In 1864, Anson Burlingame, an American diplomat in China, received a telegram from his counterpart in Russia with a simple message: Abraham Lincoln had been reelected president. Yet there was a complexity behind the simplicity.
Join us on December 5 for a conversation with historian Elizabeth D. Leonard about her recent biography of the controversial politician and Civil War general Benjamin F. Butler, whose “noisy, fearless life” defied the caricatures history attached to him.
Join the Manuscript Division for a special night of Live! at the Library on Thursday, May 19, from 5 pm to 8 pm in the Thomas Jefferson Building in honor of the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial.
Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1825-1908) was one of the longest-serving Librarians of Congress. But in 1861 he was uncertain about living in Washington, and busily covering the Civil War as a journalist. His letters home tell the tale.