Terry Alford is an author and Professor Emeritus of History at Northern Virginia Community College. He received a Ph.D. in history from Mississippi State University and did post-doctoral work in family history at the University of California, Davis.

His interest in the history of race relations led to his writing “Prince Among Slaves.” This book tells the story of Abdul Rahman, an 18th Century Muslim prince from modern-day Guinea who was captured and forced into slavery in the Old South. “Prince Among Slaves” was made into an award-winning documentary shown on public television in the United Stated in 2008 to an audience of over four million viewers. The book, republished in 2007 to mark its 30th anniversary in print, was recently translated into Turkish.

Dr. Alford is a founding board member of the Abraham Lincoln Institute of Washington, D.C., and is a recognized authority on John Wilkes Booth and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. “Fortune’s Fool”, Dr. Alford’s biography of Booth, was published in 2015 by Oxford University Press and has received exceptional reviews. His research endeavors have been supported by four grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has been an historical consultant on a number of films and documentaries, including Stephen Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Council for Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC.

His latest book is “In the Houses of Their Dead: The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits,” published by Liveright in 2022.

In 2010, Dr. Alford received the Outstanding Faculty of Virginia Award from the State Council on Higher Education. This is the highest teaching honor given to college and university faculty in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Barr teaches a variety of courses including a “Survey of U.S. History Pre-Columbian to 1877 to “The Emancipators: Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, and the Making of the Modern World.”

In 2011, Barr was the recipient of the Hay-Nicolay Dissertation Prize by the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Abraham Lincoln Institute. He was also named Outstanding Graduate Student and was honored with the John King Award from the University of Houston in 2010.

Barr earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Studies Education from the University of Kentucky. He also received a Master of Arts degree in History from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Barr earned a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. His dissertation examined the various individuals who have dissented from the positive view of Abraham Lincoln that has persisted in American life since the Civil War. It included investigations into how African-American views of Lincoln have changed since 1865 and the role of Lincoln’s memory in American conservative and liberal thought.

Barr has delivered various papers on the topic of Lincoln’s assassination to the East Texas Historical Association and to the Southwest Social Science Association.

“I think that the study of the past is one of the most important activities in which an individual can be engaged. The study of history gives students access to a range of human experience to which they are unaccustomed and unexposed, and should therefore prompt inquisitiveness into their own world and help them better understand the present.”

Michael F. Bishop is a political and nonprofit professional, historian, and freelance writer.  He recently served as a consultant in the Office of the Chairman at the National Endowment of the Humanities.

Previously, he was director of the National Churchill Library and Center at the George Washington University and executive director of the International Churchill Society.  He established the Library as a vibrant center of Churchillian activity, hosting a number of distinguished leaders in the fields of politics, the military, journalism, and history to discuss the continuing relevance of Churchill’s legacy for live and television audiences.  He also organized the successful 34th and 35th International Churchill Conferences in New York and Williamsburg, Virginia.  He worked closely with the cast and producers of Darkest Hour, the Oscar-winning film about the perilous first weeks of Churchill’s premiership.

His reviews and articles on Churchill, Lincoln, World War I, and British and Irish politics and history appear in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Review, and elsewhere.  He is the ghostwriter of a series of historical works, the most recent of which was a New York Times bestseller.

Michael spent much of his early career in politics, serving in several positions on Capitol Hill and in the White House.  He was corporate communications manager at Strategic Investment Group, a leading provider of outsourced chief investment office services.  He is the former executive director of the congressional Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and served as a consultant on Lincoln, the Steven Spielberg film.  He serves on the board of the Abraham Lincoln Institute.

Michael was educated at the University of California at Berkeley, the George Washington University, and Georgetown University.  He lives in Washington, D.C.

Sidney Blumenthal is the author of three published volumes of a projected five on the political life of Abraham Lincoln.

Degrees:

A.B. Brandeis University

Books:

• The Permanent Campaign, Beacon Press, 1980
• The Rise of the Counter-Establishment: The Conservative Ascent to Political Power, Times Books, 1986
• Our Long National Daydream: A Pageant of the Reagan Years, HarperCollins, 1988
• The Reagan Legacy, Pantheon, 1988, (Co-Editor)
• Pledging Allegiance: The Last Campaign of the Cold War, HarperCollins, 1990
• The Clinton Wars, Farrar Straus, 2003
• How Bush Rules, Princeton University Press, 2006
• The Strange Death of Republican America, Union Square Press, 2008
• A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849, Simon and Schuster, 2016
• Wrestling With His Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1849-1856, Simon & Schuster, 2017
• All the Powers of Earth, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856-1860, Simon and Schuster, 2019

Films, TV, Play:

• Taxi to the Dark Side, Executive Producer, Documentary, 2007
• Company Town, Executive Producer, Documentary, 2017
• Max, Feature Film, 2002
• Tanner ’88, Consultant, the first HBO TV series, (directed by Robert Altman; written by Garry Trudeau), 1988
• This Town, A Play, 1996

Positions:

Assistant and Senior Adviser to President Bill Clinton

Senior Adviser to Hillary Clinton

The New Yorker, Washington Editor and Staff Writer

The Washington Post, Staff Writer

The Guardian, Columnist

The New Republic, Senior Editor and Writer

Vanity Fair, Contributing Writer

GQ, Contributing Writer

Salon, Washington Editor and Columnist

Daily Beast, Political Editor

NBC Today Show, Commentator

New York University Center on Law and Security, Senior Fellow

Awards and Recognition:

• Taxi To The Dark Side, Academy Award and Emmy for Best Documentary
• The Rise of the Counter-Establishment, The New York Times Notable Book of the Year
• Pledging Allegiance, The New York Times Notable Book of the Year
• The Clinton Wars, The New York Times Bestseller
• Wrestling With His Angel, The Lincoln Group of New York Award of Achievement, Los Angeles Times Top Ten Books of 2017
• All The Powers Of Earth, Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Prize, Lincoln Forum Book Award, Plutarch Award Shortlist (Biographers International Organization), Kirkus Review Best Biography of the Year
• Elected Fellow, Society of American Historians
• Member of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Scholarly Board
• Member of the Council on Foreign Relations

Michael Burlingame is author of the acclaimed, two volume Abraham Lincoln: A Life, as well as a highly esteemed Lincoln scholar.

