Newsletter Review--The Lincoln Forum Bulletin

The Lincoln Forum Bulletin. Issue 27, Spring 2010.

I recently received the spring 2010 Lincoln Forum Bulletin published by The Lincoln Forum.

The cover article of this issue deals with the upcoming annual symposium that will be taking place in November. Please see the link for further information. Also included is a nice spread of photos from last years event and also an article detailing attendees ratings from last years event. Speaker Ronald White, the author of A. Lincoln: A Biography, appears to have been the hit of the event scoring the highest marks. Looks like a great time. Hopefully I'll get to go at some point.

A nice article written by Jane Gastineau talks about the new homes for the Lincoln Financial Collection. Items are now housed at the Indiana State Museum and also at the Allen County Public Library. The Allen County Public Library also has plans to digitize the more than 20,000 books and pamphlets, several thousand photos, and over 10,000 pages of 19th century newspapers. It sounds like great work is being done here and anybody interested in President Lincoln should be thankful.

Elizabeth Keckly, an African-American seamstress who worked in the Lincoln White House and was a close friend of Mary Lincoln, is also given attention. The Lincoln Forum, the Black Women United for Action, and the Surratt Society joined forces to mark the grave of Ms. Keckly in National Harmony Memorial Cemetery in a May 26th ceremony. National Harmony Memorial Cemetery became the final resting place for approximately 37,000 remains from the historically black Columbian Harmony Cemetery in the late 1950's. From what I can tell the original cemetery was moved due to construction of a metro station. See this site for more information.

The Lincoln Forum has also published a new book: The Lincoln Assassination: Crime & Punishment, Myth and Memory, edited by Harold Holzer, Craig Symonds, and Frank Williams.

As with everything this group does the newsletter is top notch. Professionally edited and printed with excellent photos. If you are interested in Abraham Lincoln I can highly recommend this organization.