National Republican Chart—Presidential Campaign 1860

This elaborate campaign poster was issued sometime after May 18, 1860, when Abraham Lincoln won the Republican presidential nomination. The broadside features portraits of Lincoln and his vice-presidential running mate Hannibal Hamlin, a summary of the Republican platform adopted at the Chicago Convention that year, biographies of the two candidates, a large map of the United States delineating the slave states, and various statistical information. In the border are images of the first 15 presidents. Washington is engraved at the top–the image is based on Gilbert Stuart?s famous Athenaeum portrait–thus suggesting that the first president is blessing both the Lincoln-Hamlin ticket and the Republican platform. Published by the prolific New York cartographic firm of H. H. Lloyd & Company, the broadside was probably a commercial venture rather than strictly a political product, as the printer produced other similar charts, including one for the Democratic party and one listing all the parties and candidates. The 1860 presidential election was historic in fielding four major presidential candidates.