LincolnFreak

Run Silent, Run Slow; 2 Trains, 2700 Miles

2010-04-18T20:38:00.010-04:00

During the month of April, two very famous trains made their way through history, one in 1865 and one in 1945. Both were carrying the bodies of presidents who lead the country through wars and both carried the grief of an entire nation.

Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train, known as "The Lincoln Special," made a 1700-mile journey from Washington, D.C. back to Springfield, Illinois, from April 21st to May 4, and carried not only Lincoln’s body, but that of his son Willie, who died at age 11 of typhoid.

Mary, who was too distressed to make the trip, insisted that Willie’s body be disinterred and sent along to join his father in Springfield. Robert Todd Lincoln and some 300 other people accompanied the two coffins on board. The train consisted of 9 cars and stopped for 11 national funerals en route to Springfield.

In April, 1945, FDR’s funeral train made a 3-day journey from Friday, April 13th, to Sunday, April 15th over some 1,000 miles from Warm Springs Georgia to Hyde Park. The train needed two locomotives to pull the 11 cars and broke down three times from the sheer weight of hauling some very luxurious Pullmans.

So many wreaths and flowers were given by cities along the stops that soldiers guarding the casket had little room to stand.

In Robert Klara’s book "FDR’s Funeral Train," the atmosphere and secrets of that troubled passage are hauntingly documented, and though he does not spend time making comparisons between Lincoln’s train and FDR’s, he does point out that Eleanor Roosevelt was chillingly aware of the timing of the two trains. Part of her sad journey was on the very day of Lincoln's assassination.

Other than that, the two trains keep separate lives. While Lincoln’s train has achieved phantom status, reportedly making its run every anniversary, so far FDR’s train has had no such repeated sightings.

"No man ever chooses to be a slave"

2010-02-10T16:58:00.004-05:00

The Lincoln Traveling Exhibit has reached my local library! Launched in 2009 to coincide with Lincoln’s 200th birthday celebration, the exhibit continues to travel through 2010, bringing a chilling story to the eyes of anyone willing to take the time to look.

"Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation" chronicles Lincoln’s life and career through an illustrated timeline on a series of sturdy, free-standing panels.

In just a short walk, you can see how closely Lincoln’s life paralleled the life of slavery in America. In fact, from his first political speech to his last conscious thought at Ford’s Theater, Lincoln’s life can be told almost solely through the landmark decisions leading up to the abolition of slavery.

But the journey is much more than that. It is about Lincoln’s own growth from someone who was willing to tolerate slavery to keep the Union together, to someone who deeply understood that no Union could survive while any of its citizens were not free. This realization was ultimately Lincoln’s own emancipation. But reaching that conclusion, which seems so obvious to us today, was a hard personal and national struggle.

The most vital quote for me was Lincoln’s response to those who claimed that slavery had some good in it, especially for the slave. Lincoln reminded his listeners that we are creatures who know how to choose good things for ourselves, yet no man has ever voluntarily put himself under the yoke of slavery. His bleak reminder still speaks from the wall of a silent panel in the 21st Century: "No man ever chooses to be a slave."

How wonderful it is to have access to this exhibit now, just as Lincoln’s birthday approaches in 2010. It is a fine reminder not to take for granted what others fought so hard to define – the value of freedom.

Merry Christmas from Bill Sherman

2009-12-23T20:20:00.003-05:00

As the holidays approach, be grateful it isn’t Christmas, 1864. William Sherman’s army was making its march through Georgia, living off plantations, burning them and twisting railroad ties so that they could never be used by the Confederacy again. Sherman knew how crucial the railroad connections were in Georgia.

Prior to November, Lincoln’s outlook for a second term was so bleak that he wrote to a friend, "this administration, I fear, is doomed."

All were sick of war and ready to accept Presidential candidate George McClellan’s offer of peace, allowing the South to secede and maintain slavery. Sherman knew better. He said that "if we allow the South to secede, there would be no end of rebellion."

The Pacific states were considering secession, so was New York and some of New England. A few states in the South wanted to secede from the Confederacy. This continent might have been a group of independent nations with no common Constitution. There would have been no United States of America.

Lincoln won his second term that year, supported mostly by the army vote. But he knew that he desperately needed a victory to keep morale alive. Sherman gave him that victory at a terrible cost.

To learn how high that cost really was, read General Sherman’s Christmas, by Stanley Weintraub. And if you are able to travel the Country in any direction without a passport this Christmas, remember those who paid the price to make it possible.

Opera Highlights Lincoln's Young Life

2009-10-17T16:38:00.005-04:00

Enjoy opera? Love Lincoln?

Then listen up. Last weekend, the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre performed River of Time, a presentation of young Lincoln’s life set to music.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reviewed it as a fine tribute to Lincoln with great songs, strong performances, but perhaps a thin plot of vignettes.

The opera spans the years before Lincoln’s presidency, focusing on his commitment to end slavery, his relationship with Ann Rutledge, and his sometimes overwhelming depression. Even though I question the Ann Rutledge account, you have to admit, sad love stories make great opera.

I haven’t seen this performance, but I would like to if it makes the rounds. After all, this is still Lincoln’s birthday anniversary year and the more tributes the better.

For more information on this, check out River of Time. And the next time you go South without a passport, remember who made it possible.

The Three Worst Quotes of the Civil War and Why Lincoln Never Said Any of Them

2009-08-15T23:21:00.015-04:00

Eloquence is made perfect by time, but so is folly. Take a look at the following quotes and see if time hasn’t added a certain irony to all of them:

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance"- Union General John Sedgwick spoke these words just moments before being shot dead by a confederate sniper at Spotsylvania.

Uh-oh. Just when you think it’s safe to brag. Now Lincoln would never have made a statement like this. Though he took risks, coming under sniper fire at least once at a fort in Washington, he knew his tall frame was an easy target and usually kept silent about the abilities of the enemy to shoot straight.

"Why not bury the dead in Lee’s backyard?" - Gen. Montgomery Meigs made this statement in a last spiteful effort to keep the Lees from returning to Arlington. His goal was to populate Mrs. Lee’s rose garden with the bodies of Union soldiers, making the grounds unlivable. What made him think that by burying corpses, he wasn’t helping out with the rose garden?

Lincoln would never have made this statement because he understood the ways of botany. Meigs himself supervised the burial of 26 Union soldiers in Mrs. Lee's rose garden. In October of 1864, Meigs' own son was killed in the war, and he too was buried at Arlington.

"That old man had my division massacred at Gettysburg." -George Pickett said these words about Robert E. Lee to John S. Mosby shortly after paying Lee a visit in Richmond. Perhaps the best answer to this was Mosby’s – "Well, it made you famous."

Lee was distraught over the failure of Pickett’s charge and blamed himself. Pickett’s effort to pass along more blame somehow doesn’t sit well. Lincoln would never have said this quote about his top general, because for a great part of the time his top general was George McClellan, who never had anybody massacred. In fact, when McClellan excused his lack of action in the fall of 1862 due to tired horses, Lincoln contributed his own infamous quote:

"Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?"

McClellan was removed from command shortly thereafter.

Celebrate Summer with Mr. Lincoln

2009-06-13T00:02:00.009-04:00

If you’re looking for a great way to honor Abraham Lincoln during the Summer months, consider planting and cultivating the rose named after him – “Mr. Lincoln.”

Mr. Lincoln is a hybrid tea rose, but if that term sounds too delicate for you, catch a glimpse of the actual rose itself. The bloom is one of the truest shades of red in the business with a sturdy stem and a strong fragrance that won’t quit. I have one in the back yard that is doing quite well despite me.

Originally bred by Swim & Weeks in 1964, Mr. Lincoln was introduced into the United States by Conrad Pyle/Star Roses in 1965, just in time to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his death.

Located in West Grove, Pennsylvania, Conrad Pyle is also a distributor in the United States for Meilland, the prominent French rose breeder. Conrad Pyle has a long history and at one time sold roses to the artist Claude Monet.

Many celebrities have roses named after them, but now so can you. Even as we speak, roses are waiting in the nursery to be named and loved by the right person. The process of breeding and naming a commemorative rose is not as off-limits as you think. I found a website that I thought was interesting, so here it is. Name That Rose. The process begins at 795 euros (about $1,113 American dollars), so make sure you really love yourself before doing this.

In the meantime, enjoy one of the finest tributes to Lincoln ever commissioned, and take time to stop and smell the roses.

Behold the Tecumseh Curse

2009-04-04T22:02:00.003-04:00

So you don’t believe in curses. Consider this one. Every president elected in a zero year between 1840 and 1960 has died in office, some by assassination. Lincoln was one of these.

What’s so strange about this? Shawnee Chief Tecumseh’s brother is credited with making it happen. It all started with the Battle of 1811, when William Harrison successfully attacked Tecumseh’s village along the Tippecanoe River in an attempt to gain territory for white westward expansion.

Supposedly, Tecumseh’s brother Tenskwatawa, also known as the Prophet, set a curse against Harrison and future White House occupants who became president with the same end number as Harrison.

The result? Harrison, elected in 1840, died in office of pneumonia; Lincoln, elected in 1860, was assassinated; Garfield, elected in 1880, was assassinated; McKinley, elected in 1900, was assassinated; Harding, elected in 1920, died of a heart attack while in office; Roosevelt, elected in 1940, died of a stroke while in office; Kennedy, elected in 1960, was assassinated. But wait, what happened to Reagan, elected in 1980? Though he was attacked, he lived. According to some, he broke the curse.

This curse is also known as the curse of Tippecanoe, the zero-year curse, the twenty-year curse, and the twenty-year presidential jinx. Why in the world isn’t it called the Tenskwatawa curse, if he’s the one who pronounced it?

Also, how strange that one of Lincoln’s favorite generals, William Tecumseh Sherman, was named for the Prophet’s brother. What could that possibly mean? Nothing really, but I couldn’t resist bringing it up. If you want to know more about who really killed Lincoln (and all this time you thought it was Booth), check out The Tecumseh Curse and More Tecumseh Curse.

And remember, choose blessings, not curses.

