Congratulations to The Order of Lincoln honorees

This week we learned of 30 people from around the world who will receive a special Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial edition of The Order of Lincoln, the highest honor awarded by the State of Illinois. Those chosen will be honored for the lasting and significant ways they have preserved the memory of Abraham Lincoln, and have contributed to Lincoln’s defining influence on the American spirit.

I've had the pleasure of meeting several of these people or hearing them speak at the symposium when the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opened or at other events. I list those people here and offer them my congratulations and my personal thanks for their contributions to the Lincoln legacy.

A special thanks - Davis, Holzer, Wilson
Three people deserve special thanks for always answering my Lincoln questions: my special friend Harold Holzer, co-chair of the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and author of books on Lincoln and the Civil War, as well as Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, Lincoln authors and co-founders of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.

Harold has encouraged me every step of the way on my Lincoln journey, answers my questions patiently and inspires me with his passion for Lincoln. Drs. Wilson and Davis are my hometown Lincoln scholars, so their work has always been near and dear to me. They, too, are always there for me. I'm blessed.

Honorees I've met or heard speak
Congratulations to those who have mesmerized me as I heard them speak about Lincoln:

• Jean Harvey Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln biographer and Harwood Bennett Professor
  of History at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Gabor S. Boritt, author and editor of 16 books on Lincoln and the Civil War, and
  Robert Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies and Director of the Civil War Institute
  at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• Richard J. Carwardine, Lincoln biographer and Rhodes Professor of American
  History at Oxford University, England.
• Thomas F. Schwartz, Illinois State Historian, internationally renowned Lincoln
  expert, and key planner of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
• Louise Taper of Beverly Hills, California, renowned Lincoln collector, exhibit organizer, and John Wilkes Booth author and collector.
• Frank J. Williams, Lincoln author and collector, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

And to one I get to meet this coming Saturday:

• Allen C. Guelzo, author of books on Lincoln and the Civil War, and Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

To all the rest
To the others nominated, my sincere congratulations as well. Thank you for your part in keeping Lincoln alive in our memories and our hearts.

http://www.thelincolnacademyofillinois.org/press/pr10-06-08.pdf

© Copyright 2008 Ann Tracy Mueller. All rights reserved.