoln artifacts includes his top hat, glasses and schoolboy sum book, came up with the idea of forming a comprehensive exhibit by combining their collection with those of the Illinois and Huntington libraries, said John Rhodehamel, history curator for the Huntington.

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The Illinois State Historical Library owns the largest collection of family and pre-presidential writings of Lincoln, including his original marriage license and one of five copies of the Gettysburg Address. The Huntington possesses more than 250 original documents, such as legal writings, pamphlets and paintings of Lincoln. The most notable documents from each of the three collections were chosen for the 10-month exhibit, which might be the only time West Coast residents will get to see the Lincoln artifacts from the private Taper collection or the Illinois library, Rhodehamel said.

The cost of putting together the exhibit along with programs, catalogues and other materials was well over $1 million, Rhodehamel said. The National Endowment for the Humanities provided $350,000, and corporate sponsors helped defray the costs. Rhodehamel estimated that half of the 500,000 people who will visit the Huntington grounds in the next 10 months will come to the exhibit.

“We wouldn’t have room to get more than that through (the exhibition space),” he said.

The mainly document-oriented exhibit, divided into eight sections, begins with the earliest known page Lincoln wrote--a yellowed schoolbook leaf with subtraction exercises--and a picture of the famous log cabin where he was born. Each section gives a glimpse into the phases of his life: a wooden clock from his successful law practice; a love letter to his young wife, Mary Todd Lincoln; letters to politicians illustrating his stance on slavery and the Union.

Pieces display his personal life as well: family photos, locks of hair, a letter to his wife informing her that her Confederate brother had died.

“It gives a glimpse of Lincoln the man, rather than the myth,” said Lisa Blackburn, communications associate for the Huntington Library. “It shows the kind of person he was through his writings.”

For the 275 elementary schoolchildren, who attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday morning, it was a history lesson made three-dimensional.

Later in the morning, a group of the Eagle Rock schoolchildren stopped in front of an exhibit of the political propaganda of the time, including racist pamphlets on “Abraham Africanus” and “What Miscegenation Is!”

“See how the newspapers exaggerated?” said docent tour guide Carol Bressler, pointing to an elongated caricature of Lincoln: “Four Years Longer.” “He was really only 6-foot-4.”

“No, he was 6-3,” corrected Chris McArthur, who, Bressler conceded, had done his homework.

“I like it,” the Eagle Rock sixth-grader said later of the exhibit. “(Lincoln) believed nobody was above anybody else; all should be treated with the same respect. . . . He did a lot for the country, and he was one of the most famous people--and he was a nice man.”

Eagle Rock student Kenny Kongthong especially liked the huge, bold posters shouting “Wanted”--dated April 20, 1865, offering $100,000 for the capture of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth and his accomplices.

“And he had gloves in his pocket when he was assassinated,” the youngster exclaimed. He hadn’t known that either.

The Lincoln Exhibit

What: “The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America”

Where: Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino

When: Tuesday through Friday, 1 to 4:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; closed Mondays and holidays