A Glimpse at History

The 200th birthday  celebration of the nation’s most studied and controversial president begins this month. It will continue for 2 years and within that time period, symposiums, documentaries, concerts, contests, lectures, exhibits, banquests, receptions, plays, tours, poetry readings, school lessons and at least one bike tour per year will take place. There will also be a redesigned Lincoln penny, a commemorative coin, a special postage stamp and a rededication of the Lincoln Memorial. A 15 member Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission was created 7 years ago to determine the appropriate process of honoring the 16th president.

The U.S. mint will bring out new designs based on Abraham Lincoln’s life on the back of the one-cent coin in 2009, the Lincoln penny’s 100th anniversary.

The official inaugural events begin February 11 in Louisville. On February 12th, Lincoln’s actual birthday, George W. Bush will be speaking at the National Park at Hodgenville, the president’s birthplace. This year isn’t really the actual Bicentennial of the Presidents birth, its the 199th-but they are stretching the celebration over a 2 year period in hopes of reminding everyone about the impact Lincoln had on the development of the country. And I realize there is both good and bad that occurred. It is obvious to me they are focusing on the positive acomplishments of Lincoln, according to todays government and its ideals.

So far here are the commission endorsed events.

The first are listed above beginning in February 2008.

The Marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, a renactment scheduled for  June 14, 2008 at the Lincoln Homestead State Park, Springfield, KY.

Ohio Emancipation Day, a research project of the senior class of Washington High School, Washington Court House, on early state celebrations of the end of slavery.

Lincoln Plays and Musicals, presented by the National Historic Theater, Mifflinburg, PA. the 2008 season includes dramas set in the Civil War era.

Abraham Lincoln and Farmington, a three-week special program commemorating Lincoln’s 1841 visit of the same length to Louisville and historic Farmington, the family home of his good friend Joshua Speed.

Lincoln “SOS”, a program of “Save Outdoor Sculpture”! will restore neglected significant Lincoln sculptures throughout the bicentennial. According to SOS! Lincoln is believed to be portrayed in more outdoor sculpture than any other American.

Lincoln Cabins and Lincoln Quilt Exhibition, an exhibit of Lincoln-related quilt patterns at the Museum of the American Quilters Society, Paducah, KY.

“A Man Named Abraham Lincoln”, a patriotic children’s song by Boston-based singer-song writer Greg Cherone.

“Looking for Lincoln”, a web site for finding and planning visits to Lincoln-related sites in central Illinois.

Lincoln Bicentennial Bike Tour (”Tour de Lincoln”) is scheduled for August 16-24, 2008, and will be repeated in 209. The tour follows as closely as possible to the orginal Lincoln family’s pioneering path through Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, a distance of approximately 360 miles, beginning at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site in Hodgenville, KY.

The rededication of the Lincoln Memorial is planned for the spring of 2009, with an address from our next President of the United States.

Also planed in 2009 and I do not have the dates as of yet are such events as:

A birthday gala planned in Feb. 2009 at the Kennedy Center. A class concert and entertainment special is planed in the Concert hall featuring military bands and a dinner immediately following. On the 12th of Feb. 2009 a joint session is planned (hopefully at Statuary hall, where the House of Representatives met during Lincoln’s term in Congress) followed by lunch and the opening of a Lincoln photo exhibit at the Library of Congress.

The commission is hoping to achieve a national teach-in, to be scheduled also on February 12 2009. Its goal is to have “every student, in every classroom across the country focused during at least one class period on the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.” To make that a reality, Gilder Lehman Institute of American History has sponsored a series of high school level lessons plans that are available at the commission web site. They were written by James Percoco, a social studies teacher at Northern Virginia’s West Springfield high School and Howard Seretan, history chairman emeritus of Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C.

Each school that participates in the national teach-in will recieve a certificate that recoginizes them as a “Lincoln Bicenntennial School.”  There is also a lesson plan for the Art teacher…it is entitled “Abraham Lincoln and the Arts”. To obtain more information, the commission web site is www.lincolnbicenntennial.gov

I will try to keep you updated over the next two years as to more events as I get them, along with places to stay at these events. Information above was taken in parts from “Civil War Times” February edition

Filed under: Civil War Blogs by Savannah Meade