#lincolncollection

Can you imagine sending your brother, father, grandparent, or friend off to war? The American Civil War, the bloodiest battle in American history, determined what nation we would become. Would we become the largest holder of slaves in the New World, or would we abide by our Declaration of Independence where all men were created with an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? I think you know how the story ends, but at what cost? Approximately 750,000 lives were lost by the end of the war. During the time after the war, many grief-stricken families turned to a wide spectrum of coping mechanisms. One of them was Spiritualism. Spiritualism, at the time, had 8 million believers in both the United States and Europe. Americans sought comfort in performing séances knowing there was a better life for their loved ones beyond the grave. Believe it or not, Mary Todd Lincoln was one of those forlorn Americans.

At this point, Mary had lost her son Edward in 1850 due to tuberculosis and Willie (her favorite son) in 1862 taken by typhoid fever. She could not overcome the anguish and suffering she felt knowing another son was taken by death. Shortly after his passing, the First Lady was introduced to the Laurie family who were a group of well-known mediums at the time. Thus, diving into the “Spirit World”. Below is a photograph of Mary taken in the year 1862 just after Willie’s death.

Mrs. Lincoln started hosting her own séances in the Red Room of the White House. President Lincoln was in attendance for a few of them in order to support her. She performed as many as 8 séances in the Red Room. Here are pictures taken of the room just after the Lincoln’s versus what it looks like today.

Circa 1869

Circa 2000

Mary Todd Lincoln claimed to have seen both Edward and Willie during her out-of-body experiences. She even believed seeing their spirits at the end of her bed at night, smiling. This brought her great comfort and relief. Due to social pressures, Mrs. Lincoln was forced to take a step back from her Spiritualism practices after several months. Below is a sketched image from Nettie Colburn Maynard’s (a trance medium) 1891 memoir, Was Abraham Lincoln a Spiritualist?

Although Spiritualism can be hard to digest for some people, it was a growing practice throughout the 19th century. Works published on Spiritualism at the time became gateways to the future practice of communicating with the deceased. Much like for Mrs. Lincoln, séances took away the fear of death especially during a time of war. Below is a painting of the Battle of Fort Donelson, and a photo of Abraham Lincoln with General McClellan taken in 1862.

There are always questions in regard to slavery such as, “When did the first slaves make it to the America’s?”, “Who approved of such cruelty?” Slavery has inhabited every corner of the globe and still lives on today. Our story of slavery begins in the 1400’s after the Portuguese embark on exploring the coast of West Africa. King Charles II legalized the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the mid 1600’s. This aloud the Royal African Company to transport Africans they called “black gold” to the Americas. By this time, plantations in both the Caribbean Islands and America were booming and owners needed an abundance of slaves to maintain their cash crops. As the number of Africans began to diminish from the coast, Europeans moved inland raiding small towns and villages. You can find more information here. 

This is an illustrated image published in The Graphic (a popular London illustrated weekly newspaper) that depicts Muslims raiding and kidnapping people in the East Central Africa region.

During the years 1525-1866, 12.5 million Africans were taken from Africa to the New World. Approximately 300,000 of those Africans were shipped to America. The last U.S. slave ship docked in Mobile Bay 3 years before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln in January of 1863. She was called Clotilda and came with 110-160 slaves. Here is a picture of what the ship looked like and the path it took to get to America. 

Among the thousands of slaves that were taken from Africa to America was Frederick Douglass’ family. Frederick Douglass was actually born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and was raised a slave. He ran away at age 20 and adopted the surname “Douglas” after Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake. He wrote three autobiographies discussing his life as a slave and two additional biographies (My Bondage and My Freedom and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass) that elevated the southern culture. Below is a picture of Douglass in his younger years. 

Known as the most important black American leader of the 19th century, Douglass was also a great orator and writer of persuasive power. He was an abolitionist long before the Civil War and even met with President Abraham Lincoln convincing him that “the negro is the stomach of the rebellion”. In other words, if Lincoln frees the slaves he will have more Union soldiers to fight against the Confederacy. After the Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in January of 1863, Douglass recruits black soldiers for the Union. An original hand-signed Leland-Boker edition of the Emancipation Proclamation lives at the Allen County Public Library.