Degrees:

Phillips Academy, Andover, 1956-60
B.A., Princeton University, 1964
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1971

Publications:

Books: (Authored)

• Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, Southern Illinois University Press
• Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 2 volumes, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009
• Lincoln Prize, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Gettysburg College
  * Russell Strange Book Prize for the best book on Illinois history, Illinois State Historical Society
  * Co-winner, ALI Book Prize The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994

Books: (Edited)

• Abraham Lincoln: The Observations of John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Southern Illinois University Press, 2007
• Dispatches from Lincoln’s White House: The Anonymous Civil War Journalism of Presidential Secretary William O. Stoddard, by William O. Stoddard, University of Nebraska Press, 2002
• “Lincoln’s Humor” and Other Essays by Benjamin P. Thomas, University of Illinois Press, 2002
• The Real Lincoln: A Portrait by Jesse W. Weik (an expanded edition), University of Nebraska Press, 2002
• At Lincoln’s Side: John Hay’s Civil War Correspondence and Selected Writings, Southern Illinois University Press, 2000
• Inside the White House in War Times: Memoirs and Reports of Lincoln’s Secretary, by William O. Stoddard, University of Nebraska Press, 2000
• With Lincoln in the White House: John G. Nicolay’s Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings, 1860-1865, Southern Illinois University Press, 2000
• A Reporter’s Lincoln by Walter B. Stevens (an expanded edition), University of Nebraska Press, 1998
• Lincoln’s Journalist: John Hay’s Anonymous Writings for the Press, 1860-1864, Southern Illinois University Press, 1998
• Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998
• Inside Lincoln’s White House, the Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, Southern Illinois University Press, 1997
• An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln: John G. Nicolay’s Interviews and Essays, Southern Illinois University Press, 1996

Positions Past and Present:

Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies, University of Illinois Springfield, 2009-present

Sadowski Professor of History Emeritus, Connecticut College
Professor, History Department, Connecticut College, 1968-2001

Awards and Recognition:

Honorable Mention for the Lincoln Prize presented by Gettysburg College, 2001

Lincoln Diploma of Honor from Lincoln Memorial University, 1998

Abraham Lincoln Association Prize, 1996

Member of the Executive Committee, Abraham Lincoln Association (Springfield)

Joan E. Cashin is a Professor of History at Ohio State University.

Degrees:

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1985

Publications:

Books: (Authored)

• War Stuff: The Struggle for Human and Environmental Resources in the American Civil War, Cambridge University Press, 2018.
• First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis’s Civil War, Harvard University Press, 2006* Winner, Fletcher Pratt Award, 2008
• Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post named First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis’s Civil War* One of the best nonfiction books of the year
• A Family Venture, Men and Women on the Southern Frontier, 1991

Books: (Edited)

• War Matters: Material Culture in the Civil War Era, University of North Carolina Press, 2018
• Our Common Affairs; Texts from Women in the Old South, 1996
• The War Was You and Me: Civilians in the American Civil War, 2002
• Series at Johns Hopkins University Press on the history of gender, co-edited with Professor Ron Walters

Positions Past and Present:

Beveridge-Dunning Prize Committee for the AHA

Merrill Travel Grant Committee and the Lerner-Scott Dissertation Prize Committee for the OAH

Lincoln Prize Committee

Book Prize Committee for the Berkshire Conference for Women Historians

Editorial Board of the Journal of Family History

Grants and Fellowships:

Recipient of a Huntington Library Fellowship

Two Travel Grants from the NEH

Mellon Travel Grant

Fellowships to the Virginia Center for the Humanities at the University of Virginia and the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University

Joshua A. Claybourn is an attorney and historian focusing primarily on Abraham Lincoln’s youth. He is the author or editor of several books, including Abe’s Youth: Shaping the Future President. He frequently serves as a featured speaker on Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. Claybourn’s legal practice focuses on intellectual property, government, and commercial transactions. Visit him online at JoshClaybourn.com

Publications:

Editor of Abraham Lincoln’s Wilderness Years: Collected Works of J. Edward Murr (Indiana University Press, 2022)

Co-editor (with William Bartelt) of Abe’s Youth: Shaping the Future President (Indiana University Press, 2019)

Editor of Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative (Potomac Books, 2019)

Positions Past and Present:

Board member of the Abraham Lincoln Association

Past chair of the Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable

First commander and current officer of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War John W. Foster Camp No. 2

Past trustee and president of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library

Jason Emerson is an independent historian who has been researching and writing about Abraham Lincoln and his family for the past 25 years. He is the author or editor of eight books, dozens of articles and reviews, and has appeared as a historical expert in multiple television shows. His books The Madness of Mary Lincoln and Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln both were named Book of the Year by the Illinois State Historical Society.

Jason previously worked as a National Park Service park ranger at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois, which is where he developed his passion for Abraham Lincoln studies.

View Jason’s website @ jasonemerson.com

Books:

• Mary Lincoln for the Ages, Southern Illinois University Press, April 2019
• Lincoln’s Lover: Mary Lincoln in Poetry, Kent State University Press, 2018
• Mary Lincoln’s Insanity Case: A Documentary History, University of Illinois Press, 2012
• Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln, Southern Illinois University Press, 2012
• The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow As Revealed by Her Own Letters (editor) Southern Illinois University Press, 2011
• Lincoln the Inventor, Southern Illinois University Press, 2009
• The Madness of Mary Lincoln, Southern Illinois University Press, 2007

E-Books:

• Mary Lincoln’s Insanity: The Discovery of Her Lost Letters, New Word City, Inc., 2012
• The Assassination Letters, New Word City, Inc., 2011
• Abraham Lincoln’s Son for President, New Word City, Inc., 2011

Articles and Reviews:
Jason has had numerous articles and reviews published in popular magazines, scholarly journals, and various websites, including:

• American Heritage
• Invention & Technology
• Defense Transportation Journal
• American History
• Civil War Monitor
• Civil War Times
• Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
• The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
• Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
• Lincoln Herald
• Lincoln Forum Bulletin
• New York Times online
• History News Network

Awards

Book of the Year, 2012, Illinois State Historical Society, Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln.

