By Jeffery Boutwell Columbia, Md Friday, September 18, 2026 The Lincoln Group of DC is pleased to note that one of its fellowship award participants, graduate student Ebonee Davis-Hayes of Howard University, will be participating in the upcoming 2026 Universities Studying Slavery Conference being held October 22-25 at the University of Maryland in College Park. Open to the public, the theme of this year’s conference is “250 Years of Freedom and Unfreedom: Truth, Liberty, and

Washington, D.C. Monday, September 14, 2026 Thanks to our friends at the Abraham Lincoln Association for letting us share this fun little item. Did you know that in August 1955 Marilyn Monroe traveled to Bement, Illinois, a small town not far from Champaign-Urbana, to “commune with Lincoln,” the man she said she considered a father? “He was wise and kind and good. He is my ideal, Lincoln. I love him,” she once said. Marilyn, who owned (and read) a respectable collection of Li

By Jeffrey Boutwell Columbia, Md. Wednesday, September 9, 2026 Rachel Riley, longtime Lincoln Group friend and colleague, has a book being published in October that will be of interest to many. Rachel and her son, William B. Riley, have written a comprehensive account of Rachel’s uncle, the decorated fighter pilot William B. Overstreet Jr., and his exploits during World War II that included a dogfight with a German Messerschmitt Bf-109 around and under the Eiffel Tower in Par

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. Thursday, September 3, 2026 Most Lincoln-related activities take place along the East Coast or in the Midwest, so it's a real treat to tell you about a major two-day Lincoln-related symposium late this month in southern California focused on Abraham Lincoln and this year's 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the document that was his political lodestar. The Watchorn Lincoln Memorial Association, which supports the work of the L

By Jeffrey Boutwell Columbia, Maryland Saturday, August 29, 2026 The autumn monthly meetings of the LGDC will consist of two Zoom meetings, in September and December, and one in-person/Zoom meeting being held at The Lincoln Cottage in Washington in October. As usual, there will be no program in November because of the Lincoln Forum annual meeting in Gettysburg, PA, from November 15-17. Reminders with registration forms and Zoom links will be sent out to members prior to each

By David J. Kent Washington, DC Wednesday, August 12, 2026 Abraham Lincoln turns up in the most unexpected places. That said, most members of the Lincoln Group of DC are probably aware that there is a Lincoln nook in the Washington National Cathedral on Wisconsin Avenue. One of our members, Betsy Grim, recently participated in a once-in-a-lifetime and heartwarming event at the cathedral. And yes, Lincoln was involved. And Legos. Here's her report: In the very northwest corner

By Jeffrey Boutwell Columbia, MD Saturday, August 1, 2026 Union fortunes on August 6, 1862, were at a low ebb when the government held a Great War Rally with 10,000 people on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. It was the first mass public meeting held since the start of the war and was intended to raise Union morale and stimulate enlistments into the army. President Lincoln was on the speakers' platform and made some impromptu remarks, telling the crowd not to be concerned abou

By David J. Kent Washington, DC Sunday, July 26, 2026 Lincoln’s Whig Party passed on their traditional party leader Henry Clay to nominate General Zachary Taylor as their nominee for the 1848 presidential nomination. Taylor had been the hero of Buena Vista in the recently ended Mexican War, and the public was clamoring for the war hero to be the next commander-in-chief. Lincoln himself spoke out in Taylor’s favor at the Whig convention held in Philadelphia. To balance the tic

By David J. Kent Washington, DC Friday, July 17, 2026 Abraham Lincoln is everywhere, or so it seems. The Lincoln Sculpture Project Map created by David Wiegers and Scott Schoeder (an LGDC board member) has reached close to 700 sculptures around the world, with new ones being added as soon as they go up. During my recent travels in the Balkans, I went in search of one of the more elusive - and apparently cryptic - statues, in of all places, Skopje, North Macedonia. The map abo

By John A. O'Brien Sunday, July 12, 2026 Denver, Colorado A recent executive order challenged the principle that all people born in this country are citizens. On Wednesday, July 1, the Supreme Court affirmed that, yes, “children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment.'” The majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts and a conc

