On the occassion of his second inaugurationBrooks Brothers gives loyal customer ABRAHAM LINCOLN a great coat with an intricately embroidered lining bearing an eagle and the inscription, "ONE COUNTRY, ONE DESTINY."Sadly, this was the same coat he was wearing when he was assassinated at Ford's Theatre two weeks later.

This was the official abolishment of slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States except as punishment for a crime.&nbsp;

US Capitol

Thirteenth Amendment

The Emancipation Proclamation served to free all the remaining slaves in the Union. &nbsp;

White House

Emancipation Proclamation

A speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Bliss version &nbsp;of the speech is as follows:&nbsp; Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Gettysburg National Cemetery

The Gettysburg Address

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota, United States. It features the 60-foot-tall heads of four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, chosen to represent the nation’s birth, growth, development and preservation, respectively. The sculpture was designed by Gutzon Borglum and executed from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum. The memorial park covers 1,278 acres and attracts more than two million visitors annually. The sculpture is built on land that was illegally taken from the Sioux Nation in the 1870s and is still disputed by them.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

 Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally since 1789, with the first proclamation by President George Washington after a request by Congress. The Continental Congress, the legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, issued several "national days of prayer, humiliation, and thanksgiving", a practice that was continued by presidents Washington and Adams under the Constitution, and has manifested itself in the established American observances of Thanksgiving and the National Day of Prayer today. As President, on October 3, 1789, George Washington made the proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America. On the day of thanksgiving, Washington attended services at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City, and donated beer and food to imprisoned debtors in the city. 

 In his proclamation, Washington declared that the necessity for such a day sprung from the Almighty&amp;rsquo;s care of Americans prior to the Revolution, assistance to them in achieving independence, and help in establishing the constitutional government. Not ignoring the authority of state governments, Washington distributed his proclamation to the governors, requesting that they announce and observe the day within their states. Newspapers throughout the country subsequently published the proclamation and public celebrations were held. Washington himself marked the day by attending services at St. Paul's Chapel in&amp;nbsp;New York City, and by donating beer and food to imprisoned debtors in the city.  

Federal Hall National Memorial

1st Presidential Proclamation of Thanksgiving Day

The funeral cortege stopped in NY for 23 hours on April 24th &amp; 25th, 1865, long enough for 500,000 people to pass at the rate of 80 people per minute to view Abraham Lincoln Lying in State in City Hall's Rotunda.

On April 21, 1865, the train left Washington, D.C., to travel to Springfield, Illinois, for the president's burial there on May 4. The funeral train consisted of nine cars and carried 300 guests along with Lincoln's casket. 

A 6 year old Theodore Roosevelt and brother Elliot watch from the window of their Grandfather's mansion. The boys are in the second floor window on the left side of the street Teddy Roosevelt’s wife confirmed “Yes, I think that is my husband, and next to him his brother,” she exclaimed. “That horrible man! I was a little girl then and my governess took me to Grandfather Roosevelt’s house on Broadway so I could watch the funeral procession. But as I looked down from the window and saw all the black drapings I became frightened and started to cry. Theodore and Elliott were both there. They didn’t like my crying. They took me and locked me in a back room. I never did see Lincoln’s funeral.”&nbsp;

Abraham Lincoln Lying in State in City Hall's Rotunda

Union Square Timeline Medallion 15

The statue of Abraham Lincoln by Henry Kirke Brown was dedicated in 1870 and moved to its present location in 1930.

Though Brown, like many of his generation, made an obligatory visit to Italy to study, he was part of a group of sculptors attempting to establish a truly American sculptural idiom. Brown also created a similar portrait of Lincoln in Prospect Park (1869), and his nephew and pupil Henry Kirke Bush-Brown (1857-1935) crafted the bronze bust for Gettysburg&amp;rsquo;s Lincoln Memorial.  

