Lincoln Collection

When Robert Lincoln’s longtime law partner, Edward Isham, died suddenly at sixty-six, it was a “great shock and grief” for Robert. Nearly fifty-nine years old and increasingly mindful of his own health, he began to consider how he might settle into retirement. “I think I have found that the summer climate of Vermont is better for me than that of the seashore,” he wrote in 1903, “and I have become so convinced of it that I have bought quite a farm near Manchester…” The farm, which encompassed more than one hundred acres, would become the site of Robert’s summer home, Hildene. Though he never fully retired from his professional life, he moved into his summer home in 1905 and finally began living, as one newspaper later put it, “a retired life befitting his advanced years.”

Composite image created from two historical photographs.

Robert Todd Lincoln: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/237/rec/44

Hildene: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/1253/rec/4

We are very excited to announce that Lois Romano will be joining us in October to talk about her new book, "An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial, and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln!"

📅October 22, 2026
🕛7 PM ET
🎟️FREE Admission (No registration is required for in-person attendance.)
📍Main — Allen County Public Library Theater | Fort Wayne, IN
💻Zoom | Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xXZNdUYcSJOvKn7ekSRfyQ #/registration
❓Contact: [email protected]

Romano's new book draws on hundreds of archives, letters, and memoirs to provide the most complete portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln. Can’t attend in person? No problem! Make sure to register at the link above so you can join us virtually!

Eighty-three days after the bloodiest battle of the Civil War concluded, Edward Everett, one of the most renowned public speakers of his time, was invited to give an address at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. What some might not know is that the dedication was originally scheduled to take place in October 1863. Everett feared he would not have enough time to prepare an appropriate address by the original date, so, to accommodate their principal speaker, the event was postponed to November 19. Yet, despite all of Everett’s careful preparation, history has largely forgotten what he said that day. Abraham Lincoln’s two-minute speech, by contrast, is remembered as one of the most famous speeches in American history.

Edward Everett: https://www.lincolncollection.org/search/results/item/?cat=20&inst=&title=&creator=&id=&loc=&mat=&desc=&qa=edward+everett&sy=&ey=&ud=1&isxn=&series=&pub=&item=42046

Abraham Lincoln: https://www.lincolncollection.org/search/results/item/?cat=20&inst=&title=&creator=&id=&loc=&mat=&desc=&qa=abraham+lincoln&sy=1862&ey=1864&ud=1&isxn=&series=&pub=&item=43854

The “tyrant of the White House,” as he was known during the Civil War, was none other than Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s youngest son, Tad. As the White House’s resident prankster, Tad, along with his older brother Willie and their friends, the Taft brothers, kept the place lively. According to Julia Taft, the older sister of the Taft brothers, the boys once bombarded the door to the Cabinet Room with a toy cannon. During the bombardment, Holly Taft pinched his finger, prompting President Lincoln to leave a meeting to comfort him. John Hay later wrote an obituary for Tad, describing him as “so full of life” and saying that “he kept the house alive with his pranks and his fantastic enterprises.”

Tad Lincoln: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/210/rec/36

Wearing a sailor’s uniform and carrying borrowed papers identifying him as a free man, a twenty-year-old enslaved man sought freedom in New York. That freedom would not have been possible without the hard work, sacrifice, and bravery of a young free Black woman, Anna Murray. She sewed the uniform with her own hands and gave him her hard-earned money for the journey—all of which could have had dire consequences had she been discovered. After Frederick Douglass’s successful escape, Murray followed him to New York, and the two married soon after.

Together, they would go on to lead a remarkable life. Frederick became one of the nation’s most well-known abolitionists. Anna, meanwhile, built and sustained their home, caring for their five children, their frequent guests, and people seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad. Her work made it possible for their household to become a place of refuge and support, though it was often less publicly recognized.

Frederick Douglass: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/541/rec/3

It was well after dark on February 10, 1864, when Abraham Lincoln spotted a fire at the White House stables. Rushing towards the flames, White House guard Sergeant Smith Stimmel recorded that, “Mr. Lincoln asked hastily if the horses had been taken out…[he] began to break open one of the large doors with his own hands.”

It was too late for the animals inside. “The ponies belonging to the little boys and the goats were all lost in the fire,” Stimmel wrote. Lincoln’s secretary, John Nicolay, later recalled, “Tad was in bitter tears at the loss of his ponies, and his heaviest grief was that one of them had belonged to Willie.”

Tad Lincoln on his pony: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/89/rec/11

With less than a year of formal schooling, Abraham Lincoln taught himself law with the encouragement and support of John Todd Stuart. Rather than studying under a lawyer’s direct supervision, Lincoln borrowed books from Stuart’s law library and studied on his own. He received his license to practice law in 1836 and, throughout his career, was partners with Stuart, Stephen Logan, and William Herndon.

For twenty-five years, Lincoln practiced law in Illinois, riding the Eighth Judicial Circuit and often remaining away from home for months at a time. While debt-related cases were among his most common, he also took on criminal and chancery cases involving murder, larceny, and divorce. His son, Robert, would follow in his footsteps, becoming a successful lawyer in Chicago, Illinois, after his father’s death.

Composite image created from two historical photographs to illustrate the narrative.

Abraham Lincoln: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/2137/rec/313

View of Springfield: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/2168/rec/324

“I am not ashamed to confess that twenty five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat — just what might happen to any poor man’s son.” – Abraham Lincoln, 1860.

It’s been 132 years since Labor Day was nationally recognized as a holiday. Growing up in poverty, Abraham Lincoln spent much of his early life doing manual labor. He wasn’t alive to see Labor Day recognized as a national holiday, but throughout his life he frequently spoke about labor—the need and right of individuals to work for their own benefit, and the importance of free labor to a prosperous nation.

In 1861, in his First Annual Message to Congress, Lincoln stated:

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

Lincoln the Rail Splitter: https://www.lincolncollection.org/search/results/item/?cat=14&inst=&title=&creator=&id=&loc=&mat=&desc=&qa=axe&sy=&ey=&ud=1&isxn=&series=&pub=&item=101956

For a man born into one of America's most famous families, Lincoln Isham lived a remarkably private life. He died on September 4, 1971, at the age of seventy-nine. Isham seemed set up for a promising and comfortable future. He began a degree at Harvard, though he would never finish it, and married socialite Leahalma Correa, becoming stepfather to her daughter from a previous marriage. The two lived a comfortable and private life in New York City before eventually settling on a 22-acre farm in Vermont. They also traveled extensively throughout England and the Caribbean.

At his death, Isham left a trust fund for his stepdaughter and donated most of his estate to charities. He also donated items that had belonged to his great-grandmother, Mary, to the Smithsonian and other institutions, including her chicken-leg coffee set. Isham was the first member of the final generation of Lincoln descendants to pass away.

Lincoln Isham: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/240/rec/24

On September 2, 1891, a young couple was married in a small private ceremony just outside London. The bride was the granddaughter of the martyred former President Abraham Lincoln, whose son, Robert Lincoln, was then serving as the United States Minister to the United Kingdom. The groom was a Harvard graduate and cousin of her father’s Chicago law partner. On the day of the wedding, Mary “Mamie” Lincoln wore a dress of “white satin with a long train trimmed with orange blossoms and lace veil” as she walked down the aisle to Charles Isham. The following year, the couple welcomed their only child, Lincoln Isham.

Mamie Lincoln Isham: https://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/digital/collection/p15155coll1/id/143/rec/16