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Category: Civil War

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Building the Library’s Collections: From (and for) The People

Posted by: Mark Hartsell

Lincoln’s original drafts of the Gettysburg Address, the diaries of Theodore Roosevelt, Walt Whitman’s notes for “Leaves of Grass,” the journals of Alexander Graham Bell documenting his invention of the telephone, Irving Berlin’s handwritten score for “God Bless America,” the papers of Rosa Parks, the diaries of Orville Wright chronicling the first powered flight — all were obtained by the Library via donation, gifts from citizens to the American public, making it truly an institution by and for the people.

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Researcher Stories: Civil War Photographs, “Chlorophyll Prints” and Robert Schultz

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

For years, artist Robert Schultz has made creative reuse of historical Civil War-era images, developing photographs from the Library's Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Portraits in the flesh of tree and plant leaves found on former battlefields. It turned out so well that the Library has acquired some of his art.

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Inauguration Stories: Lincoln’s 1865 “With Malice Toward None” Speech

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, delivered as the Civil War was in its final weeks, was one of most important in American history, featuring the immortal line, "With malice toward none, with charity for all." Michelle Krowl, the Library's Civil War and Reconstruction historian, explains how the day unfolded in this short video.