General James A. Garfield

You may or may not have been following the recent story regarding the auctioning of a photograph thought to be the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. (Did you get all that?) The sale is apparently still ongoing, but does end today. Here are the details.

As it turns out the same auction house, RR Auction, is also selling a cache of Civil War photographs and documents. This collection of American Civil War iconography is rare enough to be be making news across the pond. Lee, Grant, McClellan, Jeff Davis, Sumter’s Robert Anderson, and James Garfield are just a few of the notables on the block.It is indeed a stunning trove that you can check out for yourself. Yours truly will not be bidding, but it is fun to window-shop. Enjoy.

(image courtesy RR Auction)

I am sorry about the lack of posts this week. This week I got caught up putting the final on a few projects, which left little time for anything else. A friend came to my office earlier today and asked if I wanted to see Lincoln again tomorrow, to which I gave a big yes. The Hayfoot and I had actually planned on going to the big screen this week, but things got away from us. I think she wants to see Daniel Day-Lewis again in December.

The Civil War on film is a topic in and of itself. There is no doubt in my mind that Spielberg’s Lincoln join D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind in our canon of popular culture. It is certainly the event so far of the sesquicentennial, and I don’t see anything supplanting it between now and 2015.

People have been asking me how true to events the Lincoln film is, to which I always answer “Don’t worry about it.” It is a feature film, not a documentary. Asking or expecting a movie to be true to life is asking too much. Just go see it and enjoy. Then, if you are interested, delve into subject. The film gives a lot to think about, but it’s not spinach. Artistically and creatively it is fully realized and should be experienced in a theater surrounded by others. See it while you can.

The Hayfoot and I just got back a few minutes ago from seeing Spielberg’s Lincoln, followed by a quick bite in Greenwich Village. It is too late in the day for a more thoughtful response, which I will post in due time. The show answer is that you must see it. I am sitting here in the dark checking my email before bed when, lo and behold, I find this little tidbit in my inbox. Modern day threats of secession are nothing new; we saw them during and after the presidential elections of 2004 and 2008 for one thing. What is new, as far as I can tell, is that the Texas secession petition passed today requires a presidential response because it reached the required 25,000 signatures. Have I said it has been a long day?

Photographer Annie Leibovitz was in Gettysburg yesterday for the opening of her exhibit at the GNMP Visitors Center. She even got to spend the previous night at the Sherfy House on the battlefield. Her latest show is called Pilgrimage, and is based on a book of the same name. The last several years have been difficult for Leibovitz, with the death of partner Susan Sontag and financial reversals that cost her a great deal of money and aggravation. In something of a rut, she assessed what if most important to her and how she wants to move ahead by looking back; from that came this exhibit. For Leibovitz taking stock meant visiting places of historical and natural significance here in the United States and abroad that meant something to her personally. One of the drawbacks to being a commercial photographer, even a gifted one, is that too often the emphasis is on the adjective at the expense of the noun. Subjects in Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage include Graceland and Monticello, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Val-Kill, Old Faithful, Thoreau’s Walden Pond, and Niagara Falls to name a few. Walking the Peach Orchard and Devil’s Den must have been something for someone as knowledgable about the history of photography as Leibovitz. Certainly she knows her Gardner and Brady. Ansel Adams’s studio had been another stop on her pilgrimage.

It is good to see her getting back to work like this. Her talents had stagnated over the past decade. The celebrity photo shoots had become exponentially less relevant while the spreads themselves had grown increasingly outlandish and gratuitous. Seemingly gone were the simple images such as those of John Lennon and Yoko One taken in December 1980 with which she had made her reputation. Pilgrimage is a return to simplicity for the photographer, who turned sixty-three earlier this month. The exhibit will be on display in Gettysburg through January 20, 2013 before moving to other cities.

(image/Robert Scoble)

So often when we see/hear Lincoln portrayed by an actor, Abe comes across as past James Earl Jones, part King Lear. I suppose we have been conditioned to think that the Gettysburg Address came out that November day sounding like the Sermon on the Mount. It is well-documented, however, that Lincoln had a pitch-piteched nasally twang. Daniel Day-Lewis, somewhat defensively, recounts trying to get the sixteenth president’s voice correct.

(Hat tip the Hayfoot)

Update: The New York Film Festival, celebrating its 50th year, is always a tough ticket. Never was this truer than last night when a sold out audience at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall enjoyed a secret screening of Lincoln. The film opens nationwide on November 9th.

We have been looking forward to Stephen Spielberg’s Lincoln biopic in our house for some time, not least because the Hayfoot has a thing for both Abe and Daniel Day-Lewis. Apparently the film has been sitting in the can for some time, since spring. From what I understand the director waited for a late November release because he did not want the film to influence the presidential election in any way. At first I though this was silly, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. Intentionally or not–and it is too good a marketing angle to think it was not a factor the decision of when to release–a November opening also means that the film coincides with the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. This year Spielberg will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Dedication Day ceremony on November 19th.

(image/Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln)