Rare Book Monthly
Articles - February - 2008 Issue
The Lincoln, Washington and the Presidents
An interesting image from Arader Galleries
Then too there is the history of the institution of the Presidency. What was once the selection of a white man by a small group of landed white men is now a sprawling free-for-all as grounded in money as it was two centuries ago grounded in social position, education, connections and color. The transformation of the American Presidency is perhaps one of the most intellectually challenging approaches to collecting in the Presidential field. The reading required, the views formed based on an analysis of the written canon and the continuing transformation of our understanding of the past wrought by rapidly increasing broader and deeper access to information, suggest our understanding of the past will be fundamentally challenged and changed. This reconsideration potentially creates an intellectual continuum from first President to next President to next generation and the future. For scholars and collectors this is a compelling challenge: the past as tea leaves to the future.
It is also true that Presidents preside during a period. They sometimes master the cardinal events; in other cases are submerged in and by them. James Monroe enunciated the Monroe Doctrine, effectively declaring the Atlantic an American sea and the new world an American sphere of influence. Tracing this one idea through the transformation of period, presidency and event is for some the stuff of which great collections are made.
Then too there are the supporting casts. The Secretaries of War for instance, now become the Secretaries of Defense, their roles in the cabinet, their influence on the Presidents and their impact on history, this too is a collecting area in which Presidential history in all its many forms intertwines.
For those who look out rather than in, the increasing impact of the Presidency on the world creates links to every continent. Presidential policies influence events. Consequences of American action affect lives, opportunities and outcomes everywhere.
Seen another way, all presidencies are ultimately divided into those that raise hope or divide spoils, those that move the nation to a higher level or tip it in the direction of lowest common denominator. We remember the great citizens that united the nation though too often we have voted along narrow lines of personal preference, often opting for short term personal gain over long term national advantage. This too is a way to view both American history and the impact of Presidents: where they lead and what it suggests.
Whatever one's philosophical and political perspective the "Washington, Lincoln and the Presidents" catalogue is a window on the great crossroads of American life where scoundrels and the heroic co-exist, where the price of the least expensive item included is $2.00 and the most expensive more than $25,000. Here, in the pursuit of information and perhaps ultimately collectible materials we are all equal.
We invite you to view these materials, to find a single interesting item or a fresh hand-hold to collecting. These dealers often have hundreds and sometimes thousands of related items. So look here first and then search the Books for Sale database. They provide an interesting window into the collection of knowledge and the collecting of the appealing material.
Here is a link to Washington, Lincoln & the Presidents.
