Lincoln Lore

We Mourn Our Fallen Father: Abraham Lincoln’s Easter Sermon and the Beginning of his Martyrdom By Kayla Gustafson During his life, Abraham Lincoln bore a myriad of nicknames: the Railsplitter, Honest Abe, Father Abraham, and the Liberator, just to name...

In Defense of History Sara Gabbard  Daniel Boorstin, Pulitzer Prize winning historian and Librarian of Congress, once said that “trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers.”   A...

Lincoln the Inquirer: An Interview with M. Kelly Tillery, Esq Sara Gabbard  Sara Gabbard: Please explain your conclusion that Abraham Lincoln was inquisitive at an early age. M. Kelly Tillery: A number of people who knew Lincoln as a boy...

Caroline E. Janney, Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox  Reviewed by Burrus M. Carnahan How can a democracy turn from a state of civil war to a state of peace? After April 9, 1865, US military...

Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President An Interview with Allen Guelzo by Sara Gabbard  Sara Gabbard: Please explain the circumstances of this new edition of your book. Allen Guelzo: I have to answer this a little shamefacedly. I did it with a...

History as Portrayed in Art: An Interview with Harold Holzer Sara Gabbard  Sara Gabbard: Please explain the circumstances under which you and your co-authors (Gabor Boritt and Mark Neely, Jr.) undertook this enormous project. Harold Holzer: Back in 1982—it’s hard...

Lincoln & Poetry Sara Gabbard  In any scholarly biography of Abraham Lincoln, a reader will find countless references to this prairie lawyer’s love of poetry. I’m not sure that biographers will ever come up with a definitive explanation for this...

A New Lincoln Discovery: Family of Lincoln Enthusiast Finds Unprecedented Autograph Collection & Lincoln-Related Items Jason Emerson  Some new Lincoln relics have surfaced recently, owned by the family of a man who had met and “known” Abraham Lincoln and had...

Getting Right with Mary Todd Lincoln William D. Pederson George and Martha, Abraham and Mary Todd, Franklin and Eleanor, Jack and Jackie, legendary First Couples so familiar to the public that their names blend into one. The near-universal recognition of...

Lincoln & The 1862 Minnesota Sioux Trials Burrus M. Carnahan  One hundred and fifty years ago the Upper and Lower Sioux Reservations were located in southwestern Minnesota on a thin strip of land on the south side of the Minnesota...

Mystery Solved: Why the Harper’s Weekly Close-Up of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Credited A Photo By Alexander Gardner Harold Holzer  Students of mid-nineteenth-century image-making know that engravers and lithographers of that period—along with painters and sculptors—had become increasingly dependent on the...

Diana Schaub, His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation Reviewed by Burrus Carnahan Diana Schaub has written a thought-provoking book that may be the first of a new genre of Lincoln studies – reflections on his ideas in the context...

The Sangamon, Soured: Lincoln, The Man & Its Twisted Tropes  Bethany Villaruz  A slight summer breeze ruffled through the leaves lining the shimmering Sangamon River. A young Edgar Lee Masters, known to his family as only “Lee,” frolicked along Menard...

Redeeming The Great Emancipator the Harvard University Lecture An Interview with Allen Guelzo by Sara Gabbard Sara Gabbard: What were the circumstances surrounding your Lecture titled Redeeming the Great Emancipator. Allen Guelzo: That requires a long answer. Redeeming the Great...

Herndon’s Informants: An Interview with Douglas Wilson by Sara Gabbard   Sara Gabbard: This had to have been an enormous project. What first led you to undertake the task? Douglas Wilson: I had been working on Thomas Jefferson for several...