A New Recorder of Abraham Lincoln’s Words: Susan McCulloch
“There was a cabinet meeting that afternoon. General Grant, who had just returned, gave a very interesting account of the state of the South, and the good feeling manifested by the officers of the...
View ArticleAbraham Lincoln’s Hollywood Comeback
It’s been over 70 years since Hollywood produced a biographical feature film on Lincoln. It’s been over 80 years since Hollywood released a biographical feature touching on Lincoln’s presidency. That...
View ArticleAnd the Oscar Goes To … The Face of Lincoln
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, due out in November 2012, may prove Oscar-worthy, given its stellar cast of previous Academy-Award winners: Daniel-Day Lewis and Sally Field as Abraham and Mary; Tommy Lee...
View ArticleStories from the Vault: Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”
Episode 25, Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”: We return from a brief hiatus to discuss with Dr. James Cornelius Steven Spielberg’s new movie about Abraham Lincoln entitled, “Lincoln”. Warning: This podcast...
View ArticleA Pair Tree … of Names
If the Christmas season has put partridges on your pear tree, parse the pairs below. Even in small towns, common surnames can lead you up a tree. Springfield, Illinois, in the early 1840s was home to...
View ArticleCelebrity Auctions of the Civil War Era
As we enter the season of calculating income tax, one of the prized deductions remains donations to charitable organizations. Typically these non-for-profit organizations host auctions as a source for...
View Article“Reasonable Conjecture” in Dramatizing Abraham Lincoln’s Life: James Agee and...
Part of the power of Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln comes from screenwriter Tony Kushner’s skill at navigating the line between history and fiction. He followed the example of James Agee, the...
View ArticleStories from the Vault: Abraham Lincoln’s Stovepipe Hat
Episode 26, Abraham Lincoln’s Stovepipe Hat: Abraham Lincoln’s Hat is possibly the most recognizable piece of Presidential clothing ever. This month, Dr. James Cornelius sits down with us to discuss...
View Article3.5 x 2.25 inches, 500 faces
What fits into your shirt pocket, is a little bendable but basically sturdy, and shows the photographic portraits of nearly 500 people? No, not your iPhone. The answer is the carte de visite (cdv)...
View ArticleHal Holbrook’s “Lincoln”
With the current spotlight on Lincoln actors Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and Tommy Lee Jones — all three of them up for Oscars on Sunday night, Feb. 24th — it’s easy to overlook the (now)...
View ArticleSix Generations of an Illinois Family: Two Abraham Lincoln Letters, One Gift!
When Thomas Kenney of Massachusetts accepted 160 acres in Illinois from President James Monroe in 1818 as partial thanks for his service in the War of 1812, he set the later owners of that land along a...
View ArticleAbraham Lincoln Went to Beardstown, But Did He Pick Up Syphilis While He Was...
A couple of years ago I gave a public lecture on Lincoln’s last days in 1865. Following the discussion period, as I was leaving the auditorium, a woman approached me to ask one more question. She...
View ArticleAnother Problem with Noah Brooks
Journalists may be the warp and woof of contemporary history, but if you pick at the threads too hard, the cloth can begin to unravel. This blog first poked at Noah Brooks on December 13, 2010 (by...
View ArticleYet More Hidden Abraham Lincoln
First it was 24 volumes, and now it is 20 more. About 2 years ago this column reported the existence of an Extra Illustrated edition of the Nicolay and Hay compilation of the Complete Works of Abraham...
View ArticleA Photographer, a Teacher, and Two Musicians
The small world of the Lincolns in the 1850s, soon to grow much larger, has some interesting connecting points. We learned more this week, thanks to a genealogist, about the photographer who took five...
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