Special Announcements

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  2020 McMurtry Lecture

  Dr. Allen Guelzo Presents "Lincoln & Democracy"

  September 8, 2020    7 p.m.

   

  Register in advance for this lecture:

  https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwlfu2rqTwoGtOebtpn4Enm-AwBNQbRLmCp  

   After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the lecture.

   

  It is our pleasure to invite you to attend the 40th Annual McMurtry Lecture, which will be delivered as a live webinar on September 8th, 2020, at 7 p.m. EDT.

   

  The lecture will be given by Dr. Allen C. Guelzo, the Senior Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities and the Director of the Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. The topic of Dr. Guelzo's lecture will be "Lincoln and Democracy."

  The word democracy occurs only 137 times in the collected writings of Abraham Lincoln. But nothing for Lincoln could be "as clearly true as the truth of democracy." So, when the thunderous cloud of Civil War broke over his presidency, Lincoln had no hesitation in portraying the struggle as a contest, not over constitutional niceties, or even over slavery, but over the basic principle of democracy itself and "whether a constitutional republic, or a democracy -- a government of the people, by the same people -- can, or cannot" survive the push-and-shove of its own people's disagreements, or whether democracies are doomed forever to fly off, by their own centrifugal force, into fragments. Today, Americans increasingly fracture into interests and identities, and then self-righteously invoke power of various sorts to protect our interests or to attack other identities. So, again, we must ask ourselves what democracy is, then what Lincoln thought of it and finally to speculate on how much - if any - of Lincoln's idea of democracy still has a life worth living today.

  To learn more about our esteemed lecturer, please see his biography on the Princeton University website: https://jmp.princeton.edu/node/5221.

   

   

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  Lincoln at the Library

  2020 Programming

  The 2020 Lincoln at the Library schedule is full of interesting topics and stories about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. We hope you plan to join us. All presentations are at the Main Branch of the Allen County Public Library in Meeting Rooms A-B at 2pm. This series is generously provided for by the Friends of the Allen County Public Library.

  "Lincoln and Elections" presented by Dr. Nicole Etcheson

  Sunday, October 25^th

  Leading up to the 2020 election, the political atmosphere is incredibly divisive. Elections in the past weren't the same…or were they? Dr. Nicole Etcheson is the Alexander M. Bracken professor of history at Ball State University who will be looking at elections during Lincoln's time as well as some correlation to today's political environment. She is author of A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community (2011) as well as numerous other books and articles. She was most recently the DFH Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.

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  Friends of Lincoln Collection Launches New Website

  www.friendsofthelincolncollection.org

  Friends of the Lincoln Collection of Indiana, Inc., has launched a new website serving as an additional gateway to the thousands of digitized Lincoln era letters, photographs, newspapers, books and other items from the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection. In addition, it will soon post searchable archives from the more than 1900 issues of "Lincoln Lore," a nationally recognized magazine for scholarly articles, interviews, book reviews, and announcements of local and national Lincoln-related programs and events. The site will also offer other items of interest, including links to Collection items displayed in the Fine Book Room of the Allen County Public Library; online exhibits; dozens of viewable Lincoln presentations at the library; and educational support from resident Lincoln historians.

  Read More

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  See the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection on Social Media

  Find us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr

  View items from the collection, learn about Lincoln and his times, and connect with other Lincoln enthusiasts through the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection's social media pages on Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr. Just follow the links at the bottom of any page on the website!