Above and right a small block of wood is embellished
with decorative tacks of brass, bone and horn
from Abraham Lincoln’s state carriage.  
Above in its period frame a paper candle lantern from the 1864 Lincoln campaign had been
carefully laid flat and framed for posterity.
LEFT TO RIGHT:  Memorial portrait cards like this one by
Prang of Boston & Washington were commonly placed
in family photo albums.  Memorial items like this rare
redware  vase were quickly brought into production by
local craft firms.  Their limited number and often fragile
construction have left few examples of intact pottery.    
Enterprising Portland ,Maine  photographer George F.
Ayer produced Lincoln tintypes like the one seen above
from a popular engraving.  Variations of all manner of
postal covers to include memorial issues and examples
left from earlier political campaigns like the above were
preserved by period collectors.
Even the famous Lincoln cabin fell prey to the mass interest in Lincoln memorabilia.  After the assassination the cabin fell into the possession
of   cousins John and Dennis Hanks who took every advantage of their control of the old place and public interest.  The above photograph of the
Hanks brothers was quickly copyright protected in 1865 and offered for sale to an eager public.   The Hanks cousins scavenged off original roof
shingles and offered sections for sale with printed labels of provenance.  Such offerings were followed by slices from beams with provenance
provided by the Hogville, Kentucky Ladies Lincoln League. With the original cabin now lost in its entirety these fragments of the original are
prized fragments of history.  In 1893 what was left of the original cabin was disassembled and shipped northward to serve as an exhibit at the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The original cabin was lost after the Exposition, and may have been used as firewood.      
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