In Memory of Abraham Lincoln

This apotheosis of Lincoln by D.T. Wiest shows the martyred President rising from his sepulcher and ascending into the clouds on a beam of light guided by Father Time and an angel representing immortality. Women representing the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity appear in the background, while Columbia and a Native American mourn at the base of the tomb. Wiest titled his print “In Memory of Abraham Lincoln—The Reward of the Just” and pirated the image directly from John James Barralet’s “Apotheosis of George Washington,” simply replacing Washington’s head with Lincoln’s and changing the name on the tomb. That fact explains the presence of some symbols more appropriate for Washington than Lincoln—a fifteen-star shield, military armor, the Native American, the Masonic emblem. But the message remained clear: Honest Abe, the Great Emancipator, the nation’s martyred president, now belonged to the ages.