Superior Achievement Award, 2012, Illinois State Historical Society, Mary Lincoln’s Insanity Case: A Documentary History.

Certificate of Excellence, 2009, Illinois State Historical Society, Lincoln the Inventor.

Book of the Year, 2007, Illinois State Historical Society, The Madness of Mary Lincoln.

Clark Evans served for 38 years in the Rare Book Reading Room at the Library of Congress, home of the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana.

Publications:

Mr. Evans has authored Lincoln related articles for the Lincoln Herald, the Lincolnian, and the Dime Novel Round-Up.

Public Speaking:

• Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia
• Lincoln Memorial University
• Maryland Historical Society
• Popular Culture Association
• The Surratt Society

Past and Present Positions:

First President of Abraham Lincoln Institute, 1997-2000

President of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, two terms: 1990-1992

Thomas A. Horrocks is an independent scholar and former library administrator. Dr. Horrocks is a historian with research interests in the political history of 19th century America, Abraham Lincoln, and the history of the book in American culture.

Degrees:

B.A. Villanova University
M.A. Villanova University
M.S.L.S. Drexel University
Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania

Publications:

• The Annotated Lincoln, Harvard University Press, 2015
• Lincoln’s Campaign Biographies, Southern Illinois University Press, 2014
• The Living Lincoln, Southern Illinois University Press, 2011
• President James Buchanan and the Crisis of National Leadership, Nova Publishing, 2012
• Popular Print and Popular Medicine: Almanacs and Health Advice in Early America, University of Massachusetts Press, 2008
• Harvard’s Lincoln, Harvard Library Bulletin, 19 [2008]: 1-80

Positions Past and Present:

Director, Special Collections and the John Hay Library, Brown University

Director, Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Director, Francis C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine and Librarian, College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Charles Hubbard is a Professor of History and the Lincoln Historian at Lincoln Memorial University.

Degrees:

Ph.D., American Diplomatic History, University of Tennessee

Publications:

• Corregidor in War and Peace, University of Missouri Press, 2007
• Lincoln Reshapes the Presidency, Mercer University Press, 2002
• Historic Reflections on U.S. Governance and Civil Society, De La Salle University Press, 1999
• Lincoln and His Contemporaries, Mercer University Press, 1998
• The Burden of Confederate Diplomacy, University of Tennessee Press, 1997
• Lincoln and His Contemporaries, Mercer University Press, 1998
• The Many Faces of Lincoln, Mayhaven Press

Dr. Hubbard has also written many articles on Lincoln and the Civil War for various publications including, “The Confederate Lobby and the Blockade Debate of 1862” for the Journal of Civil War History and “Lincoln and the Chicken Bone Case,” for the American History Magazine.

Positions Past and Present:

Director, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum

Senior Fulbright Scholar

Managing Editor, Lincoln Herald

Member, Tennessee Historical Commission

Board of Directors, Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission

A lifelong independent Lincoln researcher and career scientist, David J. Kent is the Immediate Past President of the Abraham Lincoln Group of Washington D.C. He has written six books, his most recent being Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. He has also served as president four times for several regional scientific organizations.

His website is davidjkent-writer.com

Degrees:

B.S. University of Bridgeport, Marine Biology
M.S. Rutgers University, Environmental Science
Ph.D. ABD George Mason University, Environmental Science and Policy

Publications:

• Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America, Lyons Press. 2022
• Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. Fall River Press. 2017
• Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World. Fall River Press. 2016
• Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. Fall River Press. 2013
• Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. Amazon e-book. 2015
• Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time. Amazon e-book. 2014

Past and Present Positions:

Immediate Past President of Lincoln Group of DC (2024-present)

Historian, Lincoln Group of DC (2024-present)

Lincolniana Editor, The Lincoln Herald (2024-present)

President of Lincoln Group of DC (2021-2024)

Vice President of Education and Outreach, Lincoln Group of DC (2014-2016, 2018-2021)

Vice President of Programs, Lincoln Group of DC (2016-2018)

President, CPRC-SETAC (2001-2002, 2013-2014)

President, NCAC-SRA (2002-2003)

President, Biology Society, UB (1979-1980)

Author/Freelance Writer (2013-present)

Senior Scientist, series of Consulting Firms in NJ and Washington DC (1986-2013)

Awards and Recognition:

Lincoln Legacy Award, Lincoln Society at Peekskill (2023)
Wendy Allen Award on behalf of LGDC, Lincoln Forum (2022)
Outstanding Regional Chapter Member Award, SETAC (2015)
Presidential Citations, SETAC (2016, 2015, 2005)
Distinguished Service Award winner, CPRC (2002)
Executive Director’s Citation, SETAC (1996)
Certificate of Recognition, NOAA, NMFS (1985)
Biology Major Award, University of Bridgeport (1980)

Michelle A. Krowl is the Civil War and Reconstruction specialist in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. She was previously a research assistant for historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and an assistant professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College.

