 Mrs. Kathryn W. Davis and her family recently awarded the Papers of
Abraham Lincoln a five-year grant of $1,412,993 to support the
search for Lincoln documents at the National Archives in Washington,
D.C.Mrs. Davis, 101, is a noted philanthropist and the widow of
Shelby Cullom Davis, the great-nephew of Sen. and Gov. Shelby M.
Cullom (1829-1914). Cullom was both a legal and political
contemporary of Abraham Lincoln and an active organizer of the
nation's celebration of the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth in
1909. He also served as the chairman of the commission to erect the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation will
administer the grant for the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.
"Our family has long been connected with the legacy of Abraham
Lincoln," Mrs. Davis said. "My late husband, Shelby, and I shared a
deep interest in the history and the tenets of our country. I am
pleased to support a project dedicated to preserving the papers of
such an important figure in America's past."
"This award is an enormous vote of confidence in the Papers of
Abraham Lincoln. It will prompt support from other sources and speed
the project along," said Rick Beard, executive director of the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation and the Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
The grant will allow the project to hire four additional
researchers in Washington to expedite the searching and scanning
processes. The National Archives holds tens of thousands of
documents written or signed by Abraham Lincoln or written to him.
Since June 2006, a small team of researchers has been combing
records from the State, Treasury and Interior departments at
Archives II in College Park, Md. This grant will augment the
research there and allow the project to begin work on the more
numerous records at the National Archives in downtown Washington.
When the research at Archives II is complete, all researchers will
focus their attention on the records in the main archives on
Pennsylvania Avenue. The new researchers will join the existing team
in Washington in the fall of 2008.
[to top of second column |
 "This grant represents an unparalleled opportunity for the Papers
of Abraham Lincoln," according to Daniel W. Stowell, director.
"Together with other funding sources, it provides us with the
personnel necessary to complete the search of the largest repository
of Lincoln documents in the world."
Researchers from the Papers of Abraham Lincoln have already
discovered more than 12,000 documents written by or to Abraham
Lincoln at Archives II. Staff members based in Springfield have
visited nearly 400 repositories and private collectors in 45 states
to locate and digitize an additional 7,500 documents. Project staff
members are also assisting with the ongoing digitization of more
than 20,000 documents at the Library of Congress.
As the Papers of Abraham Lincoln proceeds toward its ultimate
goal of a freely accessible online edition of all of Lincoln's
papers, it has also produced several publications. Series I: Legal
Papers included two publications -- the comprehensive electronic
edition entitled "The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete
Documentary Edition" on three DVD-ROMs (2000) and the four-volume
selective print edition entitled "The Papers of Abraham Lincoln:
Legal Documents and Cases" (2008). In addition, the Papers of
Abraham Lincoln has published a revised and updated version of
"Lincoln Day by Day" online as
"The Lincoln Log" and
will soon publish online a second edition of "The Law Practice of
Abraham Lincoln." (See "The Lincoln
Log" for today in LDN.)
[Text from
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
file received from the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information]
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