"We can see how much history Vroman had to learn"

I took a second look through the April '56 issue of Collier's in which the series "The American Tradition" began and found this photo of Tom Vroman,

along with this short passage:

"Thomas Vroman, the artist who will do a decorative painting for each of the articles in The American Tradition, says, "For the painting of Lincoln, I had to do a lot of research to find accurate material on such matters as the burning of Richmond, the Capitol Building, Fort Brady, Generals Lee and Grant, uniforms and ordnance of the time and John Wilkes Booth, who was left-handed, you know."

No, we didn't know, and on studying his painting, we can see how much history Vroman had to learn."

And you can see the entire article, along with full size versions of these pieces in my Thomas Vroman Flickr set.