Random Recent Lincoln News

I've been playing catch-up for the past few days and haven't found/made time for Lincolniana. So, there are several blog posts bumping around in my mind and in some notes, including two book reviews. In the meantime, here's a few Lincoln-related stories that shouldn't be overlooked.

The Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College receives $850,ooo NEH grant

The National Endowment of the Humanities, as part of their "We the People" challenge grant program, has awarded its largest grant this year to Knox College's Lincoln Studies Center. The $850,000 challenge grant, which must be matched 3-1 in other fundraising (effectively Knox College must raise another $2.5 million) over the next 5 years, will be used to start a permanent endowment for the Lincoln Studies Center.

Ann (the irrepressible), also known as LincolnBuff2, has written a full article on her blog award the grant award and about the good work over the past decade of the center. The college has also posted a news release about the grant, including their many plans for the endowment proceeds, the most exciting of which sounds like funds for a salary, likely somewhat generous, for the center's director -- "intended as a position of distinction for a major scholar in Lincoln studies."

Lincoln Cottage website launches online educational feature about emancipation

Last week, President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldier's Home launched another online interactive educational feature, "Lincoln's Toughest Decisions, Debating Emancipation." The presentation allows students to learn about how different members of Lincoln's cabinet advised him on the issue of emancipation by answering questions as one of those members. The program is interesting and seems to target Middle School age students. You can explore the online program for yourself here.

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Shrine to close for renovations

The National Park Service is closing the Memorial Building, or as I like to more accurately describe it the Birthplace Shrine, for renovations from this week until sometime in 2010 -- the NPS site now says February 2010, but some previous reports have given a range of completion dates into next summer. Evidently the renovation will focus primarily on significant roof improvements and a new heating/cooling circulation system.

Mike Kienzler over at The Abraham Lincoln Observer wryly notes that the restoration of "the faux-Classical temple" which houses the fake birthplace cabin is probably a questionable use of money. I agree that the "traditional" or "symbolic" birthplace cabin, depending on who you ask, is almost certainly not the log cabin of Abraham Lincoln's birth. But the exterior shrine and the interior log cabin are organically related: the purported birthplace cabin, when initially placed in the shrine, was deemed too large for the memorial building, and the logs of the cabin -- then believed to be authentic -- were shortened so that it would be more aesthetically pleasing. (I came across this tidbit in Barry Schwartz' Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory, Univ. of Chicago, 2000, p. 282 and also found it in a NPS report on p. 57.)

So, was it good for you? Considering the Lincoln Bicentennial's effects

Brian Dirck, over at A. Lincoln Blog, posted an open question about the long-term impact of the Lincoln Bicentennial celebrations. He wonders whether all the Lincoln hoopla, and all of the books, lectures, panels, etc. involved, have increased our collective knowledge about Lincoln. He wonders too whether it has increased our academic scholarship about Lincoln.

The post ends with two questions to the blogosphere, which Dirck will himself address at some future date.

First, do we now have a better understanding of Lincoln than we did before the bicentennial, on a purely scholarly level? And second, is the national community, as a whole, stronger for having paused and engaged in this year-long act of celebrating Lincoln's life and career?

I don't know if anyone has read enough of the academic work published this year (books, journal articles, magazine articles, Internet pieces, speeches, etc.) to substantively answer the first question. I know that I have yet to read any of the big bicentennial books, especially the biographies by Ronald White and Michael Burlingame, so I am unwilling to comment about the recent scholarly output.

As for the second question, I think that the answer is yes and no. The awareness of Abraham Lincoln, judging by things like Lincoln-related book sales (and the Lincoln publishing industry is still very strong) and Lincoln-related TV programs, was already high even before the bicentennial, at least compared with other historical figures. I'm not sure that the bicentennial really added much to the already very real interest in all things Lincoln.

On the other hand, I imagine that the myriad of exhibits related to Lincoln this year, all across the country, have had some positive impact. From my perspective, both as someone who has read countless press releases for these exhibits, and visited some of them, I think that they were marvelous on numerous levels. Aside from the sheer number of Lincoln artifacts on display, there was obviously an attempt to contextualize these items for a large audience, especially to engage their interest by relating them to our times and to explain their historical milieu. If they were successful, they served to slightly improve the general American awareness of the art and science of history, which will benefit the national community in the years ahead.