Lincoln valued Douglass’ opinions greatly. Frederick Douglass advocated for issues concerning unequal pay and treatment of African American soldiers and racial inequality. In his book The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, he wrote,

“Though slavery was abolished, the wrongs of my people were not ended. Though they were not slaves, they were not quite free. No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling, and actions of others, and who has himself no means in his own hands for guarding, protecting, defecting, and maintaining that liberty.”

Douglass knew the first step to African American independence was the abolishment of slavery, but he knew the equality of whites and blacks would only come with time and with strong leaders to carry-on his legacy. Here is a picture of the abolitionist himself in later years.

In April of 1865, Frederick Douglass along with thousands of people across America mourned the death of President Abraham Lincoln. In Douglass’ eulogy for Lincoln, he strongly states, “…Abraham Lincoln, while unsurpassed in his devotion, to the welfare of the white race, was also in a sense hitherto without example, emphatically the black mans President: the first to show any respect for their rights as men.” Because of this, Douglass gave the citizens of the United States hope for the future; to walk in our martyred President’s footsteps and continue the life Lincoln would have wanted us to live. Below is a picture of Lincoln’s funeral procession in New York.

What is a self-made man? The term was first coined in 1832 by Henry Clay, attorney and lawyer. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for over 10 years. He used the phrase “self-made man” to describe individuals of whose success lay within the person themselves, not with outside conditions. One of the most prominent men in history who represented this concept was Benjamin Franklin. He went from a poor, candle maker’s son to a successful businessman and one of America’s most influential Founding Fathers. So, where does Lincoln come in?

Abraham Lincoln was also a self-made man who acknowledged Clay as his “political hero.” He read an abundance of Clay’s political speeches and was greatly influenced by them. Lincoln started reading at a young age and read so much that his parents saw him as “lazy” (Lincoln grew up in a time where working class sons were expected to be working, not leisurely reading. He did go to a local school for brief periods at a time, but he mostly had to stay home and support his family).

Through reading and writing, Lincoln taught himself law and became a lawyer in 1836. His reputation as a lawyer grew and, when he was running for office, his “Honest Abe” persona grew.

A watercolor illustration of what Abe might have looked like at a young age living in Indiana.

Over the course of his lifetime, Abraham Lincoln read over 268 literary works including Shakespeare’s plays, Arabian Nights, Poems by Robert Burns, Journal and Debates of the Federal Constitution by Jonathan Elliot. Many of his own speeches and debates show comments and quotes from other prestigious writers. You can see a full list of what Lincoln read throughout his life as well as more information about the type of literature he enjoyed published through the University of Michigan Library.

Lincoln was known for being an avid reader and most artists liked to represent him as such. One such example of this is in the print by Warren Sallman, Kriebel & Bates. 

Did you know? While Lincoln was in office from the years 1861-1865, 350 literary works were published in America within that time span including books, poems, plays, and essays. 

Pictures of Abraham Lincoln almost always include him holding a book or an important document that he had been working on or reading. The picture below shows the capital building in the background as Lincoln is holding an important document.

 Abraham Lincoln advocated himself as a self-made man, and literature aided him on his journey to becoming a lawyer as well as one of our greatest presidents in American history. 

Abraham Lincoln said “my earliest recollection is of the Knob Creek place” in a letter to Samuel Haycraft in 1860. Thomas Lincoln and his family lived on 30 acres of the much larger 228 acres of the Knob Creek Farm. Abraham Lincoln lived here from about 2 and a half years old until he was almost 8, at which point he moved up into Spencer County, Indiana. Young Lincoln grew up and began making some of his earliest memories here. He remembered a stone house he passed while carrying corn up to Hodgen’s Mill, his family’s homestead, a clear stream where he enjoyed fishing, the best places to pick berries, and his first experiences with learning and education.

