Abraham Lincoln Association celebrates 205th birthday of Abraham Lincoln

Annual banquet features Thomas F. Schwartz, director of Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum

[January 31, 2014]  SPRINGFIELD — The Abraham Lincoln Association is celebrating President Lincoln's 205th birthday on Feb. 11 and 12, with presentations centering on the theme of "Year of Decision: 1864."

In announcing the observance, Robert Lenz, president of the association, said he is pleased that the Feb. 12 evening banquet speaker is Dr. Thomas F. Schwartz, who worked from 1985 to 2011 in special collections at the Illinois State Historical Library, now the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

Schwartz was Illinois state historian from 1993 to 2011 and director of research and collections at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum from 2005 to 2011. He is currently the director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa. His presentation is titled "'Everything is darkness and doubt and discouragement': Lincoln and the Election of 1864."

The banquet will be at the President Lincoln Hotel in Springfield on Feb. 12, beginning with a reception at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets can be obtained online at www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org or by calling 866-865-8500.

The annual Abraham Lincoln-Benjamin P. Thomas Symposium will begin on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site, with the keynote address by Dr. Bruce Levine, J.G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History and professor of African-American studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Levine's address is titled "Fall of the House of Dixie: 1864 and the Beginning of the End."

The symposium continues at the Old State Capitol on Feb. 12. The 11 a.m. speakers will be Dr. John F. Marszalek, Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Mississippi State University, director and mentor of distinguished scholars, and executive director and managing editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association; and Dr. Douglas L. Wilson, George A. Lawrence Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College. A round table featuring all of the symposium speakers will begin at 2:30 p.m. at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. These symposium events are free and open to the public.

The Thomas F. Schwartz Symposium luncheon, which begins at 1 p.m. Feb. 12 at the presidential library, features Dr. Kate Masur of Northwestern University speaking about "Personal and Political: William Slade and Elizabeth Keckly in Lincoln's White House."

Tickets are required. Reservations can be made online at www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org or by calling 866-865-8500.

Co-sponsors for the events are the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, University of Illinois Springfield, Old State Capitol State Historic Site, and Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

[Text from file received from Abraham Lincoln Association]