By Ed Epstein Washington D.C. Wednesday, July 1, 2026 A restored and rejuvenated statue -- Augustus Saint-Gaudens' famed bronze of a standing Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Park on Chicago's North Side -- will be reborn this Saturday, the Fourth of July. The renovated Saint-Gaudens Lincoln statue will be unveiled in Chicago on the Fourth of July. The 12-foot-tall statue, originally dedicated in 1887, has undergone repairs and restoration, with the work paid for by the Chicago Par

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. Friday, June 26, 2026 The new Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum is now open to the public--and the most impressive thing about the new venue isn't the exhibits. It's the eerie, awe-inspiring structure itself, featuring massive columns built more than a century ago to support the 38,000-ton monument above to the martyred 16th president. It's great to have them finally visible to the public. Artistically lit pillars in the undercroft. The undergr

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. Monday, June 22, 2026 American composer Philip Glass' Symphony No. 15, a 38-minute, eight-movement work featuring the words of Abraham Lincoln, will get its delayed world premiere next month and its Washington area debut in June 2027. Performs the Lincoln Symphony in June 2027. The work by the 89-year-old Glass, which draws mainly on the words of Lincoln's 1838 Lyceum Speech in Springfield, Ill., was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchest

By John A. O'Brien Denver, Colorado Friday, May 29, 2026 Yale professor of law and political science Ahkil Reed Amar will join the regular meeting of the Lincoln Study Forum on June 13 as they complete discussion of his timely and engaging book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920. The session is open to all Lincoln Group members. Dr. Amar is a gifted educator and legal scholar who appears frequently on television news shows to provide analysis for U.S. S

By David J. Kent Washington, DC Friday, May 22, 2026 Four years ago, on May 22, 2022, the Lincoln Group of DC celebrated the centennial of the Lincoln Memorial Dedication with a grand ceremony on the steps of the iconic building. And now the Lincoln Memorial is set for a grand re-opening of sorts as the newly renovated undercroft visitors center is scheduled to open on Thursday June 25, 2026. Most visitors climbing the memorial's steps to get up close and personal with Daniel

By: Kelsey Johnston Baltimore, Maryland Tuesday, May 19 , 2026 The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia was thrilled to welcome Lois Romano to our monthly meeting on May 12, 2026. Veteran journalist Lois Romano takes a deep dive into Mary Lincoln’s long, difficult years of widowhood to present a more fully contextualized view in "An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln." The book is described by its publisher, Simon & Schuster, as a “r

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. Sunday, May 10, 2026 When I became Lincoln Group president in May 2024, I got into the habit of keeping a list of the monthly programs we put on for our members. I’m sure if you read on below to the complete list, you’ll agree with me that it’s an impressive array that would appeal to anyone with an interest in the life, legacy and vision of Abraham Lincoln. So, as you read this, consider joining the Lincoln Group of D.C. to enjoy these members-

By David J. Kent Washington, DC Thursday, April 30, 2026 You never know where you're going to run into Lincoln connections. Unexpectedly, I ran into one in my own hometown of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Twice. I return to my hometown northeast of Boston periodically to visit family. This time I'm here for a series of presentations for my book about Lincoln's two trips to New England. Part of the concept started right here because a mural painted on the side of an old cotton texti

By Ed Epstein Washington D.C. Monday, April 20, 2026 A museum of more than 20,000 square feet celebrating the life and vision of Thaddeus Stevens, the Radical Republican from Pennsylvania who prodded President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and then pushed for the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, will open on May 2 in downtown Lancaster, Pa., the town where he lived for many years and where he is buried. The new museum in downtown Lancaster, Pa., open

By Jeffrey Boutwell Columbia, Md. Monday, April 6, 2026 Redlands, California, an hour east of Pasadena on the way to Palm Springs in the desert, would seem an unlikely spot for a heartfelt memorial to Abraham Lincoln. Though our 16th president and wife Mary had expressed hopes of visiting California and the American West following his second term in office, it wasn’t to be. Instead, Lincoln’s presence in Southern California would have to wait until 1932, when Robert and Alma