However, I think it would be helpful to consider how the first Lincoln bicentennial effected both the Lincoln scholarship of the day and the national community. Merrill Peterson, in Lincoln in American Memory (Oxford, 1994), notes that much writing was produced in 1909, but "[t]he only truly important historical contribution was the Diary of Gideon Welles" (p. 186). Perhaps Peterson shortchanges some other writings of that year (I've not studied the 1909 publications closely), but I imagine he is mostly correct.

Still, I've always believed that the centennial outpouring about Lincoln led to the subsequent rebirth of Lincoln studies in the 1920s, and fertilized the popular imagination to embrace Sandburg's six-volumes, which might have laid the groundwork for modern Lincoln studies and their dual role in academia and popular publishing. Although there seems to have been an explosion of excellent Lincoln-related scholarship in the last 25-30 years, I imagine that the bicentennial may perpetuate, and maybe even increase, such widely-welcome studies for years to come.

The first centennial provided the impetus for a host of Lincoln-related memorial structures and sculptures, including the Lincoln Birthplace Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. While the bicentennial has mostly seen renovations instead of new edifices (such as yet another renovation of Ford's Theatre and the renovation of the Birthplace Memorial building), it has highlighted the wealth of such resources and perhaps will slow the decline in tourism to many of these. But any such impacts will likely be difficult to measure.

I look forward to reading Brian's answers to the questions he poses. But I think he's still hoping for more reader response before he adds his two cents. Here's hoping he gets it.

Lincoln Movie Updates

News about the new Robert Redford Lincoln-related project, "The Conspirator," has brought a comment from Steven Spielberg about his long-gestating Lincoln project. Brian Dirck over at A. Lincoln blog has posts about the news coverage here, here, and here.

Evidently Variety got Spielberg to comment on whether the Redford film will make it harder for him to make his movie. His response:

We are very happy that Redford will be doing this Lincoln movie. It is completely different from what our DreamWorks Lincoln movie will be, and we believe that it will add to the commercial potential of our film. Lincoln as a subject is inexhaustible.

Perhaps Dirck is right in his assessment that the script must not be finished yet. I think that Spielberg had an opportunity to film it this fall, if he had wanted. Obviously, something is holding the project up, and I don't think it's funding anymore.

Inspecting Lincoln's Medicine Cabinet

There's a story out of Great Britain this week that the British Royal Society of Chemistry is looking to investigate the "Blue Mass" pills used by many in the 19th Century, including Abraham Lincoln. The RSC is hoping to find a pill to examine (and they're offering a reward, in case you happen to have one of these pills lying around).

Used to treat several ailments in the mid-1800s, blue mass featured mercury as a key ingredient. (Now it is known that high levels of mercury are dangerous.) Recent scholars believe that Lincoln used blue mass to combat his melancholy -- though Gore Vidal, in his novel Lincoln, suggests that Lincoln used blue mass as others commonly used it: to deal with constipation.

The most complete scientific analysis of Lincoln and blue mass was written by Dr. Norbert Hirschhorn, a noted physician, in a 2001 article in the journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. The article is available in full on Hirschhorn's personal website. In Hirschhorn's analysis, the high levels of mercury would have caused erratic personal behavior -- and which was sometimes attributed to Lincoln in the 1850s. Hirschhorn wonders aloud, in his dramatic final paragraph, if Lincoln's choice to stop taking blue mass at the start of his presidency had a significant effect on history:

If blue pills prompted Abraham Lincoln's remarkable behavior in the decade before he went to the White House, then his insightful decision to stop taking them may have been crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. Imagine a President Lincoln impaired by the bewildering effect of mercury poisoning while trying to cope with political intrigue, military reversals, the incompetence of his generals, and his own personal tragedies. His calm steadiness was at least as necessary in preserving the Union, it may be argued, as battlefield decisions, military appointments, or political strategies that history records as important for the success of the Federal cause. (Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, summer 2001, vol. 44, no. 3, p. 329)

I'm not qualified to judge much of the biology, but I find the discussion fascinating. Could the presence or lack of a little pill in someone's medicine chest affect the course of history? Not only are such discussion interesting cocktail party conversations, but sometimes they can get at the heart of the study of history -- the answer to the deeper questions behind "What Happened?" "Why Did it Happen?"

