Frank Goodyear, the associate curator of photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, spoke at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art on Thursday about Abraham Lincoln’s use of photography to communicate with the American people at a critical time in history.
Goodyear said the president put forth a “Herculean effort” to keep the nation from separating forever. During his lecture, he stressed how photographs were often like encoded messages.
“Photographs often only tell part of the story,” he said. “Images are constructed text that are not as they appear to be.”
Goodyear went on to explain various aspects of the existing Lincoln photographs and some of his own theories about why the most-photographed president of the 19th century was so intent on having his picture taken.
As an example, he said Lincoln would sometimes use his appearance, which Goodyear said was thought to be rather ugly, to deflect from other, more important topics of debate.
In one instance, Goodyear said, after being called two-faced about his stance on slavery, Lincoln responded, “If I had another face, do you think I’d wear this one?”
Goodyear showed the audience how Lincoln was successful in using photography as a political tool. He also discussed the elusiveness of Lincoln’s real nature, despite having about 130 photographs made of him in his lifetime.
Goodyear said he thought the lecture at UF and the overall experience was “wonderful.”
“You never know when you come to give a talk whether you’re going to have 10 people or 100 people,” he said, “and it seemed like it was a nice audience. It was nice to be here.”
He said he gave a seminar to a group of graduate students earlier on Thursday, which he also enjoyed as an opportunity to answer interesting questions and engage in conversation.
“I think it’s become clear that art and history matter a great deal,” he said. “There’s many people here at the University of Florida who are training to work in the museum world or work as educators, and it’s neat to be able to have the opportunity to share some of what I do at the Smithsonian, share some Smithsonian treasures with people here at the University of Florida.”
Louise Brown, an art teacher at J.J. Finley Elementary School in Gainesville, attended the lecture because of her interest in photography and American history. She said she often attends lectures at UF to learn new things.
She said Goodyear’s presentation stood out because it was informative without being too academic to understand.
“Sometimes a more academic speaker might talk on a really narrow topic, and if you don’t have a little bit of knowledge, you’re really lost,” she said. “A lot of people know Abraham Lincoln, know the Civil War, know Matthew Brady and the beginning of photography, so that’s an axis point, so that they can actually think about what he’s saying. It’s very accessible.”
