“Did Lincoln blaze a trail for Obama?”

The UK’s Chanel 4 News recently filmed an interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin at President Lincoln’s Cottage as part of a report by Jon Snow on how “Barack Obama’s inauguration is suffused with references to the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.”
The 7 minute report aired on Monday, January 20th:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/did+lincoln+blaze+a+trail+for+obama/2906812

In Town for the Inauguration?

Are you in town for the Presidential Inauguration and looking for something to do?  Are you dreading the crowds on the National Mall?  
To escape the chaos of downtown Washington, just as President Lincoln did, visit President Lincoln’s Cottage, located on a hilltop in northwest Washington, D.C.  The site is closed January 20th, but is open all other [...]

“Lincoln’s Intelligent Patriotism” Lecture this Thursday

The Catholic University of America is hosting a lecture series as part of their spring 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial Semester.  The first lecture in the series, “Lincoln’s Intelligent Patriotism” by Dr. Joseph Fornieri, with take place this Thursday, January 15, 2009, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.  This program is free and open to the public, and [...]

Obama Will Take Oath of Office with Hand on Lincoln’s Bible

The Library of Congress has offered President-elect Barack Obama use of Lincoln’s Bible for the swearing-in ceremony.
Read more here: http://www.pic2009.org/blog/entry/president-elect_barack_obama_to_be_sworn_in_using_lincolns_bible/

Lincoln and Obama, Poets

The Atlantic Online published an article by David Barber about Obama’s invocation of Lincoln time and again and a comparison of their dabbles in poetry.  The article is well worth a read.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812u/lincoln-obama-poetry

Malia Obama Eyes Lincoln’s Desk

By Erin Carlson Mast
The Associated Press recently wrote an article about the Obama girls being expected to do chores while living at the White House. The article also touched on Malia Obama’s interest in using President Lincoln’s desk to write papers for school.
“Obama, who is known to be an avid reader of Lincoln history, said his [...]

What Would Lincoln Think?

By Scott Ackerman
Since the election, several visitors to President Lincoln’s Cottage have asked me, in some fashion, what Lincoln would have thought about Barack Obama’s election to the presidency. This is no simple question to answer, since it deals with the hypothetical and conjecture rather than historical fact and the interpretation of those facts.  While we want to avoid [...]

Team of Rivals Revisited

By Frank Milligan
Historian James Oakes, the author of a wonderful new book that I have just finished reading and heartily recommend entitled The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics, has questioned in today’s November 20 New York Times, both the uniqueness and the cohesiveness of President Lincoln’s [...]

Passion, Politics, and Finance

By Erin Mast
Watching President-elect Obama’s acceptance speech tonight, it was not altogether surprising to hear him invoke a quote by Lincoln.  “As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, ‘We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”  (First Inaugural, March 4, 1861).  Numerous presidents [...]

Lincoln’s Cabinet as a Model, Past and Present

By Erin Carlson Mast
As news media from the past century can attest, the shrewd decision by President Lincoln to invite political adversaries to join his cabinet has become a model for other leaders to create unity through coalition.  The decision to bring his former opponents to his team–at least in title–was most recently analyzed in the [...]