Participating in the Remembering Lincoln Digital Project

by Marian Matyn

At the end of July, I received notification from the Remembering Lincoln digital project of the Ford Theatre that they had discovered a number of manuscripts in our collection related to reactions to President Lincoln’s assassination. They found the manuscripts because they were cataloged in OCLC, the national online catalog. Would we be interested in participating in their website, they asked? Absolutely, I replied.

What is the website all about? Remembering Lincoln is a digital project of the Ford Theatre. It provides access to letters, diaries, newspapers, sermons, mourning ribbons, and other primary sources that show how people across the world felt when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated -- mourning him, not mourning him, or other sentiments altogether. Some items discuss hearing the initial news, mourning rituals, his funeral, or later forms of memorials. There are also teaching modules for various grade levels. Check out the site here. 

The five items I added to the Remembering Lincoln website are listed in SmartSearch (the CMU Libraries on-line catalog) and are listed below:

Farley Letter from the
Doris L. King Family Papers

A handwritten letter (4 p.) to Jane (Young) Metcalf Betts from her aunt Harriet Farley in Burr Oak, Saint Joseph County, Michigan, April 23, 1865, describing her feelings about and the town’s reaction (gathering, mourning, and sermons), to the death of Lincoln. The letter is in the Doris L. King Family Papers, 1822, 1877.

An unsigned, handwritten letter (1 p.) to "Friend Lib" [probably the widow Elizabeth, Mrs. Levi Smith] from a Union soldier in or serving at Harper Hospital Detroit, Michigan, April 20, 1865, describing how two Union soldiers rejoiced in hearing of Lincoln’s death and were punished. The letter is in the Levi Smith Family Papers, 1851, 1903.

McClure Correspondence

A third document is a handwritten diary entry of August 12, 1865 of Quincy A. Moore of Ohio, describing his visit to the Dan Rice Circus in Bellefontaine, Ohio, where he saw a tableau of President Lincoln’s assassination, 1 page, in 1 volume. The item is a one item collection: Quincy A. Moore (d. 1877) Diary, 1865, 1869

A handwritten letter to his parents from J.D. McClure in Memphis, Tennessee, April 1865, emotionally describing how the Secessionists (demons) who killed Lincoln will be punished. This letter is a one item collection: J.D. McClure Correspondence, 1865.

A letter from Reuben Yarick at Washington, D.C., to his brother John Yarick, describing his fears and feelings about the assassination of President Lincoln and visiting the body in the White House. This is one letter in the John Yarick Papers, 1854-1864.

John Yarick Papers

For each item linked to the Ford Theatre site, there is a template that donor of digitized documents fill with information, including a long and short title, description of contents and size, item type, material type, transcription (which in some cases was quite time consuming), various sizes and types of scans of the item, location and identification of creator, a list of searchable terms selected from a standardized vocabulary list, information about use, proper citation, institution, and relevant institutional links. I added the Clarke’s Civil War bibliography, which I compiled years ago, but is still relevant and gives an idea of the breadth of our Civil War sources. And I offer a big thank you to Bryan and Casey for scanning all those documents various ways so I could upload them.

Jack Dempsey Presents Ink Trails to Clarke Audience

by Frank Boles

On June 25, an appreciative audience listened to a Jack Dempsey as he spoke about his book, Ink Trails. A lifelong Michigan resident, Jack set out to disprove the popular notion that most authors live in New York or California, with a few obstinately residing in Chicago. He and his brother, Dave, set out to write vignettes about the famous, once popular, or simply unrecognized authors for whom Michigan mattered.

The story of Carl Sandburg, biographer of Lincoln and famed poet, perhaps sums up the failure of Michigan to get literary notice. Sandburg is usually associated either with Illinois where he was born or North Carolina where he died. Usually forgotten is a fifteen period from 1930 to 1945 when he lived in Harbert, Michigan.

It is not as if Sandburg wasn’t busy writing in Harbert. In a house with a view of Lake Michigan, Sandburg wrote Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, a work that won him his first Pulitzer Prize. The Sandburg’s eventually moved to North Carolina not for literary inspiration but rather because Lilian, his wife (who was born in Hancock, Michigan), wanted to move to North Carolina to better raise goats, something she had begun doing in 1935 and for which she became nationally recognized.

Sandburg’s boyhood home is preserved as an Illinois State Historic Site. Sandburg’s North Carolina home is preserved by the National Park Service (although one has to hunt about their website to find any mention of the goats – but it’s there, see http://www.nps.gov/carl/historyculture/lilian-sandburg.htm). Harbert? There is hope that Michigan might put up a historical marker noting Sandburg’s long residence in the town, someday.

The Sandburg story was one of those shared by Mr. Dempsey in his presentation, which we hope to soon make available on the web (stay tune to the Clarke Historical Library News and Notes Blog for updates), and in his book, Ink Trails. We are pleased to join him in recalling the rich literary history of our state.

What February 12, 2013 Means to the Clarke

by Bryan Whitledge and Lindsay Gabriel

Tuesday, February 12 marks two events that the Clarke would like to recognize - President Lincoln's 204th birthday and Paczki Day. Because the two events have not much in common, today's blog posting is a 2-for-1 deal.

First, in recognition of the birthday of our 16th President, we are sharing a greeting signed by President Lincoln and dated April 16, 1862. This autograph is one from a collection of every U. S. President's autographs, which is currently on loan at the Clarke Historical Library.

In addition to this item, the Clarke maintains information related to Abraham Lincoln's only speech on Michigan soil, which took place in Kalamazoo on August 27, 1856. Information ranges from microfilm of historical copies of the Kalamazoo Gazette to reprints of the speech published years after Lincoln's assassination.

The second event that we would like to pay homage to is Fat Tuesday and in Michigan, Fat Tuesday means paczkis. The Clarke has a wealth of resources devoted to both Polish culture in Michigan and Michigan cookbooks. Some of these resources cross and in their pages, one can find information about the paczki. Above is a page from Polish Heritage Cookery by Robert and Maria Strybel explaining paczkis.

For the uninitiated, a paczki is pronounced punch-kee. It is a deep-fried dough pastry filled with a sweet filling. Fat Tuesday is the traditional day to eat this calorie-laden treat, which comes from the Polish Catholic tradition of using up all of the food that would be otherwise forbidden during Lent (lard, butter, sugar, eggs, etc.). No matter one's cultural background, Paczki Day is looked forward to by many Michiganders.

Every day at the Clarke has some historical significance and February 12 of 2013 gives us a great excuse to share some of our favorite things with you.

Legacy of Abraham Lincoln in the Clarke

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Thanks from the Clarke Historical Library Staff

Legacy of Abraham Lincoln in the Clarke

by Bryan Whitledge

In honor of Abraham Lincoln's 203rd birthday this Sunday, we have pulled out one of our favorite artifacts, Honest Abe's right hand. The mold for this bronze cast was done by Leonard Volk in May of 1860, the day after Lincoln accepted the nomination to run as the Republican presidential candidate.

According to lore, Lincoln had shaken so many hands on the day that he was nominated, it caused his right hand to swell and prevented him from holding it steady. When Volk arrived to create the casts of Lincoln's hands, he found that the right hand was shaking too much to produce a good piece. It was suggested that Lincoln find something to grasp onto and the story goes that Lincoln found a broom and sawed off the handle to act as a support - this piece of wood is visible in the cast.

Using the mold produced by Volk, bronzesmith Jules Berchem produced the bronze cast that is in the Clarke Historical Library's holdings. Volk's hand casts and his life masks of Lincoln are considered some of the finest of any U. S. president and were used as the basis for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D. C. So in celebration of President Lincoln's 203rd birthday, we share this nugget of history that can be found at the Clarke Historical Library.