New Museum Honors Stephen A. Douglas

This weekend, the house in which Stephen A. Douglas was born opened as a museum honoring the legendary senator and presidential candidate as well as the community's history. Douglas, who was in many ways Abraham Lincoln's measuring stick for his political ambitions, was born in Brandon, Vermont.

Here's a link to the official site, and a description of the displays.

Book Review: Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words

Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words

by Douglas L. Wilson

(Knopf, 2006), hardcover, 352 pages

In the recent resurgence of books about Abraham Lincoln, which rivals the output of the early 1900s in quantity and significance, there have been a number of books about individual Lincoln speeches. Beginning with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills, recent books by Harold Holzer, Gabor Boritt, and Ronald White have focused on the Cooper Union Address, Gettysburg Address (again), and the Second Inaugural Address, respectively. These books, and others like them, show the context within which Lincoln wrote these famous speeches and include an often excellent examination of the meaning of Lincoln's words.

Douglas Wilson goes deeper, though, in his excellent study Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words. While he refers to the context and meaning of the Lincoln works that he studies, he focuses on Lincoln's process of deliberately shaping his words. Focusing on writings and speeches of President Lincoln for which there are multiple drafts, Wilson paints a picture of a man who skillfully crafts his public statements through careful writing, editing, and re-writing.

Following an opening chapter on Lincoln's famous "Farewell Address," given as he departed his hometown Springfield for Washington to assume the presidency, where Wilson examines how Lincoln edited his extemporaneous remarks into a more polished speech for publication in newspapers, Wilson digs into several key Lincoln writings, including the famous speeches (First and Second Inaugurals and Gettysburg), key government papers (the Emancipation Proclamation, messages to Congress), and some public letters (notably Lincoln's famous response to Horace Greeley's editorial "The Prayer of Twenty Millions").

Wilson's observation that Lincoln meticulously prepared his words is not original; others have detailed how Lincoln carefully wrote things like the Cooper Union Address or the First Inaugural. In the case of the latter, attention has been paid to how Lincoln incorporated the advice of others who read a draft of his speech, famously Secretary of State-designate William Seward, into his final address. Wilson instead details how Lincoln consistently crafted his words and shows how the process allowed Lincoln to clarify his aims.

The analysis of the July 4, 1861 Message to Congress, in which Lincoln called for a massive increase in military spending to counter the rebellion, exemplifies Wilson's skillful attention to the nuances of Lincoln's drafting. One particularly interesting passage involves Lincoln's use of the word "sugar-coated" to describe the public rationale given by southern leaders supporting secession. The printer thought the word undignified; Wilson shows that it perfectly conveys the thrust of Lincoln's argument against secession.

At the end of this particular chapter, Wilson details some of the reactions to Lincoln's message, including a couple that remark favorably on Lincoln's skill as a writer. With these comments, Wilson begins the overarching and original argument of his book: Lincoln grew to recognize the power of his own words and became more confident and capable using them to shape public opinion and public understanding. Such an hypothesis is perhaps not novel; being a sophisticated reader able to demonstrate a shift in context through written words alone, though, is indeed unique. In the process, Wilson offers satisfying analyses of these selected writings and adds to the understanding of why Lincoln's writing remains so influential, while rather convincingly arguing that Lincoln's greatest attribute as a wartime leader was his disciplined writing.

It is not surprisingly that Wilson, co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, offers such a sophisticated study, given his previous work with Lincoln. After spending years, with his co-director Rodney Davis, sorting through and editing all of the letters and interviews William Herndon collected about Lincoln's youth from people "who knew him when," Wilson then wrote the best account of Lincoln as a young adult: Honor's Voice, which won the Lincoln Prize in 1999. After spending years overseeing the transcription and annotation of the Library of Congress' collection of Lincoln materials, again with Davis, he wrote this fine volume, which won the Lincoln Prize in 2007.

It is difficult to quibble with Wilson's work. Certainly those without a working knowledge of the timeline of the Lincoln presidency will find it challenging to get their bearings, as Wilson supposes some familiarity with the Lincoln presidency and the issues surrounding the Civil War. However, the writing itself is clear and comprehensible, if not rather beguiling. It is a significant addition to the vast bibliography of Lincoln-related scholarship, particularly relating to Lincoln the writer, Lincoln the orator, and Lincoln the shaper of American memory.