Union Square Timeline Medallion 17

The Battle of Gettysburg, occurring in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a pivotal three-day engagement during the American Civil War. Fought between Union and Confederate forces, the Union emerged victorious, marking a turning point in the conflict and thwarting the Confederacy's aspirations for independence.&nbsp;

The battle, known for its staggering casualty count of around 50,000, saw Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. This victory halted Lee's invasion of the North, compelling his retreat. The Gettysburg Campaign, initiated by Lee after his success at Chancellorsville, aimed to shift the focus from war-ravaged Northern Virginia and influence Northern politicians. The battle's three days witnessed intense clashes, including the iconic Pickett's Charge on July 3. The Union's resolute defense and repulsion of the Confederate assault cemented Gettysburg as the war's bloodiest conflict.&nbsp;

President Abraham Lincoln later used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863, to deliver the historic Gettysburg Address, honoring the fallen soldiers and redefining the war's purpose.&nbsp;

The first known photo of President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, hours before he delivered the famous Gettysburg Address.&nbsp;The Flagpole is at the future location of Soldier's National Monument

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. “But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

L. Prang &amp; Co. print of the painting "Hancock at Gettysburg" by Thure de Thulstrup, showing Pickett's Charge. Restoration by Adam Cuerden.&nbsp;

Gettysburg Centennial issue of 1963 During the Civil War Centennial, the U.S. Post Office issued five postage stamps commemorating the 100th anniversaries of famous battles. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Designed by Roy Gjertson. - US Post Office&nbsp;

En route to Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia kidnapped between 40 and nearly 60 Black civilians and sent them south into slavery.

photographed by Timothy H. O'Sullivan

He was sent from London for Harper's Weekly

Battle of Gettysburg

The stature of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was created to honor his memory. The statue is lying between the north and south chambers where the central hall is where the statue stands.<a href="https://culturenow.org/people/national-park-service?name=National_Park_Service">[1]</a> It is often thought that the figure of Lincoln is signing his own initials in the American manual alphabet: “A” with his left hand, “L” with his right. However, there are different interpretations of what the hand placement means. It is also thought that one hand is clenched, representing his strength and determination to see the war through a successful conclusion. The other hand is a more open, slightly more relaxed hand representing his compassionate, warm nature.<a href="https://culturenow.org/people/national-park-service?name=National_Park_Service">[3]</a> When French created the statue of Lincoln he took 7 years to research Lincoln and study the photographs of him.<a href="https://culturenow.org/people/national-park-service?name=National_Park_Service">[2]</a>

Lincoln Memorial

Statue of Abraham Lincoln

The six-foot-four midwestemer cook the fert from New Jersey and loped up Broadway to his lodging at the Astor House across from City Hall. He was in town to deliver a speech, the venue for which had been shifted to Cooper Union from Plymouth Church in leafy Brooklyn Heights. He boarded another ferry for the obligatory visit to hear Henry Ward Beecher deliver his Sunday sermon there. He also dropped by City Hall, a den of Southern sympathy and pro-cotton lobbyists, anti-abolitionism, and talk of secession by the nation's largest city. On Monday, February 27, 1860, before delivering his first speech in the east- a speech that would transform him from a regional phenomenon into a national political figure- he bought a new top hat from Knox at Fulton Street and dropped by Mathew Brady's temporary studio at Bleecker Street to sit for (actually, he was photographed standing up, to reflect his full stature) a likeness that would introduce him to the nation in a first political portrait.In the annals of American political oratory, few speeches rival Abraham Lincoln's presidential audition at Cooper Union that night in eloquence and impact. The hall sat eighteen hundred and was only three-quarters filled, but the speech, in which the fifty-one-year-old Lincoln contrarily declared that "right makes might," would be reprinted and disseminated to every corner of the country. Lincoln's goal was twofold: to unequivocally denounce slavery and to improve his party's odds in the 1860 presidential campaign. He managed to win the plaudits of New York's Republican newspapers and outflank the state's favorite son. William H. Seward, for the nomination later that year (he also collected an impressive two-hundred-dollar fee). His performance would blunt expected Democratic margins in the city sufficiently to deliver New York State and its trove of electoral votes to Lincoln that November. (With typical understatement, he wrote his wife a few days after the speech that it "went off passably well.")Organizers of the speech were competing with other offerings that night, including a performance by Jenny Lind, P. T. Barnum's "Swedish Nightingale," at the Winter Garden. The Cooper Union tickets were twenty-five cents, and apparently, only one survives. It was bought at auction in 2005 by Edward Gillette, a Kansas City, Kansas, criminal defense and personal injury lawyer whose great-great-grand-father served as a Union officer during the Civil War.Cooper Union would figure twice more in Lincoln what-ifs. According to some uncorroborated accounts, the morning after his speech, Erastus Corning, a director of the New York Central, offered Lincoln an astounding ten thousand dollars a year to be the railroad's lawyer. "If Lincoln had accepted his offer," Edward Hungerford wrote in Men and Iron, "he unquestionably would have declined the presidency of the United States."Twice more he was invited to speak at Cooper Union but declined. The last time was at an April 11, 1865, meeting to commemorate the attack on Fort Sumter. Had he attended, he probably would have been unable to return to Washington in time for the Good Friday performance at Ford's Theatre that ended his life."Cooper Union was not just a speech," Harold Holzer, a Lincoln scholar, wrote. "It was a conquest--a public relations triumph, a political coup d'état within the Republican party, and an image transfiguration abetted by the press and illustrated by the most felicitous photo opportunity in American history.TEXT FROM SAM ROBERTS 101 OBJECTS

