Heart of Lincoln Land

OK, back to Lincoln now. I’ve created a new Lincoln T-shirt design, entitled "80s Abe", that blends my Lincoln and 80s interests. The T-shirts are available in black (shown), blue, and green on the Lincoln Apparel website, at my Etsy store, and at Springfield Novelties and Gifts on the 200 block of South 6th Street in historic downtown Springfield.

I’ve always wanted to create a "full front" print design, where the design fills up most or all of the front of the T-shirt. I’ve always loved how they look, and how intricate they often are. This is my first such design. I had a lot of fun making it!

This design was inspired by the famous "crew cut" portrait of Lincoln taken in February of 1865. As an 80s fan and a Lincoln fan, I’ve always loved this striking portrait of Lincoln. It shows Lincoln with an unusually short "crew cut" style haircut, perhaps because at this time sculptor Clark Mills was creating a life mask of Lincoln’s face. The plaster used to create the mask stuck to his hair, so Lincoln needed his hair cut short.

In the 1980s, this style of haircut became popular. So did bright neon colors, which I’ve always liked. It seemed only fitting that as a Lincoln fan, an 80s fan, and an artist, I’d create a T-shirt using this picture of Lincoln and bright 80s colors.

I figured that a design of this nature would look awesome as a "full front" print. Furthermore, it was simple enough that I could use it to "test" full front printing, but complex enough to be interesting and see how it would work before I made a very complex and intricate full front print design.

The results were spectacular, and I plan to make many more "full front" print T-shirts. The "80s Abe" represents a Lincoln for my generation, and for newer generations that have come to love the 80s. Lincoln, his words, and his memory have been invoked by every generation through the ages, and the 80s were no different. During that time, the "house divided" became a metaphor for the division between the Western democracies and the communist Eastern bloc countries, and his words were often used to extoll the virtues of democracy and promote its spread.

The fight for Lincoln’s ideals continues today. I chose to print this design on American Apparel, a sweatshop free, made in America T-shirt brand. I don’t think Lincoln would believe in sweatshop labor, so I won’t use brands of T-shirts that are made that way. I think he would want things to be made ethically, in a manner in which the workers have rights, so I make sure to make my T-shirts in accordance with his beliefs. These T-shirts are soft, comfortable, and durable, too – and I think Lincoln would like that!

Enjoy the T-shirt, enjoy Lincoln and the 80s, and feel good about it, too!

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On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered a “few appropriate remarks” at the newly-created national cemetery at Gettysburg. The speech contained only 272 words and lasted maybe 3 minutes, far shy of the main speaker Edward Everett’s speech, which lasted 2 hours. Many people attending the event did not realize that President Lincoln had given a speech until after he had given it.

However, the speech was soon recognized as a masterpiece. It became an eloquent embodiment of the ideas of freedom, democracy, and equality, and of the sacrifices made to maintain, and improve, those things. Down through the ages, its words have been interpreted countless different ways and for many different purposes. It has been memorized by countless schoolchildren, and I can recite it from memory.

Within my lifetime, the words of the Gettysburg Address have been used on both the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and at the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. It’s been used in advertising and in political campaigns and speeches, including Obama’s. The immortal and multicultural nature of the Gettysburg Address inspired me to create this T-shirt.

I made each of the 272 words of the speech (in red on the T-shirt) a different font, to reflect different eras and different cultures. I spent many hours tweaking the fonts to get them to play well together and look nice. I added this on top of a large blue picture of Abraham Lincoln, along the right side of his face. The picture of Lincoln is based off a portrait of him taken on November 8, 1863, 11 days before he gave the Gettysburg Address. I felt it was fitting and proper to use a portrait of Lincoln that was taken at around the same time as the address.

As finishing touches, I added Lincoln’s signature, the date (November 19, 1863), and the title, “Address Delivered at the Cemetery at Gettysburg”. This is from the so-called “Bliss copy” of the address, the last revision Lincoln made of the address and the text most commonly used as the standard text for the address.

Now you can contribute to the immortality of the address – and of the man who gave it – by wearing them both on a T-shirt. Neat, isn’t it? Check out the Lincoln Apparel website and my Etsy shop for my new Lincoln "Immortal Words at Gettysburg" T-shirts. The T-shirts are screen printed, and they are 100% cotton and are made right here in the U.S.A.

Here’s some more fun facts about the Gettysburg Address:

* There are only 10 sentences in the Gettysburg Address.
* Lincoln likely spent several weeks working on his address. Lincoln was known to take his time writing speeches, polishing them until they were “perfect”.
* No, Lincoln didn’t write it on the back of an envelope on the train to Gettysburg. The ride was bumpy and it was only 70 minutes long. In addition, none of the surviving copies appear on an envelope and the earliest known copy is on White House stationery.
* Lincoln likely did finish working on his address at the Wills House, where he stayed in Gettysburg the night before the speech.
* There are 5 different surviving copies of the address in Lincoln’s hand known today. These are known as the Nicolay, Hay, Everett, Bancroft, and Bliss copies (in that order). They all differ slightly. Supposedly there is a 6th copy (the delivery copy) of the address in Lincoln’s hand but it has not been found.
* The Everett copy is the one that the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum here in Springfield has.
* The Nicolay and Hay copies are at the Library of Congress. The Bancroft copy is at Cornell University, and the Bliss copy is in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House (which was Lincoln’s office during his time).
* The words “under God” were added in the Everett copy.
* The last three copies were made as souvenirs. The Bliss copy was made because the Bancroft copy did not fit the format the printer was going to use properly. The dates and the titles were added in these.

Enjoy the new T-shirts and have some Lincoln fun!

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Yay! I finally have my new Lincoln T-shirts I blogged about earlier available now. I put them up on my website, Lincoln Apparel, today, after taking pictures and writing descriptions and Web pages for them. I’m working on getting them up in my Etsy store, too. It took a lot longer than I thought, but they turned out really well and I am pleased with them. They have the design pictured to the right, which I created, screen printed onto them, and they are available in blue, red, and black. They are 100% cotton T-shirts and are union made in the USA. They are comfortable and they look great!

The design is entitled, “Back to Springfield”. I wanted to portray Lincoln as if he came back to his hometown for his 200th birthday this year. I always thought it’d be neat if Lincoln was around to witness the 200th year of his life. This inspired me to base the design on the last known photographic portrait of him taken on February 5, 1865. To represent Lincoln coming back to Springfield, I wanted him to be standing in front of a recognizable modern Springfield landmark he would be proud of, so I chose his museum. Since Lincoln is a figure to be celebrated, particularly during the year of his Bicentennial, I wanted to create a celebratory mood. The fireworks idea just kind of came to me after that and after all the other pieces fell into place.

This was my first full-color design, so I didn’t know how well it was going to turn out at the beginning. When I got done with it, I knew it was going to be awesome. Because this shirt turned out so well and has been such a great success so far, I plan on keeping the picture used in this design around for next year, but next year’s shirt will mention something other than the Bicentennial, so get yours while they last!

Enjoy the shirts!

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