Degrees:

Ph.D., History, University of California at Berkeley, 1998
Dissertation: “Dixie’s Other Daughters: African-American Women in Virginia, 1861-1868.”
M.A. History, University of California, Berkeley, 1993
B.A. History, University of California, Riverside 1991

Publications:

• “Theodore Roosevelt at the Library of Congress,” Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal XLII, no. 4 (Fall 2021): 7-29.
• “Charles Wellington Reed: The Civil War Through an Artist’s Eyes,” Monroe County Civil War Roundtable online presentation, March 9, 2021. Available on Monroe County History Center YouTube channel.
• “’Your name will be handed down’: Clara Barton at the Library of Congress,” National Museum of Civil War Medicine online presentation, September 24, 2020. Available on NMCWM YouTube channel.
• “Antonia Ford Willard: Southern Belle, Yankee Wife,” in Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times, volume 1, edited by Cynthia A. Kierner and Sandra Gioia Treadway (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2015), 323-343.
• The World War II Memorial: Honoring the Price of Freedom, Donning Company Publishers, 2008. Published in cooperation with the National Park Service
• Women of the Civil War. Women Who Dare series. Pomegranate Communications, Inc., in cooperation with the Library of Congress, 2006
• “Cheatham, Benjamin Franklin” and “Cox, Lucy Ann White” in Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Volume 3, Caperton-Daniels. Senior editor Sara B. Bearss, Library of Virginia, 2006
• Quantico: Semper Progredi, Always Forward, with Bradley E. Gernand, Donning Company Publishers, 2005
• “‘In the Spirit of Fraternity’: The United States Government and the Burial of Confederate Dead in Arlington National Cemetery, 1864-1914,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 111, no. 2, 2003
• “For Better or Worse: Black Families and ‘the State’ in Civil War Virginia,” in Southern Families at War: Loyalty and Conflict in the Civil War South, edited by Catherine Clinton, Oxford University Press, 2000
• “‘Her Just Dues’: Civil War Pensions of African-American Women in Virginia,” in Negotiating the Boundaries of Southern Womanhood: Dealing with the Powers that Be. Southern Women series, Volume 4. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2000
• “Black Codes,” “Casey Hayden,” “The Emancipation Proclamation,” “National Organization for Women,” and “Students for a Democratic Society,” in Civil Rights in the United States, edited by Waldo E. Martin and Patricia Sullivan, Macmillan Reference, 2000
• “African American Women and the United States Military in Civil War Virginia,” in Afro-Virginian History and Culture. Edited by John Saillant. Cross Currents in African American History series, edited by Graham R. Hodges and Margaret Washington, Garland Publishing, 1999

Gordon Leidner is the author and webmaster of Great American History, a Civil War web site popular among students and educators. Gordon Leidner is originally from Greenville, Illinois.

Degrees:

M.G.A., Applied Management, University of Maryland University College

B.S., Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, University of Illinois

Books:

• “Abraham Lincoln and the Bible: A Complete Compendium, 2023.”
• Leadership Secrets of Hamilton: 7 Steps to Revolutionary Leadership by Alexander Hamilton and the Founding Fathers, Simple Truths, 2017
• Conversations With Lincoln: Little-Known Stories of Those Who Met America’s Sixteenth President, Cumberland House, 2016
• Lincoln’s Gift: How Humor Shaped Lincoln’s Life and Legacy, Cumberland House, 2015
• Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches, Cumberland House, 2009
• A Commitment to Honor: A Unique Portrait of Abraham Lincoln in His Own Words, Rutledge Hill Press
• Lincoln on God and Country, White Mane Publishers
• Abraham Lincoln: The Complete Book of Facts, Quizzes, and Trivia, White Mane Publishers
  * History Book Club selection, May 2001

Articles:

Leidner has written numerous articles on Lincoln, including those discussing modern transformational leadership theory published in the Lincoln Herald and Columbia: A Quarterly Review of the War Between the States.

“How Many Lincoln Bibles?” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 41, no. 1.

Public Speaking:

Leidner has lectured on Lincoln at the Smithsonian Institution and Johns Hopkins University.

Positions Past and Present:

Treasurer, Abraham Lincoln Institute

Web Site Liaison, Abraham Lincoln Institute

President, Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, 2002-2004.

Stacy Lynn earned a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Illinois in 2007 and is the author of two books—The Jury in Lincoln’s America (Ohio, 2012) and Mary Lincoln: Southern Girl, Northern Woman (Routledge, 2015). From 1996-2016, she was an editor at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln and co-edited the four-volume Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases (Virginia, 2008). She is currently an associate editor at the Jane Addams Papers Project; and is working on her third book, tentatively titled A Woman’s Biography of Abraham Lincoln, under contract with Southern Illinois University Press to be published in early 2024.

Publications:

• The Jury in Lincoln’s America (Ohio University Press, 2012)
• Mary Lincoln: Southern Girl, Northern Woman (Routledge, 2015)

Blog:

macksmommabear.com

Fred Martin is an author and writer, currently working on a new book on Abraham Lincoln, Reconstruction and Civil Rights. Martin retired in 1993 as Senior Vice President & Director of Governmental Relations for Bank of America. Invited to join the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California Berkley, he was a Visiting Scholar until 2016. Martin invested 20 years in research for his Lincoln book working at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and other repositories in the United States. He also served as a director of 21st Century Insurance and as a consultant with California firms in health care, technology, engineering, educational lending and banking. Hewlett Packard was a client. Martin taught a course on Public Affairs Reporting at San Francisco State University. In 2018 Martin returned to Korea and with Bob Willard keynoted the formation of the Korean Abraham Lincoln Society. The Society was formed by Koreans as they evolve their plan for peace, prosperity and reunification seeing he study of Lincoln as a way to map their own reunification with Malice Toward None.

Degrees:

B.A., History, University of Denver

Senior Managers in Government, John F. Kennedy School, Harvard University

Theology, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA

Publications:

• Abraham Lincoln’s Path to Reelection in 1864: Our Greatest Victory
• “The Lost Chapter in Korean History, Evolving Democracy, and an Opportunity for Peace and Security in the North Pacific”, Institute of Governmental Studies, 2007
• Extensive articles on San Francisco politics, business and government in San Francisco Business Magazine

Past and Present Positions:

Public and Governmental Relations, Bank of America, 1971-93.

Vice President & Assistant General Manager, The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, 1964-1971.

Urban Affairs Writer, San Francisco Examiner.

The Associated Press, Service in Sacramento, CA; San Francisco, CA; Portland, OR; and Salem, OR.

The United States Army, Infantry Lieutenant, Korea, 1955- 1957.

The Denver Post Reporter, 1950-54, Martin worked the night shift while a student in history at the University of Denver.