With so many students and teachers returning to school soon, looking back at Lincoln’s schooling (and lack thereof!) shows some important insight into the 16th president and his learning style that helped him become the president that he would grow to be.

Lincoln spoke of listening to his mother read the Bible and watching her face and she told him stories and it was here at Knob Creek that Lincoln attended school for the first time in his life. For short periods of time, Lincoln and his older sister, Sarah, went to the A, B, C school. The schoolhouse was located about 2 miles north of their home in Knob Creek. When the two Lincolns went to attend school, Abraham was 6 and the classes were only held intermittently. The school had two teachers while Lincoln attended: Zachariah Riney and Caleb Hazel. These frontier schools were subscription or “blab” schools and only lasted for a few months at a time. Free school did not come to Kentucky until the 1830’s.

The learning style Lincoln grew up with is a bit different than current education lesson plans. These “blab” schools were so called because the students would learn their lessons by repeating after the teacher aloud over and over again. This meant that especially reading required students to read aloud. Years later, Lincoln would annoy his law partner, William Herndon, by reading the newspaper out loud because, as he explained, he learned better when he used two senses and because he had learned to process out loud.

When the Lincolns moved to Indiana in December 1816, there were new schools in the area. Abraham and Sara continued their studies as best they could at home until the first school was established year later at Pigeon Creek. This school was about a mile and a quarter south of the Lincoln’s farm and had very meager supplies which meant that there was little learning in the classroom. Lincoln continued to be an avid reader who was toting around books whether he was in school or not. Lincoln read Aesop’s Fables, the Bible, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Robinson Crusoe and Parson Weems’ The Life of Washington. Lincoln also would read the newspaper, hymnals, songbooks, spelling books- basically anything he could get his hands on to.

As Lincoln got older he began to read more challenging works including Shakespeare, poetry, and history. Sometimes, because of his athleticism and his size (6’4” as an adult), Lincoln was perceived as lazy or distracted because of all his reading and writing. Lincoln’s stepmother, Sara, commented that Lincoln did not enjoy physical labor, but he loved to read: “He read so much- was so studious-took so little physical exercise-was so laborious in his studies.”

Though the word “polka” brings forth images of accordions, lederhosen, and Oktoberfest, in the 1860’s, polka was a new music trend that was taking Europe and the U.S. by storm. What had started as a folk dance from Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) quickly spread across Europe due to the printing of sheet music in the 193o’s. The ability to record the music and share it via sheet music allowed for polka to travel to bands all across Europe. Eventually, the upper classes within the U.S. began to enjoy the new sound from Bohemia. With the influx of immigrants to the U.S. during this period, it’s no surprise that many of them brought along instruments and continued to play music that reminded them of home.

 As is true with most songs, the ability to dance as well; and the subject of the music are vitally important. It is of no surprise that many songs have well-known individuals as their topic. The Lincoln Collection has a few polka pieces, generally centered on the 1860 Presidential election. With all the parades, conventions, and speeches, having music to show the prowess and candidacy of someone within the party could be a helpful (and entertaining) push to victory.

 For example, “The Rail Splitters Polka” by A. Neuman is one such instrumental polka that focuses around young Lincoln and his “railsplitter” persona. 

 Another example of a Lincoln-related polka is one by the same name as above, the “Rail Splitters Polka” by Harry L. Tatnall. 

 Lincoln was not the only candidate that had his own polka music. In 1860, the “Douglas Polka” was written and published by J. Church Jr. about Stephen Douglas, who was on the Northern Democratic ticket for the presidency. 

 Conventions weren’t the only reason for polka music. Music was composed about events going on, including Sanitary Fairs that were held to raise funds for the United States Sanitary Commission. These uplifting and recognizable sounding songs were both played at the conventions and had their sheet music available afterwards for continued revelry. 

Some polka pieces actually focused on plays that were popular during the day. One is “Our American Cousin Polka”, based on the crowd-pleasing comedy by Tom Taylor. Using popular culture to inform the focus of music, including polka, was not unusual and could also be incorporated in the performances themselves. 