The Story Inside Lincoln's Watch

2009-03-29T22:06:00.003-04:00

“Thank God we have a government.” These were the words watchmaker Jonathan Dillon secretly inscribed inside Lincoln’s gold pocket watch as he repaired it at the beginning of the Civil War.

Apparently unknown to Lincoln, these words stayed hidden until the watch was opened recently at the Smithsonian Museum to verify the story told by Dillon’s great-great grandson, Douglas Stiles.

Were the words there? Yes, they were, but Dillon had remembered them differently, embellishing the text for his progeny with a few more sentences – "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try." That wasn’t in the watch at all.

So, the next time you need to repeat an important secret message, remember that even Lincoln’s jeweler got it wrong. To read the whole story, check out Lincoln' watch

Thanks to my usual great source for supplying me with this gem!

Two Presidents, One Temperament

2009-02-16T00:37:00.005-05:00

Lincoln ranting and swearing? That’s hard to believe. And guess who drove him to it? George McClellan.

Lincoln had issued a war order calling for a movement of all land and naval forces on Washington 's Birthday, February 22. What a nice way to celebrate that day.

But instead of a frontal attack at Manassas Junction, McClellan wanted to float his army down the Chesapeake Bay, and march overland to Richmond before the Confederates could block him. Only trouble was, the canal boats carrying the men through a lock on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal were six inches too wide. When McClellan discovered the error, he did nothing.

According to journalist William O. Stoddard, Lincoln was beside himself. (Read all about it in Daniel Mark Epstein’s Lincoln’s Men). Addressing McClellan’s father-in-law, Lincoln yelled "Why in hell and damnation, General Marcy, couldn’t the General have known whether a boat would go through that lock, before he spent a million of dollars getting them there? I am no engineer but it seems to me that if I wished to know whether a boat would go thru a hole, or a lock, common sense would teach me to go and measure it."

I have this vision of McClellan getting off the boat with a tape measure, stringing it across the Chesapeake and Ohio canal lock and calling out "Six inches too short. Oh well."

But did George Washington ever lose his cool? Oh yes, and right on the battlefield. When Major General Charles Lee lost his nerve in pursuit of British troops at Monmouth Courthouse, Washington gave him a virulent "tongue lashing" right on the spot, questioning his loyalty, character and bravery. According to one soldier at the scene, he swore at him until the "leaves on the trees shook."

So what does all this say? Both men were low on patience when it came to commanders hesitating under pressure, but while Washington questioned Lee’s loyalty, Lincoln never did question McClellan’s. He only asked to borrow his army.

Happy President’s Day to you.

Happy 200th Birthday, Abe

2009-02-08T22:12:00.013-05:00

So how does it feel to be 200 years old? Fine, apparently. In 2009, Lincoln is looking more alive than ever. Who could have predicted that on this special birthday, we would have a President in office so devoted to Lincoln’s memory and ideals that the 1861 Bible would be re-used in an inauguration ceremony? In fact, Obama’s dedication to all things Lincoln has inspired new markets for memorabilia, leading right up to Christie’s auction house.

On February 12th, Christie's will put up for sale Lincoln's handwritten 1864 re-election victory speech, at an estimated value of $3 to $4 million. That’s right up there with Van Gogh’s Irises. See Christie’s Sells Lincoln.

In Kentucky, an artist has created a 200-tile mosaic of Lincoln out of his photos, portraits and images. Inspired by seeing a 1909 poster of Lincoln made out of 100 images to celebrate his centennial birthday, Jim Erskine, who lives near Hodgenville, decided to create a 200-tile poster for the bicentennial. Will a 300-tile poster appear in 2109? Check out 200 tiles.

To top it off, the U.S. Postal Service released four commemorative stamps on Feb. 9 to celebrate Lincoln’s 200th birthday. The stamps depict Lincoln as a rail splitter, lawyer, politician and president. See four stamps.

But maybe the best way of all to celebrate Lincoln’s 200th is by keeping alive the values he stood for. And remember, 200th birthdays are fun as long as you don’t have to blow out the candles.

Happy birthday, Abe!

Whatever Happened to John?

2009-01-24T21:17:00.007-05:00

Back to the Surratts. And why not? Few families are shrouded in more mystery.

Perhaps the most mysterious member of that family was John. Where was John while Lincoln was being assassinated? In Elmira, New York, shopping apparently. He was such a sharp dresser, that clothing stores in Elmira competed for the honor of being his alibi – a sort of "John Surratt shopped here" advertising opportunity.

After Elmira, he was protected by a network of Catholic priests in – where else – Canada, until he could be hustled off to Europe. It is fair to say that there was more anti-Lincoln intrigue going on in Toronto and Montreal than in all the Southern States put together. In fact, if the St. Lawrence Hotel alone had closed its doors, the entire assassination conspiracy might have folded on the spot – to say nothing of the Confederate Secret Service Bureau going homeless.

In Rome, John became one of the Zouaves at the Vatican, until Pope Pius IX summarily kicked him back to America for trial – a wise decision considering the anti-Catholic feeling of the times.

Two trials followed, with John Surratt acquitted at both of them. Because he was in Elmira at the time of Lincoln’s assassination, he could not be linked to the scene of the crime. Now Vincent Bugliosi would have gotten around this nicely. Remember, Charles Manson wasn’t at the scene of the crime either and accurately claimed he "never killed anybody."

Where did John go with his new-found freedom? To South America, and ultimately to Baltimore, where he found a comfortable job at the Baltimore Steam Packet Company until his retirement at seventy-one.

Where did I get all this stuff? From Andrew Jampoler’s book, The Last Lincoln Conspirator. If you’ve got Surratts on the brain, as I obviously do, check out this book for some surprising facts about John’s life after Lincoln.

Jampoler, just as troubled as most historians by the fact that John did not stand by his mother during her trial and execution, grimly reminds his readers that if he had, there surely would have been a 5th body on the scaffold, and a mother-and-son execution even more disturbing than Mary’s alone. Some things are best left the way they stand.

Let's Do Lincoln's Lunch

2009-01-10T23:45:00.009-05:00

As Inauguration Day approaches, more and more of Obama’s choices surface, and they are all about Lincoln. Not only has the president-elect chosen the same Bible Lincoln used for the swearing in, but he is selecting a luncheon of Lincoln’s favorite foods. This includes an impressive array of seafood appetizers such as shrimp, lobster and stewed oysters, followed by a main course of duck breast with sour-cherry chutney -- all served on replicas of Mary’s best china. See The full course and more full course.

Thank goodness he didn’t choose Lincoln’s favorite breakfast while in the White House – an egg with a biscuit and sometimes a glass of milk. Amazing what a war can do to your appetite.

The original burgundy velvet Bible he will be using was purchased and inscribed by William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court. It will be on display at the Library of Congress February 12 to May 9 as part of an exhibition titled "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition." That exhibit will then travel to five other American cities in commemoration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth on Feb. 12, 1809. More on Lincoln’s Bible.

Other good stuff – Obama is also tracing the train route that Lincoln took and holding a welcome event at the Lincoln Memorial the Sunday before his inauguration.

Anything else? Oh yes! It's rumored that Obama intends to wear a top hat and grow a beard, but only time will tell if this is true.

Until then, enjoy the "new birth of freedom," complete with calories and recipes from the caterer.

As Abraham Lincoln said....

2008-11-28T22:54:00.016-05:00

"...to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."

Nice to hear that Lincoln is alive and well in Presidential acceptance speeches. And this is just the beginning. Not only is Obama's Inauguration theme, "A New Birth of Freedom," taken from a line in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, but his entire leadership style seems to be informed by Lincoln's political wisdom.

It is no secret that Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Lincoln, "A Team of Rivals," has inspired his method of choosing a cabinet, from retaining Robert Gates to considering Hillary Clinton. His preference for strong personalities with dissimilar views says as much about his own security among opposition as it does about his admiration of a man who made similar bold choices -- a man from his own home state of Illinois.

Goodwin, who met with Obama about her book, recently told NEWSWEEK, "I think he's got a temperamental set of qualities that have some resemblance to Lincoln's emotional intelligence."

If so, he is positioned for a time with as much conflict as the Civil War offered Lincoln. A rising star in his own right, he will need all the considerable gifts he has been given to navigate the economic and political minefields ahead.

But then, this is what great men are raised up to do.

Lincoln and Douglas 150 years later

2008-09-27T22:53:00.005-04:00

The 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates is still being celebrated in the seven Illinois cities where they originally took place. These debates, from August through October of 1858, targeted the expansion of slavery in the new territories and proved that you can win even when you lose. Though Lincoln lost the senatorial election, he gained so much public favor that he ultimately won the future presidential election.

A few interesting quotations came from these debates. Lincoln called a self-evident truth "the electric cord ... that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together."

But my favorite analogy of the expansion of slavery is still in his Hartford Connecticut speech of March 5, 1860, where he compared it to a "snake in the Union bed." Finding a snake on the road and killing it, he would be a hero. Finding a snake in his children's bed, he might not kill it for fear of inciting it to bite, but deliberatey tossing a snake into a perfectly safe bed (the new territories) would be foolish. That chilling image of tossing a snake into a place of safety always gets my attention. I wonder if he would have won that senate seat had he used this analogy in 1858. Then I wonder, if he had won that senate seat, might his career have taken a different path altogether less meaningful?

Not if Mary had anything to say about it.

She was up to her ears in it

2008-08-30T23:45:00.003-04:00

Even into the 21st Century, advocates of Mary Surratt keep hoping that evidence will surface proving her final words on the gallows to be true: "I am innocent."

But those hoping for her exoneration will be disappointed by Kate Clifford Larson’s book, Assassin’s Accomplice. Larson, initially setting out to prove Surratt’s innocence, became more convinced of her complicity in the course of researching the book. Though wisely leaving the bigger questions unanswered, Larson’s overall pronouncement is – guilty as charged.

I guess it is hard to believe that you could host a series of meetings at your boardinghouse and never once wonder what your son and his handsome friend were up to.

