#railsplitter
One of the most enduring images of Abraham Lincoln is Lincoln the Rail Splitter—the tall, strong young man wielding his ax or maul splitting fence rails on the Illinois frontier. Lincoln was nicknamed the Rail Splitter by his supporters at the 1860 Illinois state Republican Convention, where they were touting their relatively unknown candidate for the national party’s presidential nomination. Marching though the Decatur Wigwam carrying two fence rails that they claimed were “from a lot of 3,000 made in 1830 by Thos. Hanks and Abe Lincoln,” they cheered Lincoln as “The Rail Candidate.” At the Republican National Convention in Chicago eight days later, the “rail candidate” won the nomination—and in November the presidency—and the rail splitter image became part of Lincoln iconography.
The popularity of Lincoln as rail splitter is reflected in the pictures gracing that very popular 20th-century souvenir item, the picture postcard.
Some postcards focused solely on Lincoln’s rail splitting prowess. This one shows young Lincoln working under the watchful eyes of an older man and a dog. According to printing on the reverse, it was a souvenir card offered by “Boston’s Newest Commercial Hotel.”
Onthis souvenir postcard the Rail Splitter is equipped with both a maul and an ax.
The design on this postcard is embossed for a three-dimensional look.
The same image of young Lincoln at work appears below a portrait of President Lincoln on this postcard.
This embossed postcard was created for the Lincoln centennial in 1909. The Rail Splitter appears much older than the 20-something youth who split fence rails in Illinois, and he sports a post-1860 beard.
“Abraham Lincoln as a Rail Splitter” includes inset images of “Lincoln’s Broadaxe,” with a note on the reverse saying it was then owned by a man in Petersburg, Illinois, and of an Ox-Yoke made by young Lincoln and owned by the University of Illinois.
In 1996, the Chicago Historical Society produced this postcard reproducing a painting from its collection, “The Railsplitter, 1860” by an unknown artist.
ThisLincoln centennial souvenir postcard shows the Rail Splitter at work but links that work to young Lincoln’s well-known determination to read and write. The text reads, “Never idle, performing the humblest labor with the same enthusiasm that he pursued under the light of a tallow dip the learning that eventually entitled him to a place in the front rank as orator and a writer of English.”
The link between Lincoln’s rail splitting and learning is clear in other postcard images of the young Rail Splitter as well. This postcard, a reproduction of a painting by J.L.G. Ferris, is captioned “The Rail Splitter – 1830 – Lincoln clearing land in Illinois.” Ferris portrays Lincoln with an ax and a maul and also with an open book, which Lincoln will return to at his next rest.
The illustration on this postcard—a 1916 New Year’s greeting card sent to customers of the St. Paul Mutual Telephone Company—shows Lincoln resting his hand on his ax and his foot on an unsplit log while he reads.
This postcard reproduces Norman Rockwell’s 1964 painting “Abraham Lincoln, Age 22.” Originally titled “The Young Woodcutter,” the painting shows Lincoln reading as he walks away from his rail splitting duties.
All these postcards, and hundreds of others, are held by the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection. You can browse through all the collection’s postcards here.