Edna Greene Medford is Professor of History Emerita at Howard University. She specializes in 19th century US history, with an emphasis on slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction. She is currently assigned to the Office of the Provost and was former Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs.

Education:

• University of Maryland, College Park—Ph.D., United States History
• University of Illinois, Urbana—M.A., U.S. History
• Hampton Institute (now Hampton University)—B.S, Teacher Education

Past Positions:

• Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
• Chair, Department of History
• Graduate Director, Department of History
• Undergraduate Director, Department of History
• Director, History Component of the African Burial Ground Project (New York)

Lincoln-Related Publications:
Books

• Lincoln and Emancipation (2015; paperback 2020)
• The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (co-authored, 2006)

Articles

• • “Lincoln’s Legacy of Justice and Equality of Opportunity: The Challenge a Century and a Half Later,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Volume 37, Issue 1, Winter 2016.
  • “`Some Satisfactory Way’: Lincoln and Emancipation in the District of Columbia,” Washington History, 21 (Fall 2009).
  • “Lincoln and the Constitutional Dilemma of Emancipation,” Organization of American
    Historians Magazine of History (January 2007).
  • “When Freedom Came: Emancipation and the Question of Timing, Lincoln Lore, Spring 2016.

Book Chapters

• • • “‘I Claim Not to Have Controlled Events’: Lincoln, Leadership, and the Emancipation
      Struggle,” in Lincoln, the Law, and Presidential Leadership, edited by Charles M. Hubbard. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015).
    • “Allies or Adversaries: Lincoln, Douglass and Black Suffrage,” in Harold Holzer and
      Sara Gabbard, eds., 1865: America Makes War and Peace in Lincoln’s Final Year.
      Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015.
    • “Confronting Race in American History,” in Michael B. Ballard and Mark R. Cheathem,
      eds., Of Times and Race. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013.
    • “The Day of Jubilee,” in Harold Holzer and Sara Gabbard, eds., 1863: Lincoln’s Pivotal
      Year. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2013.
    • “Lincoln and Race in Nineteenth Century Perspective,” in Thomas Horrocks, Harold
      Holzer, and Frank Williams, The Living Lincoln. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois
      University Press, 2011.
    • “Abraham Lincoln and African American Memory,” in Lincoln Lessons, edited by Frank Williams and William Pederson. Carbondale: IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009.
    • “Complex and Imperfect,” in Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President, edited by Brian Lamb and Susan Swain. New York: Public Affairs, 2008.

Dr. Lucas Morel is the Lewis G. John Term Professor and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University, where he teaches courses on American government, political philosophy, black American politics, and Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Morel is also a past president and chairman of the board of Abraham Lincoln Institute (2011-2013).

Degrees:

Ph.D., Political Science, Claremont Graduate School, 1994
B.A., Government, Claremont McKenna College, 1987
D.H.L., Illinois College (Honorary Degree), 2009

Books:

• • • Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages, 2014
    • Editor, Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to “Invisible Man,” 2004
    • Contributing Editor, Books and Culture: A Christian Review

Articles — Dr. Morel’s most recently published articles include:

• • • “Of Justice and Mercy in Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address,” Journal of American Political Thought, vol. 4 (Summer 2015)
    • Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln, Brookhiser, book review, in Claremont Review of Books (Spring 2015) and “Upon Further Review,” an extended discussion with the author posted online (June 2015)
    • “Abraham Lincoln’s Religion,” co-authored with Samuel W. Calhoun, Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, vol. 33, no. 1 (Winter 2012)
    • “Lincoln and the Constitution: A Unionist for the Sake of Liberty,” Journal of Supreme Court History (2011)
    • “Lincoln, Race, and the Spirit of ’76,” Perspectives on Political Science (2010)
    • “Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address: War and Remembrance,” On Principle (2009)

Dr. Morel has also written for the following publications:

Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
Journal of American Political Thought
Lincoln Lore
Los Angeles Times
Christian Science Monitor
First Things
The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Commentary:

Dr. Morel has been a guest commentator on CNN’s TalkBack Live, as well as on New Hampshire, Virginia, and Wisconsin Public Radio programs.

Public Speaking:

• • • Dr. Morel has had several speaking engagements, including his insightful message, “The Problem of Black History: Race, Memory, and the American Creed,” at The Heritage Foundation, February 12, 2008.

Positions Past and Present:

Abraham Lincoln Association, Board Member (2010-present)

Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission-Board of Scholarly Advisors

United States Semiquincentennial Commission (2017-present)

Library of Congress, Advisory Board, Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Exhibit (2010-present)

Lincoln Prize Award Jury (chair, 2014-15; 2013-14; 2008-09)

Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College-Board of Advisors (2002-06)

Master of Arts in American History and Government Faculty and Advisory Board, Ashland University (2005-present)

Supreme Court Historical Society, Trustee (2002-present), Book Award Committee (chair, 2014, and 2007), and Publications Committee (2004-present)

Michael Musick, now retired, served as Subject Area Expert for the U.S. Civil War at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. for 35 years.

Publications:

• • • Multiple articles in the Washington Post’s Civil War Sesquicentennial series “A House Divided”
    • Sixth Virginia Cavalry, Lynchburg, 1990
    • With Ross M. Kimmel, “I Am Busy Drawing Pictures” The Civil War Art and Letters of Private John Jacob Omenhausser, CSA (Annapolis: Friends of the Maryland State Archives, 2014)
    • Entries in Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War, New York, 1986
    • With James I. Robertson, et al., Index-Guide to the Southern Historical Society Papers, 1876-1959, New York, 1980
    • “Alonzo Wayne Crawford” in Martin Windrow and Frederick Wilkinson, eds., The Universal Soldier, New York, 1971, with B.K. Kummerow and W.L. Brown
    • Articles in Civil War Times Illustrated; Manuscripts
      Prologue to The Journal of the National Archives and other publications

* One of Mr. Musick’s Prologue articles won the Harold L. Peterson Award of the Eastern Parks and Monuments Association for best military history-related article.