Larson unearths some careful evidence to back up her claims, but never loses that curious respect that we all seem to acquire for Mary Surratt. She points out that Surratt was one of the 19th Century’s true feminists. She embraced Catholicism against her family’s wishes, survived an abusive marriage to an alcoholic husband, raised her children virtually alone, ran her own business, became totally sold out to the Confederate cause, took a man’s risk in a dangerous adventure and accepted a man’s punishment for it. Like Belle Starr, she captures our imagination.

Interesting how Lincoln seemed to have trouble with women named Mary. But if her boardinghouse really was the nest that hatched the egg of the assassination plot, as Johnson claimed it was when refusing her pardon, then surely her death provided the first opportunity for a divided nation to agree on anything. Most people wanted her life spared and were surprised when it wasn’t – right up to the hangman who thought the rope he made for her would never be used.

Lincoln's collar gets around

2008-07-04T20:12:00.008-04:00

Happy 4th of July. I had a nice little blog planned about Gettysburg, but then one of my reliable sources informed me that the owner of Lincoln’s blood-stained collar recently died, leaving this strange item up for grabs.
John K. Lattimer, a 92-year-old urologist and ballistics expert (great combination) possessed a rare history collection which included Hermann Göring’s cyanide ampoule, Lincoln’s blood-stained collar, and some other oddities. Lattimer is also the professor who conducted an extensive series of ballistic tests on the Kennedy assassination and published a book about it which I have scrolling on Son of Bookzilla. More about John K. Lattimer.
The story of the blood-stained collar begins at Ford’s Theatre, when Charles Sabin Taft, first on the scene after the shooting, cut off Lincoln’s collar and opened his shirt to examine for wounds. But what became of the collar?

Other assassination couture is more easily accounted for. The Brooks Brothers suit Lincoln wore that night was given to Charles Forbes, Lincoln’s footman, who gave it to Thomas Pendel, who sold it to collector Frank Logan. A second frock coat associated with the assassination was auctioned at Philadelphia to Alphonse Donn, who loaned it to artist Matthew Wilson, who loaned it to Vinnie Ream. Donn was later offered $20,000 for the suit by P.T. Barnum but refused to sell. It was eventually donated to the Chicago Historical Society in 1924. See Brooks Brothers trail.

Which still leaves us with the question, what became of the collar? The standard answer is that souvenir hunters took off with it somewhere between Ford’s and Forbes. More importantly, what will happen to the collar now that Lattimer is gone?

If I had $20,000 to spend on memorabilia, I might consider buying it myself, but then, I’d much rather have the letters he wrote to Joshua Speed.

Mary had a clothing sale of her own not long after she became a widow, but apparently nothing with her husband’s blood on it. That surprises me, considering how savvy she was about making money.

So this 4th of July, as you’re watching the fireworks displays, remember that bad clothing, like bad news, gets around.

A Day Inseparable from Its Founder

2008-05-24T21:28:00.008-04:00

In his letter to Mrs. Bixby, Lincoln wrote the most consoling words he could find to a mother who had lost her sons in the war. Today, when that letter is read at Memorial Day services, it stirs emotions in those who have suffered loss as if it were written personally for them.

Could Lincoln have seen down the ages at how many mothers would claim that letter as their own?

Not many people realize that Memorial Day started as a day to honor the Civil War dead.
After Lincoln dedicated the Gettysburg battlefield, separate traditions to honor the Union and Confederate dead eventually became what we now call Memorial Day.

Robert C. Wilburn, President of the Gettysburg Foundation, acknowledged that Lincoln really set the precedent for this special day when he gave his speech dedicating the grounds.

If you are interested in spending the day where Lincoln gave his most famous speech (and what better way to spend it?), a new Museum and Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park offers a number of galleries and exhibits on the war and its aftermath at Gettysburg. Get me to Gettysburg.

During his term in office, Lincoln established several holidays, including Thanksgiving, but even after a century and a half, it is impossible to separate him from the day he never knew he founded – Memorial Day.

The Usual Suspects?

2008-04-11T21:22:00.017-04:00

April 15th is coming up and we all know what day that is -- the day Lincoln died. It is also tax day and the day the Titanic sank.

Anyway, I was looking around, wondering if there were any new assassination theories out there and I came across this one – Mary shot Abe. Now maybe that’s not new, but it’s new to me. I laughed at first, but you know how it is, you start thinking about it and the next thing you know – well, here’s a link to the whole story.

Mary Did It.

It is intriguing that the weapon used was a woman’s pistol, that the bullet wound was on the side where Mary was sitting, and that she was the only first lady to be refused a widow’s pension. But then, Mary had that kind of luck. And while I don’t believe Lincoln had twins by a Hapsburg, I do know that Mary had plenty of anger toward her husband, enough to threaten him with an axe on one occasion. But who did Mary blame for the assassination? Johnson. Johnson Did It.

But wait, there’s more! Consider these spin-off theories: Lincoln was slated to be kidnaped and turned into an opium addict; Lincoln was really Booth’s spurned lover; Boston Corbett killed Booth to cover up his own complicity; McClellan was seen dining with Booth in Canada; Booth had an understudy and a double.....

If you have a pet conspiracy theory of who really killed Lincoln, see if it isn’t one of these: We All Did It. Don’t worry about how strange your idea might be. After all, there’s a theory that Edgar Allan Poe was killed by his cat. The Cat Did It.

All this may not mean anything but it certainly proves one thing: you can get right up behind somebody, blow him away, trip over a flag, break your leg, get identified by dozens of people and still have to share the spotlight with a bunch of contenders. Poor Booth. From the very beginning, he resented that.

Lincoln Has Entered the Building

2008-03-20T23:00:00.005-04:00

Who says Lincoln is dead? This year he will be more alive than Elvis as a great new traveling exhibit makes its way across the country to coincide with the 200th anniversary celebration of his birth.

"Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation'' will be on display at 63 public, community college and university libraries across the United States through 2010.

Organized in part by the Huntington Library, the panel exhibit features five themes: Young Lincoln's America; The House Dividing; War for the Union; War for Union and Freedom and Legacies.

Musical and educational programs are included, as are photographs of Lincoln's funeral train and historical documents from his presidency. But there is much, much more than this.

Libraries selected for the tour will host the exhibit for a six-week period. For more information on how you can catch Lincoln, see: Lincoln Lives

"Son of the Republic, Look and Learn"

2008-02-22T21:24:00.007-05:00

Today is Washington’s birthday.

Most people know that Lincoln had dreams predicting the future, including his own assassination. But not many people realize that Washington had premonitions as well, and one very strange vision at Valley Forge about three great wars that would overtake America.

Washington did not find this vision disturbing, but was happy to know that the Republic would have a future at all. At Valley Forge, he was certain that the new country was finished.

Three times an angel appeared to Washington, heralding "Son of the Republic, look and learn," and presented him with highly symbolic pictures of battles. Washington recognized the first war as the Revolutionary War. The second war can be recognized by us as the Civil War, and the third seems to be a future, unnamed war involving an assault by Europe, Asia and Africa.

Did the vision really happen? Though the text is in the Library of Congress, some doubt it. But LincolnFreak never doubts a good story. Check out one of the many websites presenting George Washington’s Vision.

Tours Start Tuesday

2008-02-17T16:20:00.018-05:00

Happy Presidents’ Day from LincolnFreak.

Thanks to my excellent Sources, I’ve learned that President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in Washington opens to the public for tours on Tuesday, February 19th.

In 2000, this 34-room Gothic Revival cottage was designated a National Monument. Under the guidance of Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, more than $15 million was raised to renovate the house and turn a nearby building into a visitors’ center.
The cottage was built by businessman George W. Riggs, who sold it in 1851 along with more than 250 acres to the United States government.

It became part of a federal home for retired and disabled veterans, but in 1857, also offered a quiet retreat for presidents.

For more information, check out this great article from the New York Times. Where Lincoln Sought Refuge

Also, if you’ve ever wondered what Lexington, Kentucky looked like in 1847 (Mary’s birthplace, after all) read this article from the Lexington Herald-Leader, forwarded to me from another truly reliable Source. Lexington As Abe Saw It

Happy Lincoln's Birthday

2008-02-12T20:25:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday from LincolnFreak! February 12th truly is Lincoln’s birthday. It comes between Ground Hog Day and Valentine’s Day.

And this is the big 199! That’s right. Next year Abraham Lincoln will be two hundred years old and looking better than ever.

Notice how many books have come out on Lincoln this year? I’ve tried to add as many as I could to Son of Bookzilla, but new ones keep coming out all the time.

On the day before his 52nd birthday in1861, Lincoln gave one of his saddest and most beautiful speeches – his Farewell Address – before boarding a train from Springfield to Washington, D.C.
Now here’s something to ponder. If you could give Lincoln a birthday present today, what would you give him? Somebody suggested the best gift I could give him would be to dismantle this blog.
Also, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, so start thinking about "Why I love Lincoln." It could be any number of reasons: I love Lincoln because he represents freedom. I love Lincoln because he struggled to keep the country together. I love Lincoln because I get a day off in the middle of Winter.

You get the idea. So during this month of February which celebrates so many different people and causes – Presidents, Black history, Valentines, the forecasting of Spring – take some time to think about where we would be if Lincoln had never been president. Alternative histories are fun to imagine, but the absence of one key person at one crucial juncture in time could create awful consequences for generations to come.

So happy birthday from LincolnFreak. Enjoy the legacy of a great man.

Douglass and King: What if they had traded places?

2008-01-18T23:06:00.000-05:00

On this weekend celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday, one wonders what things would have been like if King and Frederick Douglass had traded places. What if King had lived during the Civil War and been the one to advise Lincoln on matters of equal rights and emancipation? Would his thinking have been any different from Douglass’s?

Both men were African Americans in tune with their times and impatient for social change. Both were strong orators. Both had the ear of politically powerful people and became powerful in their own right. Both were anxious to have racial justice backed by law. There’s no question that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been the Frederick Douglass of the 1860's.

But what about Douglass? Suppose he had been thrown into the politics of the Sixties? Would he have been the Martin Luther King, Jr. of that day? Even in his time, Douglass was concerned not just with racial equality, but with the emancipation of women – another radical idea. The Sixties would have suited him well with its air of new freedoms and he would have been right in step with the issues.

