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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Richard Nixon created President’s Day in 1971. Photo courtesy whitehouse.gov

As a Lincoln fan and somebody who loves history, President’s Day has always striked me as the most useless holiday on the calendar. Why do we need such a generic holiday on the calendar? Is there any reason why all of our presidents should be placed on equal footing? C’mon, you can’t seriously say that James Buchanan, Richard Nixon, and Millard Fillmore are on the same footing as Lincoln and Washington.

What’s more, President’s Day (which is the 3rd Monday in February) can never fall on Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th) or Washington’s Birthday (February 22nd). Talk about useless! No wonder so many states and localities (Illinois included) make a separate holiday for Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday.

All President’s Day is really known for is stupid sales at big box stores. I don’t know of any celebrations that happen on President’s Day. I really wish our Federal Government would care more about our history and separate it out back into Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th) and Washington’s Birthday (February 22nd) the way it was intended to be. President’s Day is a “compromise” that doesn’t satisfy anyone. You wouldn’t celebrate the 4th of July on any other day, so why should we celebrate the contributions of Lincoln and Washington on a holiday not named for them that can’t occur on either of their birthdays?

Abraham Lincoln (Picture Copyright © 2009 Chris Umhoefer, Lincoln Apparel)

Maybe we should call President’s Day Richard Nixon Day. The seedy history of President’s Day begins with him, when he decided that in 1971 that he was just as worthy as Lincoln and Washington and that Federal government workers only needed one day off in February. So he merged the two into the holiday now known as “President’s Day”. Three years earlier, in 1968, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act established that most federal holidays would fall on a Monday, except for days like, oh, Christmas (oh, how convenient and important to our nation’s history). This is why, for instance, MLK Day (established in 1986) is on a Monday and not normally on his birthday (January 15th) either.

George Washington (courtesy whitehouse.gov)

Prior to 1971, Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday had been commonly celebrated for 105 years. Lincoln’s Birthday was first widely celebrated in 1866, after Lincoln’s assassination, and Washington’s Birthday was commonly celebrated during Lincoln’s time. I wish they were celebrated widely today, but instead we’re left with the mundane but “convenient” President’s Day, which contributes to our nation’s already high historical illiteracy rate and doesn’t really celebrate anything.

We as a nation need to be more aware of the contributions of great figures in our history, and why their contributions are relevant to today, and President’s Day and the Uniform Monday Holiday Act don’t help. They hurt, and de-emphasize our history. For the sake of our nation and our history, we need to make Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday federal holidays again, and have them fall on their actual birthdays.

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