LincolnFreak: March 2008

Now scrolling: The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Lincoln Has Entered the Building

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Musical and educational programs are included, as are photographs of Lincoln's funeral train and historical documents from his presidency.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