Washington, D.C. April 15, 2026 Lincoln Group scholar-members recently presented a program, timed to the 250th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence, about Abraham Lincoln and his "empowering reverence" for the Declaration. Many historians describe Lincoln as the last of the Founders or the son of the Founders. Lincoln himself said that he never had a political thought that did not come from the Declaration and its promise that "all men are created equal" and t

By Jeffrey Boutwell Columbia, Maryland April 13, 2026 Frederick Douglass was there, as was Ulysses S. Grant, both to help celebrate the 150 th anniversary, on Saturday April 11, of the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial statue in Lincoln Park in Washington, DC. Civil War reenactors at the Lincoln Park event As was the case at the original ceremony on April 14, 1876, attended by over 20,000 people, Douglass (portrayed by Darius Wallace) gave a spirited dedication speech w

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

by David J. Kent Washington, DC Monday, March 30, 2026 Washington's Emancipation Memorial, often called the Freedmen's Memorial, celebrates the 150th anniversary of its dedication on Saturday April 11, 2026. And the Lincoln Group of DC will be represented. Everyone's invited to this free program. Immediately after hearing of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, a formerly enslaved woman named Charlotte Scott offered $5 to create a memorial honoring Lincoln. She was soon followed

By Wendy Swanson Washington, D.C, Saturday, March 27, 2026 The Emancipation Proclamation Display in the National Archives Rotunda Last night, March 27, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. EDT, the National Archives unveiled the permanent display of the Emancipation Proclamation in the Archives Rotunda. The unveiling of a second historic document, the 19 th Amendment, occurred moments later. The event marked the first time permanent displays have been added to the Rotunda’s “Charters of Freed

By: Kelsey Johnston Baltimore, Maryland Friday, March 20, 2026 In his new book, "Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours," David J. Kent takes you along for the ride as he explores Lincoln's two forgotten tours of New England. He shared this ride with the Lincoln Group of DC in an exhilarating discussion on March 10. Abraham Lincoln went to New England only twice in his lifetime. During his first trip in 1848 he was an awkward, ungainly westerner, little know

By John A. O'Brien Denver, Colorado Wednesday, March 18, 2026 I suspect that anyone who studies Lincoln might have wondered at some time what it would have been like to be in the crowd at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, to hear him deliver his “few appropriate remarks” to dedicate the new cemetery. Certainly, there is no recording or time machine to allow us anything like the authentic experience. There is now, however, an amazing alternative that helps to give a glimpse of

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. Friday, March 13, 2026 President Abraham Lincoln will again arrive by steam train at Gettysburg, Pa., this time on November 18, 2026, just as he did back in 1863 on the day before he delivered his 272-word Gettysburg Address, a speech that still resonates today. This November's arrival of Lincoln, portrayed by actor Billy Campbell, will kick off two days of festivities to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence and help the public fo

by David J. Kent Washington, DC Thursday, March 12, 2026 The annual Abraham Lincoln Institute (ALI) Symposium will be held at Ford's Theatre on March 21, 2026, and the very special program is not to be missed. This is the third of a series of posts highlighting the upcoming symposium. The ALI Symposium this year will have four panels featuring some of the most preeminent scholars on their topics in a discussion moderated by a renowned journalist. Each panel has a theme relate

by David J. Kent Washington, DC Saturday, March 7, 2026 The annual Abraham Lincoln Institute (ALI) Symposium will be held at Ford's Theatre on March 21, 2026, and the very special program is not to be missed. This is the second of a series of posts highlighting the upcoming symposium. The ALI Symposium this year will have four panels featuring some of the most preeminent scholars on their topics in a discussion moderated by a renowned journalist. Each panel has a theme relate

by David J. Kent Washington, DC Tuesday, March 3, 2026 In recognition of the release day of the Lincoln Group of DC Immediate Past President David J. Kent's new book, Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours , David have begun posting a series of short videos about Lincoln and the New England states . Each video is less than ten minutes in length and covers Lincoln's connections to one state per video. There is info about Lincoln's visits (if any) and tidbits

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. Friday, February 27, 2026 Author George Saunders best-selling and award-winning 2017 novel Lincoln in the Bardo , about President Abraham Lincoln's love and overwhelming feeling of loss over the 1862 death of his 11-year-old son Willie from typhoid fever, is being turned into a feature movie starring one of Hollywood's biggest stars and an elaborate Metropolitan Opera production that will premiere in October. Willie Lincoln Saunders work, which

By: Kelsey Johnston Baltimore, Maryland February 23, 2026 The Lincoln Group of DC and the Civil War Roundtable of the District of Columbia hosted a joint birthday celebration of Abraham Lincoln's 217th birthday on February 10, 2026. The group met in-person and virtually to celebrate with a special guest. Frederick Douglass portrayer Nathan Richardson joined the groups to discuss the connection between Douglass, Lincoln, and the Declaration of Independence. The program was esp

by David J. Kent Washington, DC Friday, February 20, 2026 The annual Abraham Lincoln Institute (ALI) Symposium will be held at Ford's Theatre on March 21, 2026, and the Lincoln Group of DC will be featured. This is the first of a series of posts highlighting the upcoming symposium. As mentioned previously , the ALI Symposium this year is a huge change from previous years. Rather than five authors speaking about their books, 2026 will have four panels, each with a pair of spea

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. February 12, 2026 For a guy who's been gone since 1865, Abraham Lincoln proved today on his 217th birthday that he can still draw a crowd. The Lincoln Group's memorial wreath inside the Lincoln Memorial chamber. Some two dozen memorial wreaths were placed at the foot of the epic sculpture by Daniel Chester French of a seated Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial at the west end of the National Mall in the nation's capital. The wreaths came from th

By Bill Shepherd Feb. 10, 2026 Note: This article first appeared on the Lincoln250.org blog, which is devoted to Abraham Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence. On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln offered the nation his vision of the true meaning of the sacrifices made on the Gettysburg battlefield. In the first sentence of his speech, Lincoln transported us back to 1776 and the remarkable promise made in the Declaration of Independence — “all men are created e

By: Kelsey Johnston Baltimore, Maryland Feb. 3 2026 Raymond McKoski is a retired circuit court judge in suburban Chicago who now teaches law at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He recently joined Lincoln Group members to discuss his new book, "David Davis - Abraham Lincoln's Favorite Judge," and how life on the Illinois court circuit shaped the destinies of these two great men. Judge David Davis was one of Abraham Lincoln’s closest political associates. Lincoln was a ci

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. Monday, February 2, 2026 Corrects the date of the program's premiere to Saturday Feb. 7 The video of the moving ceremony last September 22, at which a statue of a seated President Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation was dedicated, will debut this Saturday evening, February 7, on C-SPAN2's American History TV. Part of the crowd at the Sept. 22 event. That's President Lincoln at the center behind the wreath, surrounded by admirin

By Ed Epstein Washington, D.C. Jan. 27, 2026 "Lincoln," a new symphony by 88-year-old American composer Philip Glass, won't have its world premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington as Glass joins a long line of artists to boycott the center in protest of President Donald Trump's renaming of the center for himself. "Glass' Symphony No. 15," as it's formally named, draws its inspiration in good part on the words of young Abraham Lincoln's1838 Lyceum speech in Springfield, Il