9/11 Remembrance Program

The Lincoln Heritage Museum will be hosting a 10-year anniversary remembrance of the September 11th attacks on Thursday, September 8, 2011 at the museum, which is located on Lincoln College’s campus in Lincoln, Illinois. The remembrance program is free and open to all ages.   

The program, set to begin at 7 p.m., will feature remarks from Vicki Selvaggio of Springfield, who donated a United Airlines flight attendant’s jacket to the museum in 2002. Selvaggio was wearing the flight attendant’s jacket on layover in New York City on the morning of September 11, 2001. 

The program will also include the music of Steve Scaife, a member of the St. Andrews Pipe Band, who will perform several solemn selections. Michelle Fletcher of Lincoln will read her moving poem that she wrote in honor of the victims of the attacks.  

The Lincoln Heritage Museum is in possession of several historical pieces with relevance to September 11^th, most notably a piece of Tower One of the World Trade Center, which was donated to the museum by the City of New York in 2002. The piece from Tower One has attracted numerous visitors since its arrival.

Following the acquisition of the Tower One piece, the John Chan family of Peoria donated to the museum several items related to their son, Chip, who died in Tower One.

New York Governor George Pataki also donated the address which he gave to the New York state legislature following the attacks, which remains the only copy of the address in any public or private hands.   

As a show of solidarity, the Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England sent a letter of sympathy to Lincoln, Illinois. 

Those items on exhibit can be viewed following the program.

For more information, please contact the Lincoln Heritage Museum at 217-732-3155. 

Capturing A Man's Character

This day in 1860, for a "fifth" and final time, Republican presidential candidate Lincoln poses for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artist John H. Brown, who is in Springfield, Illinois to paint "on ivory," Lincoln's "miniature likeness." Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice and Lincoln ally John M. Read commissioned the painting because he was "disgusted with the horrible caricatures of Mr. Lincoln which he had seen." Brown recalled, "[Lincoln's] true character only shines out when in an animated conversation, or when telling an amusing tale, of which he is very fond."



John Henry Brown (1818–1891)
Watercolor on ivory, 1860
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Conserved with funds from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee

Stop by the Lincoln Heriatge Museum today to see other renderings of President Abraham Lincoln.

 Bibliography

Fact of the day sources

• R. Gerald McMurtry, Beardless Portraits of Abraham Lincoln Painted from Life (Fort Wayne, IN: Allen County Historical Society, 1962), 26-35
• Harold Holzer, Gabor S. Boritt, and Mark E. Neely, Jr., The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1984), 58, 61
• Michael Burlingame, With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000), 4-5
• Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 65
• abraham lincoln to john m. read, 27 August 1860, CW, 4:102.

This day in 1853....



The Illinois Register reports on the incorporation of the town of Lincoln, 30 miles northeast of Springfield on Chicago & Mississippi Railroad. "The town was named by the proprietors of whom our enterprising citizen, Virgil Hickox, is one, in honor of A. Lincoln, esq., the attorney of the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad Company."

Stop by the Lincoln Heritage Museum today to view the original town plat of the city of Lincoln, Il!

A Fair Chance

This day in 1864, President Lincoln speaks to 164th Ohio Regiment. The 164th Ohio Regiment was composed of militia whose 100-day term of service has expired.

Photographer: Mathew B. Brady

Date: January 8, 1864

Place: Washington, DC

"SOLDIERS---You are about to return to your homes and your friends, after having, as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short term of duty in this great contest. I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country. I wish it might be more generally and universally understood what the country is now engaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this in order to impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, that no small matter should divert us from our great purpose. There may be some irregularities in the practical application of our system. It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion to the value of his property; but if we should wait before collecting a tax to adjust the taxes upon each man in exact proportion with every other man, we should never collect any tax at all. There may be mistakes made sometimes; things may be done wrong while the officers of the Government do all they can to prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of this great Republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we have before us. This struggle is too large for you to be diverted from it by any small matter. When you return to your homes rise up to the height of a generation of men worthy of a free Government, and we will carry out the great work we have commenced. I return to you my sincere thanks, soldiers, for the honor you have done me this afternoon.”

Bibliography
The speech was taken from:
Basler, Roy P., Marion Dolores Pratt, and Lloyd A. Dunlap, eds., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 9 vols. Springfield, IL: Abraham Lincoln Association; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953.

Museum Day!

Commemorating the 150th Anniversary

of the American Civil War

How did Abraham Lincoln, with little military experience, masterfully coordinate a victory to save the Union?

Hear a special talk from award-winning artist Jim Weren as he provides an informative and profusely illustrated presentation on

“Lincoln: the Commander in Chief”

Saturday, September 24, 2011

at 1:00 pm

Lincoln Heritage Museum

at Lincoln College

Admission is free

For more information, contact Ron Keller at 217-732-3155 or rkeller@lincolncollege.edu

Lincoln Heritage Museum is participating in

Museum Day, sponsored annually by the

Smithsonian Institute to promote visitor attendance

to America’s greatest museums.