Which brings up the next thought. While Douglass escaped assassination in his day, would he have done so in the Sixties, or shared the same fate as the man who so resembled him? Hmm. There’s a choose-your-own-ending adventure here.

Interesting that these two powerful men rose up at crucial times when their talents and strengths were most needed to push forward racial justice causes. No one has quite illustrated the similarities between them the way they have with Kennedy and Lincoln, yet Douglass and King bear curious resemblances that tie in with the whole 100-year picture of repeated history.

Portents on the First Month of the Year

2008-01-12T00:37:00.000-05:00

It has been said that if you know how to spend January, you know how to spend the rest of your life.

Lincoln knew how to make the most out of January. Not only did he issue the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, he also welcomed the first African American to a White House New Year’s Day reception in 1864, and broke his engagement to Mary Todd on January 1st, 1841 -- probably the wisest decision he ever made.

On January 8th, 1863, he appointed John Usher Secretary of the Interior, and on January 8th, 1864, he posed for this stunning photograph for Matthew Brady.

On January 17th, 1851, his father, Thomas Lincoln, passed away from a kidney ailment. Lincoln did not attend the funeral.

On This Day in 1863, a Proclamation was Issued

2007-12-29T21:28:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year. On this day in 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. He had informed his cabinet as early as July, 1862, that he intended to free the slaves in the Confederate states. However, his cabinet persuaded him to wait until a Northern victory because it would seem less like a desperate measure. Antietam served that purpose. Five days afterward, on September 22, Lincoln issued the first, or preliminary, Emancipation Proclamation.

The final proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, freed the slaves only in the states that had rebelled: Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and parts of Louisiana and Virginia.

The president issued the proclamation under the powers granted during war to seize the enemies’ property. Ironically, Lincoln only had the authority to end slavery in the Confederate states, and then the slaves were freed only as the Union armies made their way throughout the South. In the states remaining loyal to the Union, slavery was protected by the Constitution. Slavery was only completely abolished in the United States by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1865.

Many see the Emancipation Proclamation as a political statement only, since it did not immediately free any slaves. However, it is questionable that the 13th amendment would have come about at all if the the goal of the Civil War had not been so eloquently redefined by this single most important document.

In its wake, black soldiers were accepted on an equal par with their white colleagues. By the end of the war, some 200,000 freed Blacks had enlisted as soldiers and sailors in the Union army and navy.

Merry Christmas from the Lincoln White House, even if it is 140 years too late

2007-12-21T21:54:00.000-05:00

This portrait is actually Lincoln's last reception at the White House and has nothing to do with Christmas. But isn't it festive looking? I like it a lot.

It's never too late to celebrate Christmas with Abraham Lincoln. He lives in our hearts forever, like the baby born in the manger on this day. May the joy and peace of the season be yours throughout the year.

And if you're looking for a terrific Lincoln place to visit, try the Logan County Courthouse. It was placed on the National Register December 24, 1985, and here is a great website about it.

Logan County Courthouse

Lincoln's address at Cooper Union targets the expansion of slavery

2007-12-07T23:02:00.000-05:00

The Cooper Union Address was among the earliest of Lincoln’s speeches denouncing slavery and its expansion into Western territories. Not as popular as his other writings because of its length and detailed examination of the Constitution (Herndon compared it to a lawyer’s brief), it is perhaps the least understood, yet most politically crucial speech of Lincoln’s career.
In it, Lincoln examines the views of the 39 signers of the Constitution and notes that a majority of 21 of them believed Congress should control slavery in the territories, not allow it to expand.

Exposing the inconsistent positions of Senator Stephen Douglas and Chief Justice Roger Taney, Lincoln urges fellow Republicans not to give in to Southern demands to recognize slavery as being right, but to "stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively."

Though he delivered the speech in February of 1860, Lincoln accepted the invitation to write it in October of 1859. It was originally intended to be a lecture at Henry Ward Beecher’s Church in Brooklyn, but the Young Men's Republican Union, which assumed sponsorship, moved its location to the Cooper Institute by the time Lincoln arrived in New York.

The Union Board included members such as Horace Greeley and William Cullen Bryant, who opposed William Seward for the Republican Presidential nomination. As an unannounced presidential candidate, Lincoln attracted a capacity crowd of 1,500 curious New Yorkers.

Though Lincoln disappointed spectators at first with his almost too-tall appearance, he soon electrified the crowd with his passion for all things anti-slavery. Some recognize that the long road to emancipation, which ended January 1, 1863, began here, February 27th, 1860, at Cooper Union.

Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln

2007-11-10T00:34:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving. Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in a special proclamation.

This year it falls on the exact day Kennedy was assassinated, giving us all the more reason to explore the Kennedy-Lincoln connection. So, as promised, here’s the Kennedy-Lincoln blog celebrating the many and strange similarities between the two presidents and all things surrounding them. I’ll start with the numbers because I think they’re the coolest:

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Lincoln failed to win the Vice Presidential nomination in 1856. Kennedy failed to win the Vice Presidential nomination in 1956.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. Lincoln defeated Stephen Douglas who was born in 1813. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon who was born in 1913.

Lincoln's Vice President, Andrew Johnson, was born in 1808 and served in the House of Representatives in 1847. Kennedy's Vice President, Lyndon Johnson, was born 1908 and served in the House of Representatives in 1947.

Oswald was born in 1939. If you're going to say that Booth was born in 1838 – you’re right and you’re no fun.

And here’s some name stuff: The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names comprise fifteen letters.

Lincoln was shot at Ford’s theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln made by Ford.

Booth ran from a theater and was caught in a warehouse. Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who warned him not to go to Dallas. Lincoln had a secretary named John who warned him – you guessed it – not to go to Ford’s Theatre.

Okay, there's more:
Both presidents were shot in the back of the head, in the company of their wives and another couple, on a Friday.

Lyndon Johnson had a rare pancreatic condition which was mistaken for cancer. Andrew Johnson had the same pancreatic disorder. (I can't prove this one but I know I read it somewhere. Can someone help me with this?)

And here's one more thing:

Lincoln was involved in a civil war between the north and the south in America. Kennedy had plans to withdraw American troops from yet another war between the north and the south – in Vietnam.

Several websites mention that Lincoln was in Monroe, Maryland two weeks before his assassination, and Kennedy was with Marilyn Monroe two weeks before his death. But not many people know that Marilyn Monroe was not only Kennedy’s mistress, she was an avid Lincoln fan.

Had enough yet? Does evil repeat every one hundred years?

For more coincidences than you ever wanted to know, check into the following websites: Lincoln-Kennedy Coincidences ; The Kennedy-Lincoln Connection ; Linkin' Kennedy.

2007-11-02T20:37:00.000-04:00

Happy Veterans' Day from LincolnFreak

After all, Lincoln was a veteran of two wars. He was Captain of Volunteers in the Black-Hawk War for thirty days, then re-enlisted two more times in other units.

In the Civil War, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Republic, and the only president to come under fire in active battle at Fort Stevens.

He was so fond of visiting the soldiers' home that a kidnapping plot was designed to take place there. When it failed to materialize, Lincoln became one of the final casualties of the Civil War at Ford's Theatre.

The Gettysburg Address, his most famous speech, was as much about the common soldier as it was about the Nation's destiny.

Lincoln once said: "This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldier. For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country’s cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the soldier."

So if you're planning to visit the war memorials in Washington on November 11th, don't forget to stop by the Lincoln Memorial and say hi to an old veteran.

That fabulous face

2007-10-13T22:32:00.000-04:00

Lincoln's opinions of his own looks were self-effacing enough. Once during a campaign, when accused of being two-faced, Lincoln remarked "if I had two faces, do you think I'd be wearing this one?"

But what did others think of Lincoln's face?

Poet Walt Whitman, often observing Lincoln on the streets of Washington, thought that the uniqueness of the President's face was never adequately captured with its "wonderful reserve, restraint of expression, fine nobility staring at you out of all that ruggedness..."

Democratic friend Orlando B. Ficklin recalled: "He could tell a story to make a group roar with laughter, but when his face was unlit by pleasantry it was dark, gloomy and peculiar. The pictures we see of him only half represent him, as they can only show him in repose."

Adjutant-General James B. Fry remarked: "His expression in repose was sad and dull; but his ever-recurring humor, at short intervals, flashed forth with the brilliancy of an electric light."

Biographer James G. Randall observed: "In Lincoln's eloquent face and in his manner of meeting there was the appeal of a friendly and magnetic personality."

Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, who visited the President in March 1862, said "the whole physiognomy is as coarse a one as you would meet anywhere in the length and breadth of the States; but, withal, it is redeemed, illuminated, softened, and brightened by a kindly though serious look out of his eyes, and an expression of homely sagacity, that seems weighted with rich results of village experience. A great deal of native sense; no bookish cultivation, no refinement; honest at heart, and thoroughly so, and yet, in some sort, sly."

Robert B. Stanton, who as a teenager often saw Lincoln at the White House, remarked about his features: "There was a something that came out from behind them, and spoke not in words, but shone and spoke through them by means of them, and turned them all into real beauty. And in all these moods, first or last, that spirit of beauty which I saw spread over his whole countenance and drew one to him as by the power of magic."

Want to hear more about Lincoln's face? Check out "Lincoln's beautiful face" at the Lincoln Classroom.

I've been working on the railroad: the fighting in Maryland

2007-09-30T22:33:00.000-04:00

Keeping the railroad running was crucial to the success of Lincoln’s agenda. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the Union’s main supply line to Wheeling on the Ohio River and to the West.

Lincoln’s "silent partner" in all this was none other than Johns Hopkins, founder of the university and hospital at Baltimore. Hopkins, Financial Director of the B&O, along with its President John Work Garrett, went to great lengths to keep the Railroad running during the Civil War.

