Waiting for the Hour
Watch Meeting—Dec. 31st 1862—Waiting for the Hour is an 1863 painting by the US artist William Tolman Carlton. The location of the original painting is not known, but a different version, possibly a study, is displayed in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House.
To the left, in the doorway, a black person is holding the
The abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison wrote in a letter to Lincoln on January 21, 1865 that it was "an admirable painting" which abolitionist donors in Boston had contributed "upwards of five hundred dollars" to give as a gift to Lincoln. The original version of the painting disappeared after Lincoln's death, possibly removed by his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. A different version, possibly a study, was found at an antiques shop in New York City in 1975, and it was presented to the White House by the Republican Party in 1976, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. It is displayed in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House.
The painting was widely spread by copies on engraved copies on cartes de visite, in which the details are clearer than the known painted version held by the White House.
See also
References
- Waiting for the Hour, White House Historical Association
- Watch meeting Dec. 31, 1862. : waiting for the hour, worldcat.org
- “Waiting for the Hour” – William Tolman Carlton’s Emancipation Proclamation painting, thelogcabinsage.com, June 9, 2019
- Watch Meeting—Dec. 31st 1862—Waiting for the Hour, American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, City University of New York
- William Tolman Carlton, Dorchester Atheneum
- Emancipation Proclamation 150th Anniversary featuring Painting “Waiting For The Hour”, Black History Magazine, December 27, 2012
- Waiting for the Hour, Carte-de-visite of an emancipation watch night meeting, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Watch meeting, Dec 31, 1862--Waiting for the hour, Library of Congress
- Carte-de-Visite of Waiting for the Hour, 1863, Library of Virginia
- Lincoln Bedroom, White House Historical Association