Digital Repository

Turzak, A Prayer for Unity, 1933

Long an admirer of historical figures, Charles Turzak’s first biographical volume, Abraham Lincoln: Biography in Woodcuts, tells its story only through pictures. He cut the thirty-six wood blocks for the images while in public view at the 1933 Century of Progress, Chicago World’s Fair in the Lincoln Village. This image shows a grieved Lincoln, with his head bowed and his hand pressed against a map of the United States, yearning for a unified country in the midst of the American Civil War.

Charles Turzak. A Prayer for Unity, 1933. Woodcut. From Abraham Lincoln: Biography in Woodcuts. © Charles Turzak Studio/Gallery, Orlando, Florida. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas.