Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
Mary Todd Lincoln
The first medical report on Lincoln's assassination has been uncovered.
It was the discovery of a lifetime. Helena Iles Papaioannou, a researcher with the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project, was meticulously combing through 1865 correspondence of the U.S.
New light on the tragic case of a President’s widow who saw her own son as a hated enemy
It is generally known that Mrs. Abraham Lincoln was adjudged insane in later life. The circumstances of her sanity trial, however, are not so familiar and certain details have been lacking.
Her son had her committed. She said it was so he could get his hands on her money. Now, 130 years after this bitter and controversial drama, a trove of letters—long believed destroyed—sheds new light on it.
First Ladies have been under fire ever since Albert Gallatin called Abigail Adams “Mrs. President.”
I am informed that, whenever Rush Limbaugh has cause to mention Hillary Rodham Clinton, he cues in “Hail to the Chief” as background music. There’s nothing like subtlety.
Clues uncovered during the recent restoration of his house at Springfield help humanize the Lincoln portrait.
One good measure of our apparently inexhaustible interest in Abraham Lincoln is that this year eight hundred thousand of us will be led through his house at the corner of Eighth and Jackson streets in Springfield, Illinois.
The ground rules have changed drastically since 1789. Abigail Adams, stifled in her time, would have loved being First Lady today.
ONCE AGAIN the candidates gear up for a national election; not only the candidates but their wives too. And pity the ladies!
Two humble memories—a brakeman‘s and a carpenter’s—bring back the human moments of a nation’s tragedy
In the fall of 1864 William S. Porter, a young man from the sleepy southern Illinois town of Jerseyville, was mustered out of service with the 145th Illinois Infantry. He was just sixteen, but the war had left a man’s lines in his face.
Featured Authors
