Contemporaries

From the Collection: Women at the White House by Jessie Cortesi and Abbie Meek   President Abraham Lincoln hosted many notable women at the White House during his administration. From advocating on behalf of the U.S. Sanitary Commission to urging...

LITTLE SISTER Emilie Todd Helm and the Lincolns by Angela Esco Elder She expected to hear “Fee, fi, fo, fum!” He was tall, a stranger, walking in her home, shaking hands with adults in the wide hall. As her eyes...

Polly Rogers and Her Husband’s Lawyer by Stacy Lynn   “The allegation of adultery against the said defendant was muted in the complainant’s bill, for no other cause, than through tenderness to the said defendant’s character.” —Abraham Lincoln, affidavit for...

Book Review: Delivered Under Fire: Absalom Markland and Freedom’s Mail by Candice Shy Hooper Review by Frank W. Garmon Jr.   Although Absalom H. Markland is an unknown figure in the twenty-first century, his life intersected with many of the leading...

Abraham Lincoln and “the Most Dangerous Man” in Baltimore Sean A. Scott   Francis Lister Hawks was a distinguished clergyman and man of letters whose southern sympathies during the Civil War brought him to the attention of Abraham Lincoln. Born...

From the Collection: German-Americans in the Civil War Era Kayla Gustafson and Jessie Cortesi In honor of German-American Heritage Month in October, librarians at the Rolland Center for Lincoln Research launched a new digital exhibit on lincolncollection.org highlighting items in...

  LINCOLN, DOUGLASS, & THE POLITICS OF RACE EDNA GREENE MEDFORD A few weeks before the 1864 presidential election, Frederick Douglass penned a letter to Theodore Tilton, an abolitionist and the editor of The Independent, a New York newspaper. Referring...

Not-So-Final Resting Places: Grave Reflections on the Historical Reputation of Elizabeth Keckly By Michelle A. Krowl   “To look upon a grave, and not feel certain whose ashes repose beneath the sod, is painful, and the doubt which mystifies you,...

The Unhappy Fate of Fitz John Porter By Allen Guelzo The American Civil War was a political war. That should not matter hugely to those of us who study the art of command in the war, since it is one...