{"id":6128,"date":"2014-02-12T09:38:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T14:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/libnews\/?p=6128"},"modified":"2014-02-12T09:38:52","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T14:38:52","slug":"lincolns-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/lincolns-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln’s Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"20140212lincolnsBirthdayHeader\"
Image Credit: The image on the left and in the center is from George L. Spaulding (comp.), \u201cDays We Celebrate\u201d sheet music for Lincoln\u2019s Birthday, published by Theodore Presser Co. in Philadelphia, 1914 (Lincoln Sheet Music); The image on the right is from \u201cLincoln\u2019s Birthday\u201d postcard, printed in London by Raphael Tuck & Sons, circa 1909 (Lincoln Graphics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It may be difficult for anyone now under the age of 30 to imagine, but for most of the twentieth\u00a0century the birthday of Abraham Lincoln was keenly celebrated in the United States, particularly\u00a0in those states which had participated in the effort to preserve the Union during the Civil War. In\u00a0fact, the earliest known commemoration of Lincoln\u2019s birthday dates to 1874 in Buffalo, New York.\u00a0Buffalo pharmacist Julius Francis took up the mantle of advocating a federal holiday in honor of\u00a0Lincoln on his birthday, and repeatedly petitioned Congress toward that end. By 1909, when the\u00a0Lincoln Centennial was celebrated, the idea of commemorating Lincoln\u2019s birthday as a holiday had\u00a0taken a firm hold on the public imagination.<\/p>\n

During the years he served as President, Lincoln\u2019s own birthday celebrations were subdued, as the\u00a0conduct of the war to preserve the Union, the welfare of Union soldiers and other major problems\u00a0faced by the nation weighed heavily on his conscience. On February 12, 1864\u2014150 years ago today\u2014Lincoln marked his birthday by assuring that James Taylor, a soldier who had been sentenced to\u00a0death for desertion by Court Martial, would not lose his life.<\/p>\n

\"Abraham
Image Credit: Telegrams from Abraham Lincoln to Gen. Dix in New York (Lincoln Manuscripts)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Abraham
Telegrams from Abraham Lincoln to Stephen Cabot at Boston, February 12, 1864 (Lincoln Manuscripts)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brown University\u2019s John Hay Library is home to the McLellan Lincoln Collection, one of the largest\u00a0and most distinguished Lincoln collections held by an academic institution. These holdings\u00a0document all aspects of Lincoln’s life, his term as President of the United States, and his legacy in\u00a0American politics and popular culture. A significant portion of the collection is freely available to\u00a0the public online in the Brown University Library\u2019s Lincolniana at Brown<\/a>\u00a0website.<\/p>\n

Contact:<\/b>\u00a0Holly Snyder<\/a>\u00a0| \u00a0(401) 863-1515<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may be difficult for anyone now under the age of 30 to imagine, but for most of the twentieth\u00a0century the birthday of Abraham Lincoln was keenly celebrated in the United States, particularly\u00a0in those states which had participated in the effort to preserve the Union during the Civil War. In\u00a0fact, the earliest known commemoration of … Lincoln’s Birthday<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-resources","category-hay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}