The presidential election of 1860 was the most decisive and consequential election in the history of the United States, as it committed national leadership to preservation of the Union and set in motion the end of slavery in America. Up to that moment, there was great sectional divisiveness between the North, South, and Western Territories and awareness that the nation was indeed facing an “impending crisis” that resulted in the Civil War.
Visitors to The Rail-Splitter Surprise: Abraham Lincoln and the Presidential Election of 1860 will learn more about Lincoln’s emergence as a viable presidential candidate and the campaign that led to his election.
Sources for this online exhibition were drawn entirely from books, graphic material, and archival material in the Lincoln Club of Delaware Abraham Lincoln Collection in Special Collections at the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press. (Three digital images of items from the Delaware collection were obtained from the extraordinary collections at the Library of Congress.)
The exhibition is organized in four sections: The Crisis, The Convention, The Candidate, and The Campaign, followed by information about Resources.
This exhibition was curated by L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin. Library assistance for design, installation, and other support was provided by Kris Raser and Dustin Frohlich, with additional thanks to John Caldwell, Holly Deakyne, Michael Gates, Brian Kamen, and Allison Ebner. Faculty support from Dael A. Norwood for special programming is gratefully acknowledged.
Note: Many of the historical sources used in this exhibition reflect the norms and beliefs of peoples and cultures in the eras in which they were created or collected. Special programming addressing the politics of race in the 1860 campaign is available (see the Resources page).
