Archive for March, 2007
« Previous Entries“Enslaved Girl,” by Mrs. Mary Anna Lee
Friday, March 30th, 2007If you ever get a chance to go to Washington, D.C., visit Arlington National Cemetery. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is powerful, as are President John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy’s graves. You may also be surprised to learn that Robert Todd Lincoln is buried at Arlington too.
But when you go, visit the house [...]
After Indiana Jones, Lincoln Takes Center Stage
Thursday, March 29th, 2007First, it’s going to be Indiana Jones, but then it looks like Stephen Spielberg is going to bring Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals to the big screen.
The fourth installment of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is scheduled for a May 22, 2008 release, but no word on when filming starts for the Lincoln film, [...]
“A Dreadful Affair”: The Charleston Riot of 1864
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007“This afternoon a dreadful affair took place in our town,” a Charleston, Illinois newspaper declared. On this date in 1864, soldiers and civilians waged war on each other.
With the town deeply divided between Unionists, Peace Democrats, and outright Southern sympathizers, local Democrats organized a political rally on the town square. Home on furlough, soldiers from [...]
Joshua F. Speed & “That Fatal First of Jany. ‘41″
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007Joshua Speed has become an interesting figure in Lincoln studies.
When Lincoln first arrived in Springfield, we know that he stopped at a general store on the corner of 5th and Washington. He tried to buy a bed and some supplies, but was dejected when he learned that the bill totaled $17. The owner of the store, 24-year-old [...]
A Book By Abraham Lincoln?
Monday, March 26th, 2007Though he was not elected to the United States Senate in 1858, Lincoln was proud of what he accomplished in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. In fact, he kept a scrapbook of his speeches during the campaign and tried to get it published the following spring.
On this date in 1859, Lincoln wrote to William A. Ross and [...]
Rozerem
Friday, March 23rd, 2007
Lincoln sightings are common in American culture. His picture is on our money, his words reappear in political speeches, and occasionally he even walks amongst us, thanks to the members of the Association of Lincoln Presenters. Lincoln is also a movie star. Raymond Massey and Peter Fonda have brought Lincoln to the big screen and, [...]
Lincoln Studies Book of the Month: Gettysburg Gospel
Thursday, March 22nd, 2007
I’m pleased to announce the beginning of the Lincoln Studies Book of the Month discussion thread. April’s book selection will be Gabor Boritt’s The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows. If you haven’t already read it, you still have about 10 days before the discussion officially begins.
I’m hoping our book of the month discussions [...]
Alexander Stephens & His “Cornerstone Speech”
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007Though it is one of the most fundamental question of the Civil War era, it may also be the most loaded question in all of American History: Why did the South secede?
For nearly a century and a half, historians have offered various answers; however, the participants themselves told us why they did it. Certainly the [...]
“So this is the Little Lady Who Started this Great War”
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007The best selling novel of the 19th Century was published 155 years ago today. In its first year, Harriett Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold 305,000 copies in the United States alone, while some 2.5 million copies were sold worldwide.
But we don’t remember the book because it was simply a commercial success. The book was [...]
Homesteading Reconsidered
Monday, March 19th, 2007Thank you to btarrington on the Discussion Board for letting us know about an upcoming conference:
The University of Nebraska will host an interdisciplinary conference titled, “Homesteading Reconsidered” on May 17 – 19, 2007.
“President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law on May 20, 1862. When it was finally repealed in 1986, over 270 million acres [...]