A Maryland banker and financier, Hopkins was also an abolitionist and supporter of Lincoln in a state which did not vote for Lincoln as the US President. One of the first campaigns of the Civil War was planned at his summer estate, Clifton. At the beginning of the Civil War, Hopkins wrote a letter to Lincoln, requesting the President to keep troops under the command of General John Ellis Wool stationed in Maryland. Johns Hopkins signed this letter "your servant" and "friend" and it can be found in the holdings of the Library of Congress.

It’s no coincidence that much of the fighting in Maryland followed the B&O Railroad stops: Cumberland, Havre de Grace, Union Mills, etc. Realizing its crucial importance to the Union’s success, no fewer than nine Confederate military leaders sought to capture or shut down the B&O, including Stonewall Jackson, Jubal Early, Turner Ashby, John D. Imboden, Albert G. Jenkins, William F. Jones, John S. Mosby, Major Harry Gilmor and John H. McNeill.

Famous raids involving the B&O included "The Great Train Raid of 1861" ; the "Martinsburg Train Raid" and "Leesburg Train Raid," both in 1861 ; the "Romney Expedition" in 1862, the "Jones-Imboden Raid" in 1863 ; and the "Battle of Monocacy," and "Gilmor’s Raid," both in 1864.

Whew. No wonder those railroad men were tired.

To find out more about the life of Johns Hopkins, check out this great Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins. For info about John Work Garrett, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Work_Garrett, and for more about the B&O Railroad, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_and_Ohio_Railroad

Battle of the Monocacy makes for "Desperate Engagement"

2007-09-16T21:42:00.000-04:00

I’ve just finished reading a terrific book about the Battle of the Monocacy by Marc Leepson, called "Desperate Engagement." The battle, fought between Jubal Early and Lew Wallace of Ben Hur fame, took place four miles South of Frederick, Maryland. Early, who was on his way to threaten the Union capital in Washington, D.C., was ordered to engage Wallace at Frederick to divert Union troops from Lee’s advance. Early did not want to fight this battle, but he won it.

The controversy was that Jubal Early, after his victory over Wallace, should have advanced toward Washington without delay. According to Leepson, Washington was poorly defended at the time by "invalids and bank clerks." Instead, Early chose to rest his army which had been on the march since June 13th, allowing Grant to send thousands of reinforcements to the capital. When Early did attack, he was defeated.

Lincoln, who was visiting Fort Stevens in Washington at the time, became the first and only President to come under fire in active battle. Standing on the parapet of the fort, his tall frame an easy target, he was enjoying the spectacle of bullets whizzing past him until an officer in charge chewed him out and insisted he take cover. Check out the picture I found of the plaque dedicated to Lincoln for remaining at Fort Stevens under fire. I think it’s all pretty cool.

Leepson makes a convincing case for the early advance of Early. However, since being an armchair General is every history buff’s right, here’s LincolnFreak’s take on the subject: Early’s army had been thinned out by hundreds, and those remaining were wounded, exhausted and ill-fed. I think if he had attacked Washington without resting his men, he would have lost that battle anyway, bank clerks notwithstanding. Of course, there’s no way to know now.

Anyway, an interesting aside if you live in Baltimore – at one time Confederate troops were within 7 miles of Cockeysville. Today they’d be stuck in traffic on York Road. Also, if you visit the Monocacy battlefield in Frederick, you’ll see lots of impressive monuments, but the Lincoln plaque is at Fort Stevens

Wisdom from the Mary Todd Lincoln School of Finance

2007-09-08T22:00:00.000-04:00

If you’re the type to worry about budget cuts, take a tip from Mary Lincoln on how to survive rough times. While Abe was scrounging for funds to put coats on the backs of Union soldiers, Mary was playing her own version of ‘flip that house’ by redecorating with French wall paper and personalized china purchased on shopping trips to New York.

By 1864, she was in debt to the tune of $27,000 and pressuring officials for personal loans by sharing political secrets with them. Spies used to get shot for doing this kind of thing. When this tactic failed, she tried to acquire the salary of an employee who had left the White House by assuming her responsibilities and also assuming she would be compensated for her work – an early case of identity theft. When this failed, she simply started padding the expense account until her husband could be re-elected.

Abe’s methods of earning money were a little different. While Mary was away, he wrote her, "You’ll be happy to know I’ve put money into the treasury at 5% interest." How dull.

Actually, I love Mary. She gets a lot of bad press, but no First Lady was more colorful. By the way, if you’re wondering what Abe was doing while Mary was away, check out this undercover tape submitted to me, courtesy of Hammer28. http://www.jibjab.com/starring_you/receipt/545526

September Song in the Life of Lincoln

2007-09-02T22:28:00.000-04:00

The month of September offered many challenges for Lincoln during the Civil War. On September 2, 1862, Lincoln put McClellan in charge of defending the city of Washington. Putting McClellan in charge of anything was always risky business.

The Battle of South Mountain began on September 14, 1862, as part of the Maryland Campaign, with Antietam well overshadowing it in casualties on September 17, 1862.

Lincoln prepared the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, many months before its signing on January 1, 1863.

One bright spot in the Civil War was the presentation of a Bible by a committee of African American citizens from Baltimore on September 7, 1864, in Washington. The inscription read: "To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United Sates, the Friend of Universal Freedom, from the Loyal Colored People of Baltimore, as a token of respect and Gratitude." The donors said "since our incorporation into the American family, we have been true and loyal." This must have been a consoling word to hear, since Baltimore was considered so volatile that the inaugural train would not even stop at the Calvert Street Station in 1861.

Of course, the Lincoln-Douglas debates were held September 15, 1858, and Lincoln advocated the repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act on September 2, 1854 in Jacksonville, Illinois. Still interested? No? Just wait 'til October gets here.

Weird Lincoln Facts: Lincoln and Booth Can Be Seen in Photo of Second Inaugural

2007-08-25T21:56:00.000-04:00

There are many little known facts about Lincoln. He was the first president to be born outside the original thirteen colonies. His favorites sport was wrestling. The scar over his right eye was the result of a fight with a gang of thieves. But some facts are downright bizarre. For instance, did you know...

Lincoln once had a dream right before the fall of Richmond that he would die. He dreamt that he was in the White House, he heard crying and when he found the room it was coming from he asked who had died. The man said the President. He looked in the coffin and saw his own face. A week later Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre.

Abraham Lincoln was shot while watching a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. The same play was also running at the Maverick Theatre in Chicago on May 18, 1860, the day Lincoln was nominated for president in that city.

He was the first president to be photographed at his inauguration. John Wilkes Booth (his assassin) can be seen standing close to Lincoln in the above picture of the Second Inaugural. Booth can be seen in the crowd at the top and accomplices David Herold, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, John Surratt and Edmund Spangler in the bottom crowd. Frederick Douglass commented on that day, "I was present at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, the 4th of March, 1865. I felt then that there was murder in the air, and I kept close to his carriage on the way to the Capitol, for I felt that I might see him fall that day. It was a vague presentiment."

Robert Todd Lincoln arrived too late to stop three separate presidential assassinations. He met his father, President Abraham Lincoln, at the theatre after John Wilkes Booth had fired the shot. He went to a Washington train station to meet President Garfield, arriving only minutes after he was shot. And, he traveled to Buffalo, New York to meet President McKinley, but got there after the fatal shot had already been fired.

Where did I get all this stuff? Check out "Lincoln Site Tours: Trivia" at http://www.lincolnsitetours.com/trivia.html.

Lincoln and His Pets

2007-08-24T22:55:00.000-04:00

Fido Never Made It to Washington

Lincoln loved animals. The count of exactly how many wound up at the White House varies. When Lincoln was elected president, the family dog, Fido, was left at Springfield with the Roll family because of a fear of loud noises. Lincoln also left his favorite horsehair sofa with the Rolls to make Fido feel at home. Another dog, Jip, replaced Fido as Lincoln's frequent lunch companion at the White House.

When asked what Lincoln's favorite hobby was, Mary replied "cats." He had a special love for them and adopted two kittens in the White House. Treasury Official Maunsell B. Fields remarked "Lincoln was fond of dumb animals, especially cats." Now there's an ignorant statement. Anyone who's held a conversation with a cat knows they're anything but dumb.

There were also two goats in the White House, Nanny and Nanko, and a pony which Tad refused to ride after Willie's death. Old Bob, Lincoln's favorite horse, became the riderless lead horse in his funeral procession. Add to the mix a variety of rabbits and you have a picture of the White House menagerie on an average day .

To read more about Lincoln's pets, check out the websites: Mr. Lincoln's White House : Pets http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside_search.asp?ID=82&subjectID=3&searchWordWH=Pets ; and Abraham Lincoln's Classroom: Pets and Children http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Library/newsletter.asp?ID=126&CRLI=174.

Week 9, Thing #23: Course Summary: Moving toward a Library without Walls

2007-08-19T20:56:00.000-04:00

Ah. The course is finished. The race is run. The flag is flying, the text is scrolling. All is right with the world.

My favorite discovery was checking out the blogs of co-workers and seeing the different ways they used the technologies on their blogsites. My favorite exercise was reading about the impact of Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 on the future of libraries, and how all the technical innovations I explored might be useful in creating a library without walls.

My lifelong learning goals have always included keeping up with technology in one form or another, and this course has enhanced those goals by providing hands-on experience with such innovations as Flickr, Wikis, and RSS feeds from sources like OCLC and ALA. Where I once thought of technology as a necessary but challenging aspect of library work, I now think of it as a positive form of social networking and information sharing through sites like Merlin.

One unexpected outcome of the course was that I enjoyed blogging and would like to keep it up. The idea that a blogsite like Technorati would have a place in my life or in a library setting was once foreign to me, but now seems natural. I now see libraries as sources of information in virtual formats, not just physical materials.

I can’t think of any changes in the program to improve it. I found directions and instructions easy to understand. Dividing the course into weeks and sub-things was a helpful way to organize progress. I also appreciated the generous timeline.

If offered another discovery program in the future, I would definitely participate. I have already opened an account with Merlin as a way of keeping up with ongoing discussions about technology. I would also like to create a page or become part of a discussion group at the Library 2.0 site.

