Archives
Other Presidential Residents
“The drive by the east winds gracefully through field and forest until it reaches the immediate neighborhood of the [Soldiers’] Home—a large brick building [sic], with extensive piazzas, usually occupied by blue-coated veterans. The dormitories, kitchen, farm-house, residence of the Superintendent and his subordinates, cluster about the Home, and close by it is the little cottage, not now used, but …
Read MoreBlack Reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation
This post is part of our Black History Month blog series. Though many black leaders decried Lincoln’s tardy efforts to act definitively on slavery, when he finally did release the Emancipation Proclamation, both the freed and enslaved African-American community rejoiced at this decisive step towards freedom. Today’s black history month post will highlight a few of these responses.
Read More“Doubly Dear to Us” Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln
This post is part of our Black History Month blog series. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Frederick Douglass adopted February 14 as his birthday because his mother used to call him her “little valentine,” so today’s Black History Month post is dedicated to him. Douglass met with Lincoln several times (in fact, he was once invited to tea at the Soldiers’ …
Read MoreExhibits at the Visitor Education Center
The Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center contains four self-guided, permanent exhibits: Wartime Washington, Lincoln the Commander-in-Chief, Lincoln Family at the Soldiers’ Home, and History of the Soldiers’ Home. Civil war prints and maps line the main corridor and interactive gallery in the Visitor Education Center, a sustainably renovated 1905 Beaux Arts style building that was awarded LEED Gold certification …
Read MoreCivil War D.C.
Arid hill, and sodden plain showed alike the horrid trail of war. Forts bristled above every hill-top. Soldiers were entrenched at every gate-way. Shed hospitals covered acres on acres in every suburb. Churches, art-halls and private mansions were filled with the wounded and dying of the American armies. The endless roll of the army wagon seemed never still. The rattle …
Read MorePresidential Work at the Soldiers’ Home
While life at the Soldiers’ Home offered some degree of privacy and relief from the pressure of running a country at war, President Lincoln bore the burden of his leadership constantly. The captain of the company assigned to guard the President at the Cottage reported that Lincoln carried work with him to and from the Soldiers’ Home. I usually went …
Read MorePresident Lincoln’s Cottage to Display Emancipation Proclamation
David M. Rubenstein loans rare signed copy to National Monument for Civil War anniversary. August 23, 2012. President Lincoln’s Cottage will be the first public venue to display a rare, signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation recently purchased by David M. Rubenstein. The historic document will be displayed in the Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center at President Lincoln’s Cottage …
Read MoreThe First Reading of The Emancipation Proclamation: July 22nd, 1862
By Scott Ackerman As we move through the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, 2012 has already seen the anniversary of the bloodbath at Shiloh, and of the meat-grinder known as the Seven Days Battles. This fall, Antietam and Fredericksburg will effect commemorations worthy of the soldiers who fought and died there 150 years ago. Inextricably linked to the events at …
Read MoreLincoln 2012: Vampire Hunter and (international) Box Office Slayer
By Catherine Clinton My obsession with action adventure films and my status as a Lincoln scholar, I decided, would make me a perfect candidate to enjoy Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The fractional truth — a concept Lincoln alludes to in the film’s voiceover — can become a dangerous thing, but it also allows for complex, entertaining eccentricities. Especially in this souped-up …
Read More