Positions Past and Present:

Consultant for The Civil War, a nine-part PBS television series by Ken Burns, 1990

Board of Directors, Shepherd College Center for the Study of the Civil War

Advisory Board, Lincoln Forum

Founding Member and Past President, Harpers Ferry Civil War Round Table

Past President, Abraham Lincoln Institute

Guest Lecturer on the American Civil War, Martin Luther University, Wittenburg, Germany

Trevor Plante is Acting Chief of Reference at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and specializes in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century military records.

Rodney Ross, formerly Reference Archivist with the Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, was born, raised and educated in Illinois.

Degrees:

Batavia High, Batavia, IL, 1961
B.A., History, Knox College, 1965
Ph.D., American History, University of Chicago, 1975

Publications:

• • • “Mary Todd Lincoln, Patient at Bellevue Place, Batavia”, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring 1970
    • “The National Archives: The Formative Years, 1934-1949”, Guardian of Heritage: Essays on the History of the National Archives, 1985
    • “Using the U.S. Congressional Serial Set for the Study of Western History”, The Western Historical Quarterly, Summer 1994
    • “A Period of Transition: Foundation Publications of the U.S. National Military Establishment”, Journal of Government Information, 1999
    • “Establishing the National Archives”, Prologue, June 2004
    • Guide to Records of the United States House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989, co-author with Charles E. Schamel, Mary Rephlo, David Kepley, Robert W. Coren, and James Gregory Brasher
    • Illinois Heritage Map, Illinois-related sites in the nation’s capital, 2001

Positions and Projects:

Various positions with the National Archives, 1977 to 2016

Now Retired as Archivist, National Archives, Center for Legislative Archives

Nixon Presidential Materials Project

White House Liaison Officer, Reagan Administration, 1980-1984

Legislative Assistant to an Illinois Congressman, 94th Congress

Lecturer, Indian University Northwest, 1972

Lecturer, Wilberforce University, 1967-69

Home Address:
1311 Delaware Ave., SW Apt. S849
Washington, DC. 20024

Scott A. Sandage is a historian who specializes in American culture and identity, 1820-1940. He is currently writing Laughing Buffalo in Paris: A Tall Tale from the Half-Breed Rez, about how family folklore shapes racial identity over multiple generations and in different branches of descendants. Active as a public historian, he has consulted for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, the National Park Service, the Andy Warhol Museum, an off-Broadway play, film and radio documentaries, and the 2009 exhibition “Abraham Lincoln in New York: A Bicentennial Celebration.” In 1999-2000, he chaired a scholarly panel to recommend inscriptions for the wheelchair sculpture at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. His writings and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, Slate, and many other mainstream venues.

Degrees:

Ph.D. 1995, M.A. 1992, Department of History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.

B.A. 1985, summa cum laude, German, University of Iowa.

Selected Publications:

• • • Born Losers: A History of Failure in America (Harvard University Press, 2005).
    • 失敗萬歲 [Born Losers] (Taiwan: New Century Publishing Co., 2007).
    • 天生失败者：从小人物身上汲取失败的教训 [Born Losers] (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2007).
    • 負け組」のアメリカ史―アメリカン・ドリームを支えた失敗者たち [Born Losers] (Tokyo: Seidosha, 2007).
    • Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville [annotated abridgement] (HarperCollins, 2007).
    • “The Gilded Age,” in A Companion to American Cultural History (Blackwell, 2008), 139-153.
    • “A Marble House Divided: The Lincoln Memorial, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Politics of Memory, 1939-1963,” Journal of American History, 80 (June 1993): 135-167; reprinted in Time Longer than Rope: A Century of African American Activism (NYU, 2003), 492-535.
    • “An Educated Consumer,” New York Times Book Review, March 29, 2015.
    • “‘I have never been up’ The Meme of Lincoln as a ‘failure at 50,” May 28, 2014; www.slate.com
    • “Epic Fail,” The New York Times Book Review, April 6, 2014.

Positions Past and Present:

Associate Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon University, 1996-present.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University, 1995-1996

Awards and Honors:

Distinguished Lecturer, Organization of American Historians, 2017-present.

Top Young Historians, History News Network, 2007.

Senior Faculty Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007-2008.

Elliot Dunlap Smith Award for Distinguished Teaching and Educational Service, CMU, 2006.

Thomas J. Wilson Prize, for the best first book accepted by Harvard University Press in 2003.

J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship, American Historical Association/Library of Congress, 1997-1998.

Louis Pelzer Memorial Award, Organization of American Historians, “Marble House Divided,” best graduate student article, 1993.

Bryant Spann Memorial Prize, Eugene V. Debs Foundation, “A Marble House Divided,” 1992.

Diana Schaub is Professor of Political Science at Loyola University Maryland and a Visiting Scholar in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department at the American Enterprise Institute. She was the Garwood Teaching Fellow at Princeton University in 2011-12 and Visiting Professor of Political Theory in the Government Department at Harvard University in fall 2018, fall 2020, and spring 2022.

Education

Ph.D. in Political Science, The University of Chicago, 1992
A.B., Summa cum laude with highest honors in Political Science, Kenyon College, 1981

Lincoln-related Book Chapters, Articles, and Reviews

His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation (St. Martin’s Press, 2021)

“The Invention of Slavery: Lincoln on whether technology makes us free,” New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology & Society (Fall 2021)

Review of The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom by H.W. Brands, Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2021.

“Emancipating the Mind: Lincoln, the Founders, and Scientific Progress,” 2018 Walter Berns Constitution Day Lecture (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 2018)

“Lincoln and ‘The Public Estimate of the Negro’: from Anti-Amalgamation to Antislavery,” in The Political Thought of the Civil War, edited by Alan Levine, Thomas Merrill, and James Stoner (University Press of Kansas, 2018)

“Lincoln and the Daughters of Dred Scott: A Reflection on the Declaration of Independence,” in When in the Course of Human Events: 1776 at Home, Abroad, and in American Memory, edited by Will R. Jordan (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2018)

“Abraham Lincoln’s commentary on the “plain unmistakable language” of the Declaration of Independence,” Liberal Moments: Reading Liberal Texts, edited by Alan S. Kahan and Ewa Atanassow (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017)

Review of Redeeming the Great Emancipator by Allen C. Guelzo, Society, March/April 2017

“Lincoln at Gettysburg,” National Affairs, Spring 2014

“Learning to Love Lincoln: Frederick Douglass’s Journey from Grievance to Gratitude,” in Lincoln & Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages, ed. Lucas E. Morel (University Press of Kentucky, 2014).