New Lincoln Film Announced; Evidently No Progress on Spielberg Project

In the past week, news broke of a new Lincoln-related movie project. The new project, to be directed by Robert Redford, will focus on one of the people convicted of conspiracy after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. You can read the brief AP story here or the best of the blog stories here.

Titled "The Conspirator," the movie will evidently focus on Mary Surratt, who owned the boardinghouse where Booth met with others to plan to kidnap Lincoln (hoping to exchange him for the release of tens of thousands of Confederate POWs) and later to kill him. While Surratt was never tied to those meetings (though her son John was apparently heavily involved), she was accused of housing the conspirators and taking items to the family tavern in Surrattsville, MD for assassin John Wilkes Booth to pick up on his flight from Washington. On the basis of this testimony, she was sentenced to death and became the first woman hung by the US Government.

Even before her execution, there were many who believed that Mary Surratt was innocent, and her involvement in the conspiracy has been debated over the years (a debate that is only slightly less passionate than the one surrounding Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set Booth's leg during his escape). As such, one wonders how Redford and screenwriter James Solomon will approach the touchy subject.

On an aesthetic note, one also wonders which Redford will show up. Will it be the director of the masterful "Quiz Show," the Oscar-nominated film that looked into the game show scandals of the 1950s? Or will it be the director of "The Legend of Bagger Vance," a 1920s period piece about golf, which just may be the worst high-profile film ever made?

This now makes three high-profile Lincoln-related projects in the works. In addition to this one, there is also the long-gestating Steven Spielberg project, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals," and another assassination-related project, based on James Swanson's "Manhunt: The 12-Day Search for Lincoln's Killer," once supposed to be a film starring Harrison Ford, but now in development as a miniseries for HBO.

Of the three, it seems that Redford's will beat the others to the screen, as it is slated to begin filming sometime this fall. There seems to be no movement on Spielberg's project -- certainly no recent news -- which all but ensures that production will not begin before 2010. As for the proposed HBO project, there seems to be no news about it in almost a year.

Restored Lincoln Carriage Back on Display

Yesterday, a new exhibit at the Studebaker National Museum opened featuring the carriage Abraham Lincoln rode to Ford's Theatre on the fateful night of April 14, 1865. The dark green carriage was made especially for Lincoln and presented to him earlier in 1865.

Last year, the carriage underwent a careful restoration, funded by a Save Americas Treasures (SAT) Grant, which revealed Lincoln's initials on both doors in an elaborate raised golden pattern. The restoration also revealed that the carriage, which appeared to be painted black, was originally a dark green.

The carriage was sold after Lincoln's assassination, and was eventually purchased by Clement Studebaker and added to the company's collection. Now, evidently, the carriage is owned by the city of South Bend, Indiana (where the museum is), though it is a permanent part of the Studebaker National Museum collection. (This is only partially explained on the museum's website.)

A few years ago, the carriage was part of a fantastic temporary exhibit on Lincoln's assassination at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The first such exhibition at the then-brand new museum was "Blood on the Moon," which commemorated the 140th anniversary of the assassination. Along with the carriage, the exhibition also featured the Lincoln death bed (and other furniture from the Peterson House room in which Lincoln died) on loan from the Chicago Historical Society (while they were renovating their space), numerous photographs and documents from the Taper Collection (some of which may have since been donated to the ALPLM as part of Louise Taper's large donation of material to the museum), and other artifacts.

In this impressive exhibit (which may never be topped in regards to having so many significant items related to the assassination in one place), I felt that the carriage was the most touching piece. Partially this was because it was unexpected -- somehow I had overlooked that it was included when I read about the exhibit before my visit -- and suddenly I was face to face with it. Unlike the parts of the exhibit that were related to Lincoln's death, this was also related to Lincoln's life. I recalled the famous story of the carriage ride Lincoln and his wife Mary took the afternoon of April 14, speaking about their future, including their need to find happiness -- likely a reference to the fact that both still grieved the death of their son Willie three years before.

Perhaps when displayed by itself, the carriage does not conjure such melancholy emotions. Still, it will always be more associated with Lincoln's death than with his life.