Monday, May 14, 2007
Top Lincoln scholar to offer public lecture at USI
 As the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth approaches in 2009, teachers from all grade levels and disciplines come to USI each year to learn from top Lincoln scholars. Sponsored by Historic Southern Indiana, an outreach program of USI, the fourth annual Lincoln Institute for Teachers will be held June 14-15, 2007. This year’s institute, “The Elusive Lincoln: Teaching and Learning about Abraham Lincoln through Documents and Images,” focuses on historical evidence and how stories about Lincoln are created and change over time. Top Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer will give a public lecture at 7 p.m. June 14 in Rice Library Room 17, in the lower level. His topic will be “Lincoln at Cooper Union.” Holzer is the author of Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President (Simon & Schuster, 2004). The work focuses on a widely known but little studied address that Lincoln delivered early in 1860 in New York City, which Holzer believes made Lincoln the Republican candidate and therefore president. Holzer is senior vice president for External Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the co-chair of the federal Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. One of the country’s leading authorities on Lincoln and the Civil War, Holzer has authored, co-authored, and edited 27 books, most recently Lincoln in the Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln as Originally Reported in the New York Times, co-edited with David Herbert Donald (St. Martin’s Press, 2005); written nearly 400 articles for magazines and scholarly journals; and appears frequently on television, including C-SPAN broadcasts of his stage presentations “Lincoln Seen and Heard” with Sam Waterston and “Grant Seen and Heard” with Richard Dreyfuss. USI history professor and HSI director Dr. Darrel Bigham’s presidential appointment to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission allows USI access to the highest caliber Lincoln experts in the country. In addition to Holzer, Matthew Pinker, Thomas Schwartz, and Matthew McMichael will speak at the institute. “Any one of these people in their own right would be a big draw, but having all of them together is going to be an excellent opportunity for the teachers,” said Leslie Townsend, assistant director of HSI. Matthew Pinsker is Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. Pinsker writes frequently about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Among his books are Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home, Abraham Lincoln: American President Reference Series and The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. Thomas Schwartz is the Illinois State Historian and chief historian for exhibits and content at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois, and Matthew McMichael is school services coordinator for the Indiana Historical Society. This institute is endorsed by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. For a complete program schedule and registration information, go to the Historic Southern Indiana Web site. |
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