“Lincoln for Liberals,” review of Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism, by John Burt, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2013, followed by Upon Further Review: “Abraham Lincoln and Moral Conflict: A CRB Discussion featuring John Burt and Diana Schaub,” Spring 2014

“From Statesman to Secular Saint: Booker T. Washington on Abraham Lincoln,” in Natural Right and Political Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Catherine Zuckert and Michael Zuckert, ed. Ann Ward and Lee Ward (University of Notre Dame Press, 2013).

“Monumental Battles: Why We Build Memorials,” The Weekly Standard, 28 May 2012

“The Great Debate,” Claremont Review of Books, vol. IX, no. 1 (Winter 2008/9)

“Mystic Chords of Memory,” review of Lincoln’s American Dream: Clashing Political Perspectives, edited by Kenneth L. Deutsch and Joseph R. Fornieri, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2006

“Abraham Lincoln and the Pillars of Liberty, Academic Questions, Spring 2003

Review of A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War by Harry V. Jaffa, Society, September/October 2002

Lincoln-related Public Lectures

The Charles E. Test Distinguished Lecture Series at Princeton, April 30-May 2, 2019:

• • • Lecture 1: Abraham Lincoln and the Daughters of Dred Scott
    • Lecture 2: Abraham Lincoln and the “Malignant Heart”
    • Lecture 3: Booker T. Washington and the Lessons of Lincoln

Professor Schaub speaks on Lincoln at campuses across the country. Over the past decade, she has lectured at American University, Assumption College, Furman University, Harvard University, Linfield College, Mercer University, University of Notre Dame, Princeton University, Roosevelt University, Saint Vincent College, St. John’s College, Skidmore University, Texas Tech University, Tulane University, UCLA, University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Missouri, University of Montana, University of Nevada, Washington and Lee University, Xavier University, and Yale University.

Media

Conversations with Bill Kristol, Diana Schaub on Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

“Lincoln’s Greatest Speeches: A Book Talk with Diana Schaub, hosted by AEI, December 20, 2021

“Lincoln’s Speeches and the Refounding of America,” hosted by the National Constitution Center, November 29, 2021

Scholar Talks, hosted by the Bill of Rights Institute

The Great Books podcast

The New Thinkery podcast

National Archives event, February 17, 2022

Conversations with Bill Kristol, “Diana Schaub on Lincoln’s Political Thought,” July 27, 2019

Podcast on Lincoln for National Affairs, June 28, 2019

“Lincoln and the Constitution,” a four-part video series: Lincoln and the Slavery Question (with Diana Schaub and Lucas Morel) Lincoln, Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief (with Diana Schaub, Ben Kleinerman, and Mackubin Owens) Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address (with Diana Schaub and Leon Kass) Lincoln and the Reframing of America (with Diana Schaub, Allen Guelzo, and Michael Zuckert)

“The Declaration in a House Divided,” video program for The Jack Miller Center For Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History

Appointments and Awards

Advisory Council of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, February 2019

Sidney Award (for the best magazine essays of 2014) for “Lincoln at Gettysburg,” National Affairs, Spring 2014

Scott T. Schroeder is a professional Physical Therapist and Certified Athletic Trainer currently working in clinical practice in southern Indiana. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in his professional fields and serves as an adjunct faculty member in professional programs at Indiana University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He also works as an independent historian focusing on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era and speaks regularly on those topics. He is actively involved in research and manuscript preparation for several article and book projects. He has led tours for Lincoln related sites and is in the process of developing and/or co-developing multimedia projects related to the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.

Publications:

Mr. Schroeder has authored Lincoln related articles for the Surratt Courier and for For the People: The Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association.

Public Speaking and Class Instruction:

• Bloomington Humanities Center
• Cincinnati Civil War Roundtable
• Clarksville Civil War Roundtable
• Friends of the Watertown Public Library
• Hamilton County Civil War Roundtable
• Hoosier Lines Model Railroad Club
• Indianapolis Civil War Roundtable
• Lew Wallace Study and Museum
• Monroe County Civil War Roundtable
• Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable
• Surratt Society

Past and Present Positions:

• Board of Advisors, The Lincoln Forum
• Board of Directors, Abraham Lincoln Association
• President, Monroe County Civil War Roundtable (Indiana)
• Program Coordinator, Monroe County Civil War Roundtable (Indiana)

Ron Soodalter is a full-time writer. Ron Soodalter In addition to his two current books, Soodalter is featured in six others, and has had over 450 articles published in such periodicals as the New York Times, Smithsonian, Civil War Times, Military History, New York Archives, and America’s Civil War. He is the recipient of the International and Regional Magazine Association’s 2010 Gold Award, 2014 Award of Merit, and 2016 Silver Award.

Soodalter has taught in various schools throughout New York State, and in New York City’s Riker’s Island Prison. He worked as curator of a Colorado history museum, where he served on the Board of Directors of the 10-state Mountain-Plains Museums Conference. Soodalter studied Flamenco guitar with the world renowned Carlos Montoya, and has played professionally all his life. He is a dedicated student of folk music, and has collected traditional ballads in the United States, Ireland, and Scotland. Also an accomplished scrimshaw artist, Soodalter has been featured in a prominent Manhattan art gallery.

Soodalter currently serves on the Advisory Board of the S.S. Columbia Project, and is a member of the Western Writers of America. He has two daughters, Jesse and Melora, and a granddaughter, Nico, and a grandson, Bennett Lincoln, and lives with his wife Jane in Cold Spring, New York.

