Interview with Jay Winik

Interview with Jay Winik by Sara Gabbard Cover of April 1865: The Month that Saved America, by Jay Winik, 2001 71.2009.084.13230 Sara Gabbard: Your book April 1865: The Month that Saved America is a “must read” for those intent on understanding the ramifications of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and the aftermath […]

Edwin McMasters Stanton

Edwin McMasters Stanton by Frank J. Williams Edwin M. Stanton, 1861 LN-2113 Edwin McMasters Stanton was born in Steubenville, Ohio, on December 19, 1814. On the eve of achieving his life’s dream, chronic asthma caused his death on December 24, 1869. His lifelong struggle with poor health also contributed to his volatile temper, as did […]

The Woman Who Found Lincoln at Gettysburg: Josephine Cobb of the National Archives

The Woman Who Found Lincoln at Gettysburg: Josephine Cobb of the National Archives By Mark B. Pohlad National Archives For nearly ninety years there were no known photographs of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. That changed dramatically in 1952 when the intrepid Washington, D.C., archivist Josephine Cobb (1906-86) went searching—and found him. She enlarged a mislabeled […]

An Interview with Harold Holzer on “Monument Man”

An Interview with Harold Holzer regarding his new book, Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French [“As one of the foremost living authorities on Abraham Lincoln, Harold Holzer has long straddled the crossroads of history and art with his own inimitable brand of scholarship.  Not surprisingly, in this grandly illustrated and beautifully written […]

From The Collection: Lincoln Lore

Lincoln’s Magician: The Saga of Captain Horatio G. “Harry” Cooke

The author wishes to express his deep gratitude and appreciation to profes­sional magicians par excellence, Dean Carnegie and Mark Cannon, for their crucial assistance with this article. They generously provided me with some very important primary sources and much needed materials for this article. The name Horatio Green “Harry” Cooke is not one usually bandied […]

An Interview with George Saunders, Author of Lincoln in the Bardo

George Saunders’ novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, is exhilarating and experimental. It was a New York Times and USA Today best seller, and it won the Man Booker Prize in 2017. It may make you cry in parts and laugh in some others. It will certainly make you think. The novel is written in usually […]

“Just the Wood out of which Washington Presidents are Carved”: Electing Lincoln in 1860 by Alan Guelzo

The day after Abraham Lincoln came from behind a well-populated field of potential candidates to win the Republican party’s nomination for president of the United States, an “annoyed and dejected” Thurlow Weed packed his bags and prepared “to shake the dust of the city” of Chicago “from my feet.” Weed was the long-time editor of […]

An Interview with Alfred J. Zacher

Sara Gabbard: Which presidents do you believe showed the great­est leadership skills.   Al Zacher: Strong presidential leader­ship might be defined as the ability of a president to pursue major objectives to fulfillment. This requires persever­ance, support of the public and of Con­gress if their approval is required. This is an understatement, but it provides […]

An Interview with John Marszalek on Henry Clay, Lincoln’s “Beau Ideal” of a Statesmen

Sara Gabbard: Please explain Clay’s early legal representation of Aaron Burr. Did the relationship cause him later regret? John Marszalek: In the early 19th century, Henry Clay and Aaron Burr were both young up-and-comers in American politics. Yet, Clay became one of the most famous of all 19th century Americans, while Burr nev­er lived down […]

From The Collection: Lincoln Family Objects

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“One War at a Time”:  Abraham Lincoln and the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America

Jason H. Silverman Vereinigte Staaten von Nord-America und Mexico, 71200908501056 The darkening clouds of Civil War were not all the portentous developments that newly elected Abraham Lincoln faced when he arrived in Washington, DC.  With the United States seemingly weakened by deep internal divisions, the European empires made one last attempt to regain their hold […]

Lincoln and the South

by E. Phelps Gay Birthplace cabin, 7120090811753 How did Lincoln view the South? What did he know about the South? Had he been to the South? Did he hate the South? Or, instead, did he like Southerners? Did he blame them for the evil institution of slavery? Did he see himself, as many Northerners did […]

The Debate over the Debates: Debating Those Debates: The Historians Weigh In

Moderated by Harold Holzer A public sensation in the seven Illinois towns that hosted them—reprinted in the press at the time, in book form shortly thereafter, and in many edi­tions since—the 1858 Lincoln-Doug­las debates are remembered today, 160 years after they took place, as a political and cultural phenomenon. But as much as they attracted […]