Anne Suttles hired as new assistant director for the Lincoln Heritage Museum

Lincoln College is proud to announce the recent hiring of Anne Suttles as the new assistant director of the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, IL. She began August 1.

Suttles, an archival researcher and genealogical historian, most recently partnered with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Horace Mann to conduct an institute that focused on Abraham Lincoln for teachers from across the country.   She has interned also with the Illinois State Archive Depository at the University of Illinois at Springfield, and actively worked with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in developing educational programs for children and adults for their History Comes Alive program.

Suttles, a central Illinois native, is a graduate of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville with a major in History and minor in Anthropology.   She earned an M.A. in History, with an emphasis in Public History, from the University of Illinois Springfield.   Living history is of particular interest to Suttles as she has researched and portrayed in first-person several individuals of Abraham Lincoln’s era.   She credits her parents Dennis and Boni Suttles of Chatham, for inculcating her deep appreciation for history.

Suttles is joining the Lincoln Heritage Museum at a crucial time.   She will be part of the core design team in preparing its new space in the Lincoln Center, where the museum will move to in 2013.    Suttles will also be helping to develop and coordinate special events, creating new marketing and educational initiatives, and will assist in grant writing for the museum.   

Lincoln Heritage Museum director Ron Keller said, “Anne brings a tremendous depth of Abraham Lincoln knowledge, having received guidance and instruction from many great Lincoln historians including Wayne Temple, Cullom Davis, and Michael Burlingame.”  Noting her experience, Keller added, “She has worked in public settings and particularly with the Springfield historical and tourism community, and understands tourism and working with the public.    We were immediately attracted to her experience in relation to education and public history, and she will help this museum advance in many different areas.  She also possesses a very engaging personality.   We are very fortunate to have her.”

Of her new position as museum assistant director, Suttles remarked, “The study of Abraham Lincoln has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, but a personal favorite of mine is the study of local history.  I am very glad that I will be able to combine the two and learn about the community that helped Lincoln become one of the greatest presidents in our nation’s history.”

All are invited to visit the Lincoln Heritage Museum, and to welcome Anne.    The museum is open from 9-4 Monday through Friday and 1-4 on Saturdays.   Admission is free.

The 150th Anniversary of Lincoln's election

This past week the major news story in the country was the midterm elections, and the resulting Republican Party takeover of the House of Representatives.   In some ways, the failure or success of President Obama’s first term as president now weighs heavily on the ability of the president and the new Congress to compromise and cooperate.    As in every election, accompanying the aftermath is the prospect of change and progress, mixed with a tinge of uncertainty of whether that progress will actually materialize.   As an Abraham Lincoln historian, these 2010 elections spurred me to reflect upon two elections in the past: one being the 1860 presidential election 150 years ago this month, and the midterm elections that faced Lincoln as president in 1862.

Indeed, 150 years has now passed since the crucial election of 1860.     A century-and-a-half later, Lincoln’s mark on the presidency is unparalleled, and all subsequent presidents have looked to Lincoln as the example of presidential leadership.    He was a president not without mistakes and examples to avoid, but how he steered the country through its worse constitutional crisis is an example that any aspiring political candidate should examine thoroughly.  150 years since the division began which led to the American Civil War in April 1861.    It is natural for us to question that had Lincoln not been elected in 1860 how our country would have been so much different.    While both Democrats, but especially Republicans, hail the recent election as a landmark achievement, it pales to the stakes 150 years ago.

But even with that victory, Lincoln’s success in forwarding his agenda and in prosecuting the war depended upon a Congress willing to collaborate with his policies.    It could be argued that one of the most important years legislatively for Lincoln was 1862.   After all, the war was not going well for the Union.   Discontent and dissent was rising in Congress against a president they viewed as inadequate to the task of subduing the rebellion.   Along with that, in September of that year he had advanced one of the most controversial and significant presidential decrees ever—the Emancipation Proclamation.    National measures on slavery had always been congressional responsibilities, so needed a Congress to concur with this action.   Additionally, Lincoln faced criticism on his taxing policies, on the draft, and on the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.   In short, Lincoln’s presidency depended upon the midterm elections of 1862.  

While Republicans—who controlled the House before the 1862 election—retained control after the election (unlike the Democrats in 2010), there are striking and fascinating similarities between 1862 and 2010.   In 1862, the Republicans held 59% of the House seats, exactly identical to the Democrats in 2010.   After November 1862, Republicans held only 46% of the seats (but still held control because of Democratic Party unionists who defected their party), a mirror image to the 43% seats Democrats will now face come January.   Interesting!   If 2010 is an electoral landslide for Republicans and an electoral message to President Obama, then certainly 1862 was for Lincoln.    Most presidents do witness their party losing seats in midterm elections, and even though this year and 1862 are similar, it could be argued that ramifications in 1862 were far worse.   Lincoln even lost his own home district, and in the middle of a war, it could have been a clear signal to Lincoln to dramatically alter his course—even to consider abandoning emancipation and pursue peace terms with the South.   For the most part, he stayed true to his principles and his actions.    A lesser president elected 150 years ago may not have done so.    Whether Obama will change course is yet to be seen, but the president might well study lessons from history.