Degrees:

B.A., American History
M.A., Education
M.A., American Folk Culture

Books:

• • • The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today, Berkeley Press, January 2009
    • Co-authored with Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves
    • Hanging Captain Gordon: The Life and Trial of an American Slave Trader, Simon & Schuster, 2006

JAMES L. SWANSON is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer and its sequel, Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse. Manhunt won the Edgar Award for best nonfiction crime book of the year. James’s page-turning, you-are-there, historic crime dramas include the bestselling classic Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, an adaptation of Manhunt for young readers, which has more than one million copies in print. His pictorial book Lincoln’s Assassins: Their Trial and Execution is an acclaimed photo history of the crime, the pursuit of the conspirators, and their fates. He also wrote about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in his award-winning young adult book, “The President Has Been Shot!”: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy as well as in the adult version, End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. His most recent book, Chasing King’s Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Assassin, received the 2019 Jefferson Cup Award for Young Adult Readers and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens. He was a recipient of a Historic Deerfield Fellowship in Early American History, and he serves on the advisory councils of the Ford’s Theatre Society and the Gettysburg Foundation. He also serves on the board of the Abraham Lincoln Association. He is a U.S. Senate-appointed commissioner on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, the federal body created by Congress to plan the forthcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. James has degrees in history and in law from the University of Chicago and UCLA, and he has held a number of government and think-tank posts in Washington, DC, including at the United States Department of Justice.

Follow him on Twitter @JamesLSwanson

Paul R. Tetreault is the current Director of Ford’s Theatre and Museum in Washington, D.C.

Degrees:

B.S., Emerson College, Boston, MA
M.F.A., City University of New York-Brooklyn College

Positions Past and Present:

Director, Ford’s Theatre and Museum, Washington, DC

Managing Director, Alley Theatre, Houston, TX

Director of Finance, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

Vice President, C.W. Shaver and Company, Inc., New York, NY

Crossroads Theatre Company, New Brunswick, NJ

Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley, CA

Circle Repertory Company, New York, NY

Board of the Washington, D.C. Downtown Business Improvement District (BID)

The Executive Committee, League of Resident Theatres (LORT)

Panelist, National Endowment for the Arts

Chair of the Theater District Association (Houston)

The National Council for the Atlantic Center for the Arts

Guest Lecturer:

• • • Brooklyn College
    • Columbia University
    • Rice University
    • University of Houston
    • New York University

Derek Webb is an associate at Sidley Austin, LLP in Washington, D.C. where he focuses on Supreme Court and appellate litigation.

He received his B.A. in philosophy from Yale University, Ph.D. in political theory from the University of Notre Dame, and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He has held academic fellowships at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, and Stanford Law School’s Constitutional Law Center. He was a law clerk to Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a Supreme Court Fellow in the Office of the Counselor to the Chief Justice. He is the author of numerous articles on American political thought and legal and constitutional history in both law reviews and other scholarly journals, including the entry for Abraham Lincoln in the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States and “The Somerset Effect: Parsing Lord Mansfield’s Words on Slavery in Nineteenth Century America” in Law and History Review.

Jonathan W. White is professor of American Studies and a senior fellow with the Center for American Studies at Christopher Newport University, in Newport News, Virginia.

Degrees:

B.A., Department of History, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 2001
M.A., Department of History, The University of Maryland at College Park, 2003
Ph.D., Department of History, The University of Maryland at College Park, 2008

Books:

• A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House, 2022
• To Address You As My Friend: African Americans’ Letters to Abraham Lincoln, with a foreword by Edna Greene Medford, 2021
• My Work among the Freedmen: The Civil War and Reconstruction Letters of Harriet M. Buss, edited with Lydia J. Davis, with a foreword by Hilary Green, 2021
• Ex Parte Milligan Reconsidered: Race and Civil Liberties from the Lincoln Administration to the War on Terror, edited with Stewart L. Winger, with a foreword by Laura F. Edwards, 2020
• College Life during the Civil War: The Letters of Singleton Ashenfelter, Dickinson College Class of 1865, edited with Daniel Glenn, 2019
• “Our Little Monitor”: The Greatest Invention of the Civil War, with Anna Gibson Holloway, 2018
• Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep and Dreams during the Civil War, 2017
• Lincoln on Law, Leadership and Life, 2015
• Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln, 2014
  * Winner of the Abraham Lincoln Institute 2015 Book Prize
  * Finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize and the Jefferson Davis Prize
• Civic Education and the Future of American Citizenship, edited with Elizabeth Kaufer Busch, 2012
• Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War: The Trials of John Merryman, 2011
• Guide to Research in Federal Judicial History, 2010
  * Winner of the 2012 Thomas Jefferson Book Award, Society for History in the Federal Government.
• A Philadelphia Perspective: The Civil War Diary of Sidney George Fisher, 2007

jonathanwhite.org

Bob Willard, current board member and past president of both the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Abraham Lincoln Institute and current advisor to The Lincoln Forum, is a retired government and industry professional with experience in both market management and information policy advocacy and with a comprehensive knowledge of the application of information technology to public needs.

Mr. Willard is a long-time collector of books and other material about Abraham Lincoln, and has advised agencies involved in digitization of Lincoln material.

Degrees:

B.S.F.S., International Relations, Georgetown University
M.S.A., Operations Research and Systems Analysis, George Washington University

Positions Past and Present:

Appointee by President Clinton to U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), 1994-98. NCLIS was an independent Federal agency whose part-time Members advise the President and Congress on the information needs of the American public.

Executive Director of NCLIS, full time, 1998-2004

Vice President for Government Relations, Lawyers Cooperative Publishing
Director, Government Marketing for Mead Data Central, Inc., an electronic publisher now named LexisNexis)

Vice President, Government Relations of the Information Industry Association

Founder and Director, the Washington office of the Data Processing Management Association

Former Treasurer of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia

Congressional staff member, educational fund raiser, and a decorated Army officer with service in Korea, Vietnam, and the Pentagon.