Lincoln’s Election of 1860: The Campaign in Six Archival Images

H. C. Howard printed Lincoln and Hamlin’s names across a small fabric flag. The design reduced a national campaign to a portable object. The Library of Congress dates its copyright deposit to July 12, 1860. Its thirty-one-star pattern should not be mistaken for a precise count of the states at election time.

Currier & Ives made the presidential race into a struggle to enter the White House. Lincoln approaches in Wide Awake dress, holding a lantern and a rail. His opponents are caricatured as intruders. The cartoon records an argument made during the campaign; its jokes are evidence of partisan persuasion, not eyewitness reporting.

This wood engraving depicts the Republican procession in New York on October 3, 1860. It appeared in Harper’s Weekly ten days later. The crowded streets show how a campaign could occupy public space, although the engraving remains an illustrated representation. Its event date and publication date are deliberately kept separate here.

B. J. F. Hanna’s telegram to Abraham Lincoln is dated November 6, 1860. It reports election results and belongs to Lincoln’s surviving correspondence. After the portraits and campaign prints, this modest sheet brings the story to voting day itself: information moving toward the candidate as a national result took shape.