My view of a library has changed from being one of a physical building with a repository of tangible collections, to being a virtual world of shared information and pooled resources on a worldwide level. And while both aspects of a library are important and one cannot replace the other, there seems to be no limit to the possibilities of a library without walls.

Week 9, Thing #22: Overdrive vs. Project Gutenberg

2007-08-16T21:06:00.001-04:00

Exploring audio ebooks through Overdrive was a learning experience. First I had to install the Overdrive Media Console, then upgrade Windows Media Player before I could check out a title. Because Baltimore County Public Library offers Overdrive titles through their website as well as their catalog, I needed only a library card number to access the account. Some titles are listed as "always available." Others need to be put on hold.

One of the titles always available was "Jefferson's War" by Joseph Wheelan. It could be downloaded as a total volume, or in parts. Once I was able to download this book, it was great to hear Patrick Cullen reading the narration. I can see why people prefer audiobooks in this format. They can be accessed from home and do not have to be returned. After 21 days, they expire.

Project Gutenberg has a better selection of titles on Lincoln, including the biography by John Hay and John Nicolay. Gutenberg offers an option to download in Plucker format, which apparently can be sent to a cellphone. I chose to use the online reader. It was very convenient to be viewing the original text of this biography in a PDF-type file.

Project Gutenberg is free, but asks for donations to keep the project going. Their selection is worth it. They also offer the opportunity for readers to proofread some of their texts.

Both ebook libraries are excellent, with Gutenberg having the edge for more academic volumes. I would recommend Overdrive for popular reading, and Gutenberg for searching harder-to-find works.

Week 9, Thing #21: Podcasting Lincoln

2007-08-06T21:24:00.000-04:00

Of the three search tools, Podcast.net and Yahoo Podcast gave me the best results, and pretty much the same results. I've added three new podcast feeds to my blogslines: "A Few Appropriate Remarks," a 24-episode series from EverythingLincoln.com, "The Abraham Lincoln Logs," from the website of the same name, and "100 Word Short Stories," a series of podcasts which include "The Wacky Adventures of Abraham Lincoln." That one didn't sound promising to me either, but I subscribed to it anyway.

"A few Appropriate Remarks" from EverythingLincoln.com, is a series of elaborately produced podcasts with visual effects and background music to the narration of historical facts about Lincoln. They actually did a very nice job on these.

"The Abraham Lincoln Logs" are political satire. Lincoln comments on AT&T iphones, talks to Dick Cheney, samples the latest videogames, and says something to offend everybody. Usually Lincoln impersonations leave me cold, but these grew on me.

"The Wacky Adventures" are 100-word short stories created by Laurence Simon. They have very catchy punchlines and are accompanied by the text so that you can read while you listen. Caleb Bullen's narration is better than Simon's. By the way, you can submit your own entries to the "100-word" site on any topic.

One thing I've learned about podcasts -- the delivery is everything. Like audiobooks, the voice is all you have to go on, so the narrator can either make or break a podcast. There are many fine ones out there, including a short series on the Civil War from the Pritzker Military Library through lib.worm, which I also saved to my blogslines.

The future of podcasting in a library setting has already taken the form of NetLibrary audiobooks. NetLibrary has had some trouble with their links, but ideally, when conveniently accessed through a website, or updated through RSS feed, these podcasts can actually replace the physical audiobook collection. It's one more step toward the library without walls.

Week 9, Thing #20: YouTube and all that jazz

2007-08-03T21:35:00.000-04:00

If you have never visited YouTube, you are in for a treat. I opened an account and started adding favorites right away.

First of all, I thought it was about time this blogsite had its own Zapruder film, so I found a great video of the Lincoln assassination from the movie "Birth of a Nation" and posted it to my blog. There are over 1,000 Lincoln-related YouTubes, but frankly, if Lincoln isn't really in it, I'd as soon watch Cab Calloway singing "Minnie the Moocher." So I wandered over to the jazz section and got into all kinds of trouble.

If you love early jazz as much as I do, you'll love the music section of YouTube. I've already saved original performances by Ray Charles, Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Fats Waller and George Gershwin. Three jazz videos are now in the jazz section of this blogsite. (Yes! There is a jazz section on this site!) Scroll way, way down in the right-hand column under "Singing Jazz at LincolnFreak" to see Billie Holiday and Cab Calloway, and hear Johnny Mercer's song to a tour of Savannah's historic houses. Johnny, by the way, is Confederate General Hugh Weedon Mercer's great grandson. Wow. You never know where you'll wind up.

There are four YouTubes on this blogsite now, but I can remove some if that's too many. Adding them was easier than I thought. The codes are very user-friendly and can be adjusted to fit a narrow space.

Anyway, I think YouTubes have great possibilities in the library setting. Every instructional video we've seen so far has been a form of YouTube. Also, they could be used on library websites to give virtual tours of buildings and collections, televised book reviews and lectures, even storytimes online. There is a personal touch to watching a person give instructions rather than just reading them. Whoever smiled back at a PDF file?

Week 8, Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards: I Love Lulu

2007-07-31T22:15:00.000-04:00

The Web 2.0 award winners are impressive. I checked into the short list and noticed several websites we've already used -- Technorati, Blogsline, Flickr, LibraryThing, Google Docs. I explored 2 sites: The Broth, a collaborative, creative visual arts site, and Lulu, a self-publisher. Both sites offer free registration.

On The Broth, you can establish a room, move mosaic tiles and brush strokes around, and look at the artwork others have exhibited in the gallery. You have the option of posting your work so that anyone in the world can add to your canvas, kind of like a visual wiki. On the homepage, they tally the number of tiles moved and brush strokes used so far. It is in the millions. I haven't registered with The Broth, but I did register with Lulu.

I love Lulu. It is a virtual book publisher for both adults and children. You can submit a book manuscript online, choose a binding for it and a price, and summarize it for others to purchase. If it is ordered, you can have it printed out and sold. No overage. No waste. Lulu also publishes calendars, music, information in all formats. So if you have written a novel and Random House has rejected it, go see Lulu. She just might have another answer for you.

If Lulu were available in a library setting, it could serve the purpose of providing online zines or privately published material to patrons. It could also be used by Collection Development as an alternative source for ordering titles not otherwise available from major publishers.

Week 8, Thing #18: Exploring Zoho Writer

2007-07-30T22:08:00.000-04:00

Yesss!!! I successfully published a blog written on Zoho Writer to my blogsite. See the article below this one? That was actually written on Zoho Writer and moved at lightning speed to my page. I resolved my differences with the "publish" function. I actually had the wrong username. Once I realized that, things moved quickly.

I also composed a document on Google Docs, but I like Zoho Writer better. The toolbar is glitzier and the options for moving the document seem clearer. You can insert html, table of contents, pictures, charts, and run your own publishing house. Going online is as easy as publishing to your blog.

What a great way to package writing materials for a global audience.

Greetings from Zoho

2007-07-29T22:52:00.001-04:00

Greetings from LincolnFreak at Zoho. Zoho Writer is a great online publishing tool. I can see where entire novels could be written, edited and posted online by authors, bypassing publishers and agents to reach audiences which might otherwise be overlooked.

If Thomas Paine had had Zoho Writer, who knows how many "Common Sense" pamphlets he could have turned out in a day, and what response he might have gotten.

The toolbar options on Zoho are as complete as any WordPerfect program I've ever used. Pictures can be added and text colors changed.

Let's see if I can post this blog to my site. If so, I will have accomplished a great task, since the publisher function keeps telling me it doesn't know who I am.

Week 7, Thing #17: Sandbox

2007-07-28T21:13:00.000-04:00

Maryland Libraries Sandbox is a great way to get comfortable with wikis. I enjoyed looking through the variety of pages people created. My favorite was "Best Breakfast in NYC," probably one of the smallest. What a great way to find out about the B&H Dairy on 7th Street and 2nd Avenue.

I added a book review to the "What I am Reading" page, and then added my own blog to the Baltimore County Public Library list on the "Favorite Blogs" page. I was nervous doing this, but it worked out. When I added the book review, the page editor even recognized it as a Word document and offered to 'clean it up' for me. I didn't know what that meant, but I said yes and it gave me a great looking paragraph.

You really can alter these wiki pages after signing in, and at first that can be intimidating. Sometimes it seemed too easy just to place your cursor somewhere and start typing. But after a while, it became second nature. Anyway, check out my book review on "Murdering Mr. Lincoln" (what else?) and I hope you enjoy the Maryland Libraries Sandbox as much as I did.

Week 7, Thing #16: All Manner of Wikidness

2007-07-26T13:57:00.000-04:00

What interests me most about a Wiki is the diversity of perspectives contributed. In the academic world, this used to be called “eclectic sources.” In a library setting, I think Wikis have their greatest potential for subject guides, book reviews and internal department manuals.

I also like the idea of setting up a library community website to feature “about town” restaurants and tourist sites within the area. Residents usually know the best places to frequent and can give you off-the-record advice that official travel sites may not be willing to offer. People love to contribute information about their community and usually are responsible about not submitting inappropriate comments.

Amazon’s book reviews are very helpful and for that reason I think a local, library book review site would be ideal. I’m interested to see what OCLC has to offer in the near future about including book reviews with their bib records. They have already done this to some extent with URLs linking to descriptions and publisher info.

Some department manuals are already set up so that members can add to them or alter them, and I know this has saved supervisors a great deal of time.

My only concern with contributing research work to a subject guide is that inaccuracies can result. I still say you are more responsible when you have to sign your work rather than submit it anonymously, although “Diary of a Librarian” reminded me that they can always trace your IP address.

Bring on the wikis.

Week 6, Thing #15: What Web 2.0 Means to Me

2007-07-24T21:55:00.000-04:00

To me, Web 2.0 means a further expansion of technology to better serve library patrons and to give them more personal freedom and options in accessing materials without the need to enter a library building, or request a librarian. This does not mean that a librarian's skills will become obsolete, only redefined.

Some thirteen years ago, Baltimore County Public Library made a decision that it was in the information business, not just the book business. The library redefined itself in broader terms as a prelude to installing internet computers for public use in the branches. At the time, it was considered a gamble. Now those computers are constantly busy, with patrons waiting in line to sign up for them.

