by David J. Kent
Washington, DC
Friday, February 6, 2025
Well, that was unexpected! Another boring day at the office turned into the find of a lifetime when a student intern at Historic Film Stock Footage Archive opened up an old 16-mm film can and discovered The Heart of Lincoln, a 1915 silent film that the Library of Congress thought was one of 7,000 silent films lost forever. Lost no more.
The six reels of film were part of a stash received from a university collection of old film it no longer had the capacity to handle, so it donated 10,000 16-millimeter reels to the East Hampton, Long Island, New York film preservation company. Joe Lauro, co-founder and owner of Historic Films, tasked Dan Martin, the intern, with the onerous job of sorting through the cans, searching the titles and copyrights, and trying to figure out what to do with them. A blog called Dan's Papers reported that young Martin brought six reels to Lauro and said, "Joe, I think we have something really special here."
He was right.
Originally released by Universal Studios, the silent film was produced in 1915, directed by and starring Francis Ford. It follows the life of Lincoln and his leadership through the Civil War, as well as a slice of American life during that conflict. By a stroke of luck uncommon with old film finds, the cans were sealed and not at all decayed, so a film archivist was able to clean and digitize the film to ensure it is saved for posterity.
The Ford brothers, Francis and his much more famous younger brother John, had what Joe Lauro classifies as an obsession with Lincoln. Francis starred (and often directed) in an estimated 400 films, including his own Lincoln films When Lincoln Paid (1913), The Battle of Bull Run (1913), and the rediscovered The Heart of Lincoln (2015). He also had small roles in some of the movies directed by brother John, who won four Oscars for best director. These included Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), and many others, often as an uncredited actor. In addition to Lincoln, Francis also cast himself as George Armstrong Custer and Sherlock Holmes (with brother John playing Dr. Watson).
One scene in the 50-minute The Heart of Lincoln epitomizes the title. A young Union soldier deserts to rush home to attend to his dying mother. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton insists he must be executed as a deterrent for other desertions, but Lincoln refuses to sign the death warrant, an act of clemency Lincoln became famous for during the war.
While there now is a digitized copy, the ultimate fate of the restored film is unclear. Some have suggested donating it to the Library of Congress or the American Film Institute. In the short term, since it's a silent film, Lauro hopes to add a musical score to bring back its full flavor.
But perhaps Joe Lauro speaks for all of us when he says, according to the Dan's Papers blog, "I wish we had a Lincoln today."
[Photo screenshot from film provided by Historic Film Archives and accessed on NBC News article]