On the day of his now famous speech at the Cooper Union in New York City on February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln visited the studio of photographer Mathew Brady. Well-respected in the field, Brady was tasked with making Lincoln, whose appearance was under constant scrutiny by his opponents, look presidential. Brady achieved his objective by emphasizing Lincoln’s height and using props such as a pillar, a symbol of strength, and books, the holders of knowledge. The photograph was widely circulated during the 1860 presidential campaign and was believed to have influenced many to vote for the lawyer from Illinois, leading Lincoln to proclaim, “Brady and the Cooper Union Institute made me president.”

Cooper Union

The Speech Heard 'Round the World

At the age of 45, Henry Sands Brooks opens H. &amp; D.H. Brooks &amp; Co .to sell men’s clothing, in his childhood home. As “Makers and Merchants in One,” the firm assumes absolute control over its offerings, ensuring customers the highest level of quality.

Henry Sands Brooks calls on his sons—all of whom had become retailers themselves—to assist with his burgeoning business. His eldest son, Henry, Jr. takes the helm upon his father’s passing later that year. He remained in charge until 1850, when younger brothers Daniel, John, Elisha, and Edward, assumed leadership and changed the firm’s name to Brooks Brothers. The Golden Fleece symbol was adopted as the company's trademark in 1850.&nbsp;

A frequent customer of Brooks Brothers, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned an embroidered coat from the American clothing brand, which he wore on the night of his second Inauguration, as well as the night of his assassination. The jacket’s long, structured silhouette resembled that of his usual frock coat, but the interior featured a message embroidered in silk twill: an eagle holding a banner in its beak along with the words, “One Country, One Destiny.” Following President Lincoln’s assassination, First Lady Mary Lincoln gifted the coat to Lincoln’s favorite doorman, Alphonse Donn. Pieces of this bloodstained coat were taken as souvenirs, causing irreparable damage to the piece. This coat was photographed in 2007 by Carol M. Highsmith. Lincoln became president on March 4, 1861 and had earlier served in the House of Representatives.

Senator John F. Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. The groomsmen receive a timeless gift from the future president: a Brooks Brothers umbrella.Kennedy was known for wearing "Number Two" two-button suit during his presidency, a trim silhouette favored by the youthful Kennedy.

H. & D. H. Brooks & Co. 

Brooks Brothers opened

Bas-relief plaque with female figure (life size) surrounded by quotations; plaque is surmounted by an eagle with spread wings, on stele. The Clason Point War Memorial includes inspirational quotations by presidents George Washington (1732–1799), Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), William McKinley (1843–1901), and Wilson. The latter, alluding to the Wilson administration’s role in World War I and the Treaty of Versailles peace agreement, reads, “That the world may be made safe for democracy.”Inscription: Plaque - top: DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO MADE THE SU- / PREME SACRIFICE AND TO ALL OTHERS / FROM CLASON POINT WHO ENTERED THE / SERVICE OF OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR / NEW YORK CITY / A.D. 1928 /Plaque - bottom left: LET US RAISE / A STANDARD TO WHICH / THE WISE AND HON- / EST CAN REPAIR THE / EVENT IS IN THE HANDS / OF GOD. / WASHINGTON / THAT GOVERNMENT / OF THE PEOPLE BY THE / PEOPLE AND FOR THE / PEOPLE SHALL NOT PER- / ISH FROM THE EARTH / LINCOLN /Plaque - bottom right: NO IMPERIAL / DESIGNS LURK / IN THE AMERICAN / MIND THEY ARE / ALIEN TO AMERI - / CAN SENTIMENT / THOUGHT AND PURPOSE. / MCKINLEY / THAT THE WORLD / MAY BE MADE / SAFE FOR DEMOC- / RACY. / WILSON /

Woodrow Wilson Triangle

Clason Point World War I Memorial

Located in Prospect Park. Standing figure (over life-size) on integral plinth on pedestal with wreaths and insignia of US Army and Navy at front and rear, and two eagles, one proper left and one proper right.

Pedestal H: 10'4" W: 7'6" D: 7'6"; Eagles H: 30"; Wreath Diameter: 30"

Prospect Park

Abraham Lincoln Statue

proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise", for the last Thursday in November.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln wore a custom-made Brooks Brothers frock coat to his Second inauguration. Lincoln later wore the same frock coat on the evening of his assassination.

The Memorial includes inspirational quotations by past the president

New York also has the honor of being the first city to dedicate a statue of the 16th president Abraham Lincoln in his honor.

The life-sized statue of Abraham Lincoln outside the New-York Historical Society was installed as part of the museum's $65 million renovation. Sculpted with extraordinary historical accuracy, the figure depicts Lincoln during the Civil War—serious, thoughtful, and burdened by the nation's greatest crisis. StudioEIS founder Ivan Schwartz and his team carefully researched Lincoln's appearance, even measuring the original stovepipe hat at the Smithsonian Institution to ensure every detail was authentic.Installed alongside a companion statue of Frederick Douglass, the sculpture was designed to bring history to street level. Unlike towering monuments on distant pedestals, Lincoln stands at eye level, inviting visitors to stand beside him and reflect on his legacy. Their human scale has made them especially popular with families and visitors, transforming the museum entrance into an accessible and engaging public space where history feels immediate and personal.

NY Historical

Abraham Lincoln statue at NY Historical

George Washington was an American political leader, military general, statesman, and Founding Father of the United States, who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Washington led the Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War, and presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the Constitution of the United States and a federal government for the United States

Mount Vernon

George Washington Birthplace National Monument

1st Presidential Mansion

2nd Presidential Mansion

George Washington Gravesite

George Washington

An American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the Union through the American Civil War to defend the nation as a constitutional union and succeeded in abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.

Lincoln Burial Site

The house where President Abraham Lincoln died after being shot

William A. Petersen House

Ford's Theatre National Historic Site ...

Lincoln Home Site

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace

Abraham Lincoln

Ford's Theatre

Lincoln Home National Historic Site

Abraham Lincoln wears a Brooks Brothers greatcoat purchased from the Grand Street store on the occasion of his second Presidential inauguration.

New York also has the honor of being the first city to dedicate a statue of the Sixteenth president Abraham Lincoln in his honor, the Henry Kirke Brown statue in Prospect Park.

16th president Abraham Lincoln made one of the most famous appearances of his career at Cooper Union.

Sixteenth president Abraham Lincoln made one of the most famous appearances of his career at Cooper Union, at the site of Cooper Square in the East Village. The speech significantly boosted his presidential campaign.&nbsp;

Abraham Lincoln was the first passenger to pass through the Site of the High Line, at the Hudson River Railroad train station at 30th Street and 10th Avenue

Lincoln Tunnel got its name because the Port Authority believed that the tunnel was "parallel to the importance of the George Washington Bridge", which had been named after the first U.S. President.

Abraham Lincoln

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Related Sites

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS

IN THIS PHOTO / THEN AND NOW