Gallery

  • Three Wide Awakes in 1860
  • Henry T. Sperry
  • Henry Sperry’s re-printable Press Advisory
  • A “fabulous Beecher,” Isabella Beecher Hooker was a member of “The Women of Connecticut Club” and a pioneering- suffragist.
  • A ticket to one of the Wide Awake excursions that built a national network of Wide Awakes, and also, a political party.
  • Nineteenth-century GOTV included the deadly practice of “Cooping.”
  • 19th Century messenger boys ran GOTV operations.
  • An Iowa Wide Awake member in 1860.
  • Harriet Tubman’s rescue of a runaway slave in Troy, New York was tied to the outsized Wide Awake chapter there.
  • A German-language Abraham Lincoln campaign parade transparency used by Missouri’s German Wide Awakes.
  • Custom letterhead stamps from a Wide Awake member shows a zig-zag march, from Brown University’s Civil War letter collection. 
  • An advertisement for a (non-Chalker) marching torch supplier. From The Smithsonian campaign torch collection.
  • An unofficial Wide Awake marching torch used in 1860.
  • Wide Awake member and future President James Garfield.
  • Several of the campaign marching torches in the Smithsonian Collection.
  • A still from Connecticut public TV’s 100 year anniversary re-creation film of Lincoln meeting the Wide Awakes (1960).
  • A letter from Brown University’s letterhead collection shows a stamp with Lincoln beside some Wide Awakes, a ubiquitous tandem in 1860.
  • One of the first Wide Awake torches with gimbal hinges – invented by a club member from Hartford.
  • “The Political Excitement in New York City – A ‘Rush’ During the Passage of a Precession on Broadway,” Harpers Illustrated. A common sight, political marches turning into melees.
  • Wide Awake member William Dansberry’s letter to Abraham Lincoln asking for new shoes because he wore out his his pair in Wide Awake service.
  • “A Democratic Barbecue” from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, Oct. 1884. Free barbecues, like this Tammany Hall event were common. Often “Ladies Auxiliaries” distributed desserts of strawberries and cream.
  • New York firefighters on a midnight parade. Nighttime parades were popular entertainment.
  • The first mention of the Hartford boys and the actual christening of the club’s name.
  • The first of the Hartford originals James Francis shortly before he was killed in battle in Louisiana.
  • “The first Wide Awake Cape: | “Original Muslin Cape worn by E.S. Yergason February 25th 1860.”
  • Hartford’s popular Coronet Band often marched with the Hartford originals in 1860.
  • Evangelical pastor Elias Beadle (center) with members of a class for young men at the Pearl Street Church, 1858. Photograph from The Connecticut Magazine, Vol. V, No. 8, August 1899. Heber stands at left.
  • Heber Beadle at Yale University, a hero to kids back in Hartford who sough to live up to his 1856 bravery.
  • A New London, Connecticut newspaper advertisement for the last pro-Frémont rally of 1856. In one of these, Heber was trampled.
  • A huge two-page spread in the New York Illustrated News showed the “Grand Torchlight Procession of the Wide Awakes, at Hartford, Conn., on the evening of Thursday, July 27.” Sketched by the paper’s own artist, sent to Hartford to record the event. The press coverage of the Grand Ball was as effusive as the decorations were extravagant.
  • A huge two-page spread in the New York Illustrated News showed the “Wide Awake Gala Hall, at Hartford, Conn., on the evening of Thursday, July 27.” Sketched by the paper’s own artist, sent to Hartford to record the event. The press coverage of the Grand Ball was as effusive as the decorations were extravagant.
  • A huge two-page spread in the New York Illustrated News showed the “Newark Wide Awakes Arrive in HartfordGreeted by Connecticut’s Wide Awakes, at Hartford, Conn., on the evening of Thursday, July 27.” Sketched by the paper’s own artist, sent to Hartford to record the event. The press coverage of the Grand Ball was as effusive as the decorations were extravagant.
  • Common parade placards included the club’s logo – the all seeing eye.
  • Unofficial Wide Awake torch, 1860
  • Unofficial Wide Awake torch, 1860
  • CVR Pond, James Chalker’s Chief of Staff
  • The cottage industry of supplying the Wide Awakes caused shortages of black cambric fabric and spawned many torch suppliers
  • One of the new custom marching torches that came out of the Wide Awake summer
  • Downtown Hartford in 1860
  • Lincoln’s notes from his Hartford address with the Wide Awakes in escort. Their popularity would surge together.
  • Lincoln in 1860
  • Henry T. Sperry
  • James Chalker
  • Nineteenth century’s Dry Goods Stores were a forerunner of the Department Store.
  • Youth militarism was common in 1860
  • Parade Marshal George P. Bissell, Esq.
  • Confederate Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Nevada after his Wide Awake brother Orion saved his life.
  • The Wide Awake Marching Handbook included custom march patterns like this zig-zag maneuver in honor of the Lincoln lore ‘split rail fence’
  • A Wide Awake banner commemorating the Chicago Wide Awakes
  • The Hutchinson Family singers were the most popular family music troupe in 1860, their tours coincided with Wide Awake events and they sung Wide Awake songs
  • Cover of a Wide Awake comic book
  • A Wide Awake in 1860
  • Orion Clemens, Editor of a Republican Iowa newspaper and organizer with the Wide Awakes. His service earned him the job of Secretary of the Nevada Territory.
  • An ambrotype of a young Wide Awake in his uniform: a fireman’s torch, a military-style cap, and waterproof black shoulder cape.
  • Members of the Hartford Wide Awakes from the Gala, Sperry stands at left, Chalker faces camera, standing at center.
  • Senator Seward’s campaign tour across the north was peopled by Wide Awake members.
  • One of the Wide Awake parades in New York City.
  • A young Wide Awake in 1860
  • A parade ribbon worn in support of Lincoln in 1860.
  • The Wide Awake logo – the all-seeing eye
  • When New York hosted its final Wide Awake excursion for area Wide Awakes, it was the largest political gathering in the history of the city.
  • Wide Awake “songsters” were commissioned songs about the Wide Awakes and spread by left-leaning glee clubs.
  • This Irish Wide Awake Songster was sung to a popular Irish ballad.
  • Night marches with transparencies was common – this would have contained a burning lantern inside.
  • Charles Francis Adams Jr. during the Civil War.
  • This magazine depicted Abraham Lincoln a member of the club, sharing adventures with his teenaged “Our Gang.”
  • Republican Party founder Rep. Cassius Clay.
  • A page from Sperry and Hinckley’s marching guidebook
  • Advanced marches, customized for the campaign
  • Hinckley and Sperry’s marching brochure with Captain calls.
  • A Wide Awake Captain’s lamp in the Corning Museum collection
  • Frames from Pipps Among the Wide Awakes – a Comic Book distributed to children.
  • Illustration from a French magazine’s coverage of the Wide Awakes.
  • “As phase of campaign enthusiasm,” a cartoon from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, November 13, 1880. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress.”
  • New York Firemen march through the street carrying torches. Wood engraving. 1858 Published: 23 Jan. 1858
  • Image from Miramax’ Gangs of New York (2002) shows an American Party politician marching with their associated fire brigade.