The centennial of Lincoln’s birth was a national celebration in 1909 that included issues of a Lincoln stamp and the Lincoln penny and wide variety of commercially produced memorabilia. It also included the production and installation of iron tablets recording the Gettysburg address at 77 national cemeteries. The site of the address at the Gettysburg cemetery had been transferred in 1895 to the national government, who had allocated funds for bronze tablet bearing the speech, but had been delayed by the same problem that delayed the iron tablets, which had been authorized in 1908. The problem was establishing which text of the speech to use, since there were five slightly different versions in Lincoln’s hand (and an addition wire service version.) Fortunately, a standard version was adopted in time based on the “Bliss” version that Lincoln had written out for the Baltimore Sanitary Fair.

This is a nice commercially produced commemorative version printed in 1909 by Umbdenstock and Porter Company of Chicago. It features a portrait of Lincoln at top, flanked by US flags, an eagle atop a globe with more flags and US shields at the upper corners, US shields at the lower corners, and an American eagle with E Pluribus Unum ribbon at bottom center, with flags and cannon. The upper two corners also feature oval vignettes of Lincoln’s log cabin birthplace at left and a Civil War battle scene at right. This is all framed by a rathe kaleidoscopic border with the Gettysburg address captioned and printed in subdued gold lettering.

This would be a nice addition to a collection of Lincoln memorabilia reflecting his place in popular culture and American memory.  [sr]

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