At about the same time, we started an online catalog, gradually phasing out the physical card catalogs in the branches while retaining only one main card catalog at Administrative Offices as a "backup." Again, it was considered a risk. Now even the card catalog "backup" is gone. We have been fully online for years and have never looked back.

So when I read Rick Anderson proposal that libraries might one day eliminate most or all physical collections in favor of a totally online environment with Web 2.0, I am open to the idea, though again, it seems like a risk.

Already certain reference works are strictly online-accessible through websites, with cumbersome books disappearing such as Valueline, Lexis Nexis and some Maryland State reference sites. Such sites are easy to update on a daily basis, and now with cell phones able to access the internet, are more available than ever. So Web 2.0 seems to be the inevitable outcome of a long series of decisions to pool information online.

I especially enjoyed reading Chip Nilges’s updates on OCLC’s future as part of Web 2.0. I have watched that database grow from a simple supplier of bib records to an online conglomerate providing everything from translation services to Interlibrary Loan. I was especially impressed with the ability to use tags and place delimiters in subject headings to create a kind of Mappr graphics for patrons. The possibilities are endless.

There are, of course, always setbacks to technology. E-books and audiobooks have had some access problems. Also, the social environment of the library could suffer, as discussed by Dr. Wendy Schultz, or it could simply change to meet computer-based needs. Current computer popularity at the library might also mean that many still don’t have computer access at home, and might be overlooked as patrons in a library without walls.

Nevertheless, I am optimistic that libraries in general have a keen sixth sense about when it is time to discard print collections and shift to complete online resources, based on the community they serve and the funding at their disposal. I am hopeful that a library without walls, making use of the many options Web 2.0 offers, and flexible enough to provide service to users at home or anywhere, will be just as welcomed and even more widely accessed than the physical libraries of today.

Week 6, Thing #14: Claiming Lincoln on Technorati

2007-07-11T22:59:00.000-04:00

Four score and seven blogs ago I said I probably would not be using Technorati because of the extensive information pulled in on keyword. Now I've claimed my blog on Technorati, tagged it, and I have a great looking Fave button on my blogsite. Unbelievable. I wish all my predications were this accurate.

This has been one of the most adventurous, informative and social exercises so far. Checking out the favorites on Technorati was easy and great fun. Boing, Boing, YouTube and Engadget seem to be popular everywhere I look. I can see why. YouTube was my favorite. Of course, I had to stop and watch the cat video. Thanks to BluffingWildly, I also saw great jazz performances by Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday on YouTube. No wonder this thing is so popular. Amazing.

I have yet to fill in a picture and profile. My site is still "under construction" on Technorati. But hey, there are over 49,000 hits for Abraham Lincoln in this database and I've only started exploring them. Tag is still the most concise search, bringing up some 16 hits for Lincoln bloggers as opposed to the 49,000 keyword haul.

So stay tuned to the blog directory for everything in the world about LincolnFreak. I saw some colleagues and friends on Technorati as well. Yes, Periodic Frippery, this means you.

Week 6, Thing #13: Playing tag with Del.icio.us

2007-07-08T22:04:00.000-04:00

Del.icio.us is the greatest resource I've worked with yet. I set up an account with them and downloaded their button and tag to my Explorer toolbar. Then I searched Lincoln and started bookmarking some very fine websites from the Del.icio.us database. I stopped at 11, but intend to add more as soon as possible.

The great thing about Del.icio.us is that you connect with sites chosen by others who have the same interests as you. When you click on the "saved by 5 other people" tag (the number varies), you get the webnames of those people, and the lists of sites bookmarked by them. Hence the social aspect of this resource. You can copy URLs of special interest from their lists. You can narrow your search by selecting only the "history" tag on somebody's list and getting even more specific hits. It really is a wonderful way to expand your own research. It's as if somebody else has done a lot of the work for you before you even start doing your homework.

I liked these new Lincoln sites so much, I added them to my Rollyo list. Then I moved the Rollyo search box to the top of my page, just under Lincoln's picture, which one person thought looked like Leonard Nimoy.

I also added three or four of these websites as new links on my page. And I'm going back to Del.icio.us to get more. What a great idea to have a simple button available at the top of the Explorer page, rather than scrolling through a "favorites" list each time you want to find something.

I hope others will check into my list and share some of my bookmarked sites. I see this as a powerful research tool, because the information retrieved seems more specific in nature than the average internet search, and the choices increase when new members join.

Week 5, Thing #12: Run over by a search engine

2007-07-07T00:29:00.000-04:00

I learned a lot with this Rollyo exercise. I opened yet another account, chose five great sites I trusted, one of them Abraham Lincoln online, and started testing them out. The specific searches brought up good information (e.g., Ford's Theatre, Mary Todd Lincoln, Springfield). I was very pleased with Rollyo's results.

The more general word searches like "biography" brought up all kinds of sites I didn't want. I'm not sure where these other sites came from since my choices were specifically Lincoln, but who knows. Many thanks to BluffingWildly for convincing me not to ditch the whole thing and start over. I really like the sites I chose.

I also added the Rollyo search box to my blog, just above bookzilla. I thought red would dress the page up nicely, but had to settle for plain because I kept getting an error in the html whenever I chose red. I think the plain looks fantastic.

The possibilities with this kind of search are endless. You can literally create your own mini-internet taylor-made to your interests and find specific targets not as easily found on the bigger web. Also, not only can favorite websites be added as a link on your blogsite, but now they can be searched for information that may not be obvious on their homepages. Many websites contain their own links-ups with similar sites and all of these sources seem to come up in the Rollyo searches.

There were a lot of challenges to getting this search engine working, but it was worth it. Rollyo would be great for homework assignments.

Week 5, Thing #11: Lincoln booklist emerges from LibraryThing

2007-07-04T20:36:00.000-04:00

Compiling a booklist using LibraryThing was a lot easier than searching an average online catalog. Even if I couldn't remember the exact title of a book, LibraryThing would pull it in for me from an approximation.

I chose the Amazon database instead of Library of Congress and obtained wonderful pictures of book covers along with titles. The list, however, was quickly becoming monstrous, so I limited my choices to 24 titles. I could have picked so many more. There is just so much on Lincoln worth reading.

So check out Bookzilla and Son of Bookzilla in the righthand column, just under the weblinks. Bookzilla will connect you with the complete display of my list on LibraryThing. Son of Bookzilla provides a random feed of 5 titles from that list to my blogsite.

LibraryThing is very user-friendly and provides not only the book you're looking for, but similar titles you may not have read. It's a great way to expand your future reading list.

Also, don't forget to check out "Reading the Man," a newly published collection of Robert E. Lee's letters, as well as Kwesi Mfume's book on the Emancipation Proclamation (not yet released).

Week 5, Thing #10: Roflbot says it all

2007-07-02T22:51:00.000-04:00

Behold Roflbot, an online image generator designed to create a picture and text mock-up. Choose one of their own random photographs -- from adorable cats to Washington crossing the Delaware -- or pick a photo from the web, or -- as I did -- choose a picture from your own computer and write your own text to go with it. You can then position the text anywhere on the photo that you like and save it. Voila! An impatient Lincoln waiting for the end of it all so that he can be left in peace. Here is the Roflbot link http://wigflip.com/roflbot/. Or, you can find it on the great, endless menu provided by the Generator Blog. Look for the picture of George Bush watching television.

P.S. I created a meez. To see it, click on this link.http://www.meez.com/main.dm. I hope it is still alive and well. I had to install Javascript to activate it.

Week 4, Thing #9: Merlin and Other Wizards

2007-06-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

Trying to find Lincoln-dedicated newsfeeds has been an education and an adventure. Many history websites feature a page on Lincoln, but their RSS feed is usually on the homepage, and is very general in content, not focused on Lincoln at all. Even a great quote site I found wanted to offer me several authors, not just Lincoln. So tracking down a dedicated newsfeed was not easy.

Feedster and Technorati are extremely powerful search engines. Typing in "Abraham Lincoln" gave me over 86,000 hits on Feedster ; over 57,000 on Technorati. Not since Veronica have I seen so much information pulled in on one search. Because keyword is inclusive rather than selective, I got every single website even mentioning the two words Abraham Lincoln. So I probably won't be using these servers in the future.

Signet8.com was just the opposite, bringing up only three RSS feeds on Lincoln. Only one of the blogsites was "approved" by Signet8, and none of them featured what I was looking for.

My best resource was Blogsline, which brought up about 370 searchable sites. I added four more sites to my reader by searching Lincoln on Blogsline. But I had my best luck simply typing in "Abraham Lincoln RSS feeds" on Explorer. This is how I tracked down HighBeam and the New York Times.

Anyway, I also added Merlin to my Blogline reader and opened an account with them. I like that page very much and almost registered for the geocaching teasure hunt. These days you can go anywhere in the world without leaving your desk. Geocaching is very lively and offers lots of activities for students.

I also explored Topix.net and found it user-friendly, with lots of appealing graphics. Plus, news can be searched by city.

I did find one great blogsite on Technorati about the Kennedy/Lincoln parallels. I've always loved this topic and would like to devote a future blog to it. There are over forty parallels total, not all of them mentioned here. Some similarities between the two Johnsons as well as Booth and Oswald are very chilling. http://dannofox.blogspot.com/2007/06/history-mystery.html

In general, I enjoyed exploring the various ways to track down newsfeeds and would like to keep practicing and expanding on these methods.

Week 4, Thing #8: RSS Lincoln

2007-06-29T21:30:00.001-04:00

If you look to the right and down a little, just above the picture of Ford's Theatre, you'll see two RSS newsfeeds on Lincoln -- one from HighBeam and one from the New York Times. You'll also see a link to my blogslines where I've chosen 16 feeds -- 10 from the list, 3 from the library URLs provided, and three "harvested" from other participants. I borrowed one from Ellen's 2.0 page, and two from Anthony's Sports and Technology Fan site.

The "Feed Me" tutorial by Palinet was the most helpful to me. So was Anthony's RSS write-up on his blogsite. Once I learned to recognize the button or xml tab on websites, the process went a lot faster. Finding websites offering strictly Lincoln RSS and nothing else was a little more challenging.

Using Blogsline was a great experience. I never knew there were so many newsfeeds to choose from. I've opened more internet accounts in the past 3 weeks than I have in the past 10 years.

Eight Things about Me

2007-06-28T22:04:00.000-04:00

Anthony tagged me. So here goes - I hope I can think of 8 things/facts/habits about myself.These are the rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. Obviously I'm a history buff with a special interest in Lincolniana, which I think is a strange word.

2. My favorite sportscaster is still Al Michaels, despite the Oswald Rabbit trade.

3. My favorite music is early jazz.

4. I used to work at a newspaper when they had lead type, and yes, I saved a sample of it.

5. I also worked at a seminary, writing for their development office. You didn't know seminaries had development offices.

6. I once had a beach house on the Eastern Coastline which went down in a storm and made it on the AP wires.

7. My favorite book in Scripture is Revelation. Lincoln's was Job. I guess that's understandable.

8. And yes, I have a cat. He is my proofreader. So if you see mistakes on this page, blame him.

Give me a while to think of 8 people I want to do this to.

Week 3, Thing #7: Technology article: Alexander Graham Cell

2007-06-27T18:01:00.000-04:00

State of the art technology during the Civil War was the steel point pen and the magnetic telegraph. Every day Lincoln could be seen crossing the White House lawn to the telegraph office to check on messages from his generals. He often spent hours there and actually composed the Emancipation Proclamation in that office.

But unless a telegraph wagon was available in the field, some dispatches could take days to reach the White House, often after battle situations had changed drastically.

Wait now, suppose cell phones had existed during the Civil War? It’s not such a far-fetched idea. Bell was working on the photophone, a form of fiber optics, 15 short years after the surrender at Appomattox.

Would cell phones have made a difference? Instead of crossing the White House lawn, Lincoln might have been standing out in front of it, trying to get a signal, or worse yet, leaning out a window to better hear his generals. Even then, you know how those signals can get garbled. The drama of Sherman’s ultimate message may have played out something like this – Sherman: "I beg to give you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah." Lincoln: "What? You broke your leg on a skiff and you’re sitting in Louisiana?" Sherman: "No, no. I give you Savannah as a Christmas present." Lincoln: "You sang Oh Susannah at a Christmas pageant?" So much for progress.

Plus, you know that if Lincoln had carried a pocket phone, it would have gone off right in the middle of the Gettysburg Address, probably blaring Dixie, which he said was his favorite tune. Oops.

And wouldn’t McClellan have loved a cell phone. Instead of keeping the President waiting for hours in an outer room while he chatted away with friends, George could have just stuck his head out the door and said "leave it on my cell."

And how about Jeff Davis, sitting in church, quietly informed by a messenger that Richmond was under attack? No need for that anymore. His cell phone would simply have gone off during the service, probably also blaring Dixie.

Now text messaging – I think Lincoln would have preferred that. Just think, no more scribbling speeches on the back of an envelope or blotting ink on crucial documents. He could have text messaged the entire Emancipation Proclamation, 160 words at a time, to every cell phone in the Confederacy, and for less cost than the average teenage conversation.

The only trouble with text messaging is, you can be erased. That’s right. Lincoln’s most important human rights document might have disappeared forever into microspace. Oh well. Maybe there’s something to be said for pen and ink after all.

If you agree with me, share your thoughts on how Lincoln might have used modern technology during the Civil War. If you disagree with me, leave it on my cell.

Week 3, Thing #6: Flickr Mash-ups and Third Party Sites

2007-06-24T21:49:00.000-04:00

Lincoln Sightings Across the Nation

Not really. These are Lincoln sites, not sightings. But I thought the headline was catchy. I chose six locations pertinent to Lincoln's life and career-- again from a website -- and uploaded them to Flickr. This was successful. Then I had to transfer them to Mappr.

Mappr almost killed me. I misunderstood the whole tag issue at first. When they say generic, they really mean generic. "Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C." was not accepted. "Building, Washington, District of Columbia" was accepted. Once I renamed all my tags and sent them back to Mappr, the next stage of placing them on the map went quickly enough. The map has to be "zoomed" in to a size big enough to recognize the states, or again, you will be told "Wait, don't you want to make this map larger?" or something like that, I forget the exact prompt. I got beeped often in this process, but once the map came together, it really was fantastic. I can hardly believe a program like this exists. To see my map, try this link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8939400@N04/map/ It was still working for me as of yesterday and I hope it is still live. Anyway, enjoy Mappr as much as I did. This whole exercise was a great adventure. Also, look for my technology article, forthcoming.

P.S. What I really love about Mappr is how unfailingly polite it is. No curt, one-word commands here. An entire page is devoted to telling you what you did wrong. The prompts go something like this: "Mappr thinks there is a low possibility that this picture was really taken in Washington, D.C. Is there something missing from your tag? Mappr could be wrong, but we can't find this location." Imagine, an interactive program implying it might be wrong. Well you know darn well Mappr isn't wrong. So that leaves you. If you want to feel right about the world today, check in to Mappr and make a few mistakes. Some engineer went to a lot of trouble programming manners into this thing, so you might as well enjoy it.

Week 3, Thing #5:Explore Flickr

2007-06-24T21:32:00.000-04:00

Exploring Flickr was great fun. I set up an account and went to work creating a composite from a Flickr trading card template. For the results of this, see my example several blogs down titled "My Friend Flickr." The Lincoln White House I.D. Pass was made using a web photo from my picture file. Filling in the text and hitting all the right keys was no problem. My next attempt was Mappr. That was another story.

Week 2, thing #4: Register blogsite and track progress.

2007-06-20T22:27:00.000-04:00

I registered my blogsite at night and of course, had to wait until the next morning to see the link appear on the list of participants. I found the online registration form easy and concise, and the whole process took only a few minutes.
I also downloaded the tracking log and I am getting more comfortable with post permalink URLs. Clicking on them makes all the comments appear. That is so cool. I even printed out the personal learning contract and signed it. Look to the righthand column and down a little to see my signature. My "work arounds" include consulting with 3 or 4 key people who are fearless in technology (including my liaison), working at night using my home notepad in case the work environment gets hectic, and taking a few breaks during the process, rather than get writer’s block...or blogger’s block.
My tech toolbox includes a good printer, speakers and earphones, an attachment for saving materials to a disk if necessary, and 2 computers: one at work and one at home. My home computer is dial-up, but the speed and capabilities seem more than adequate.

Week 2 Thing #3 : Set up the account, start blogging

2007-06-19T22:55:00.000-04:00

Setting up my own blog and adding my first post was great fun. Creating an account, choosing the template and deciding on a topic and name was no problem. I knew if I could find a theme powerful enough to hold my attention for 9 weeks of heavy technology training, I might make it. A great deal of my reading has been about Lincoln (more than I realized), so I figured sharing information about him would be an interesting way to develop technological skills. Remembering to register my blog was another issue. But that comes next.

Week 1 Thing #2 : 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners

2007-06-19T22:37:00.000-04:00

Of the 7 1/2 habits of successful people and lifelong learners, I like the first one best. I enjoy beginning a project with the end in mind. There's something about a long-range plan that creates a sense of security and I can better enjoy the smaller details along the way. I also like to play, so I guess habit 7 1/2 is my favorite, too.

The most difficult habit for me will be #3, seeing problems as challenges, and #4, having the self-confidence to turn them into positive learning experiences. I'm hoping habit #5, acquiring a tech toolbox, will help me to do this and become more comfortable with new methods in general. I'm looking forward to this whole experience because of the "step" nature of it. One skill builds on another, and self-pacing is a big plus. It also helps to know that assistance is available from co-workers and liaisons. It should be quite an adventure.

Week 1 Thing #1: Introduction to blogging

2007-06-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

Okay, it's time for accountability and observations. My motivation for taking this course was to update my web skills and literacy. Podcasting, RSS newsfeeds, tagging, wikis and image hosting are all terms I've heard about but have found intimidating. I'm expecting RSS feeds, Mappr and podcasts to be my biggest challenges, but you never know. A simple image hosting could be worse. I'd love to learn to run a scrolling marquis. Will settle for an animated flag. The Javascript option on my dashboard seems not to be able to run motion on a website. Will consult more about this later.

My Friend Flickr

2007-06-16T21:56:00.000-04:00

Look at this perfectly awful thing I made using a Flickr template. Instead of a trading card, I created a White House pass for Lincoln. I think the photo looks very "driver's license." And it's not a profile, so you know he's over 18.

Somebody commented that I had assassinated him all over again. That really hurt.

My next project will be working with Mappr, and maybe some great Lincoln sites across the country.

Lincoln's opinion of blogging:

2007-06-12T08:47:00.000-04:00

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

2007-06-09T22:36:00.000-04:00

NEWSFLASH.....NEWSFLASH....NEWSFLASH...

Did you hear the one about the letter at National Archives written by Lincoln, urging his generals to pursue Lee after Gettysburg? The war might have been very different if Lincoln had been in the field. http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2007/nr07-108.html

NEWSFLASH....NEWSFLASH....NEWSFLASH...

Was Lincoln dizzy at Gettysburg? Too late to ask him now, right? Medical sources claim Lincoln was ill with smallpox while delivering one of the greatest speeches of his life. If so, he did a better job with smallpox than most of us do without it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18727435/

Tell LincolnFreak what you think of these latest news developments in the ongoing saga of Lincoln, a man who has had a longer life than Elvis.

All Lincoln All the Time

2007-06-08T16:38:00.000-04:00

Okay, I admit it. I'm a Lincoln freak. And since nobody's going to check out this blog to write a history paper, I'd rather post and share fun stuff about one of America's best known presidents. Hey, it doesn't even have to be researched. Rumors made this country great and I never reveal my sources.

Great advice from Robert E. Lee: "Don't waste your time reading novels and always accept a promotion."

Great advice from George Patton: "Never fight for the same real estate twice."

Great advice from Abraham Lincoln: "If you think a quorum is forming, jump out the window."

I think Lincoln's advice is the wisest.