One of the more interesting polka pieces in the Lincoln Collection is one named after Lincoln’s wife: The Mary Todd Lincoln polka. Mary was often criticized for her clothing, decorating, and celebration in a time of warfare (she would have been criticized had she not done any of the aforementioned things, though). With the upcoming White House Ball in February of 1862, Lincoln enlisted Francis M. Scala, the leader of the Marine band, to play at the reception.

First published in 1929, Lincoln Lore is a nationally recognized magazine for scholarly articles, interviews, book reviews, and announcements of local and national Lincoln-related programs and events. The resource, currently published four times a year, is intended for scholars, teachers, and students of all ages. Lincoln Lore was originally written to focus on little-known facts about Abraham Lincoln and his life. Louis Warren, the original editor, intended Lore to be a clip sheet from which newspapers could borrow the comments and articles as filler for their papers.

 The publications were produced first on a weekly basis and later monthly by the directors of the Lincoln Collection (Louis A. Warren, R. Gerald McMurtry, and Mark E. Neely). Started on April 15, 1929 (the anniversary of Lincoln’s death), the original mailing list consisted of 359 individuals. Five years later, the mailing list was up to 1,117 and by 1954, a total of 52,000 people, institutions, newspapers, and libraries received Lincoln Lore. Currently, Lincoln Lore is a quarterly publication of the Lincoln Collection and is a benefit of membership to the Friends of the Lincoln Collection. Originally, the multi-page journal was published by the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but has now grown in size and breadth and is produced by the Lincoln Collection at The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne.

 Lincoln Lore has a new home! Previously unavailable online in its entirety, Lincoln Lore is now available (and divided up by decade) on the newly created Friends of the Lincoln Collection website. At www.FriendsoftheLincolnCollection.org, Lincoln Lores can be viewed and downloaded in PDF and are even text searchable. Soon, a search function will become available to search through all 1,900+ Lores. In the meantime, typing a search term into Google and following it with “site:friendsofthelincolncollection.org” will render results from the Lore archive, as well as the Friends page.

 The Lincoln Collection still publishes Lore on a quarterly basis and those copies are added into the Lore archive. In order to still offer the physical copies as a Friends of the Lincoln Collection membership benefit, the new Lincoln Lore articles and the PDF of the full publication do not go up at the same time as mailing, but rather are on a staggered release schedule.

 Want to get your own copies of Lincoln Lore sent to your home or work? Join the Friends of the Lincoln Collection today and receive this and other benefits. Sign ups (and renewals) can be done at https://www.friendsofthelincolncollection.org/membership-donations/ and there are options to pay online via PayPal or via check. We hope you’ll consider membership and will enjoy the newly available archive of Lincoln Lore!

Happy 210th birthday, Mr. President. We at the Lincoln Collection celebrate the 16th President every day, but especially on February 12th. The collection has numerous forms of celebratory documents, pamphlets, and other items that have been used throughout history to celebrate Lincoln and his day.

 A proposal to make Lincoln’s birthday a state recognized holiday in Washington D.C. in 1921. Lincoln’s birthday is recognized in some states, but has never been a federally recognized holiday. (

A four page pamphlet for students to learn about Lincoln on his birthday. These tracts were published by the American Educational Association in the early 1920′s (https://www.lincolncollection.org/search/results/item/?q=birthday&page=2&item=88461)

The Complete Holiday Program for First Graders includes and entire section on President’s Day as well as on Lincoln’s birthday with songs, recitations, and stories (https://archive.org/details/completeholidayp00burn)

Multiple states held services and celebrations for Lincoln’s birthday in the years after his death. This book described the 23rd birthday service held for President Lincoln at Memorial Hall in Chicago. (https://archive.org/details/twentythirdlinco00bart/page/n4)

Some magazines, like Colliers, even ran special editions or focused editions during the month of February to highlight President Lincoln. This edition includes information about Lincoln’s birthplace, his family, and his life growing up in Kentucky, as well as pictures of historic Lincoln sites (https://archive.org/details/colliersnationa00pfco) 

So happy birthday, Mr. President! You look great for 210!