Month: January 2023

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Unexpected Lincoln – Concord, Massachusetts

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Lincoln in Concord MAIt seems Abraham Lincoln is everywhere. Our continuing “unexpected Lincoln” series takes us to Concord, Massachusetts, home of Henry David Thoreau and just steps away from “the shot heard round the world.” I stopped in Concord on a recent road trip to see a special Lincoln Memorial Centennial exhibit at Concord Museum. Not only was Lincoln there, but it turns out Concord was a hotbed of abolitionist fever – and famous thinkers so thick you couldn’t help running into one in the 1840s-50s.

The museum was sponsoring an exhibit called “The Lincoln Memorial Illustrated.” A collaboration by Daniel Chester French’s studio at Chesterwood and the Norman Rockwell Museum in western Massachusetts (which hosted the original installation throughout the summer of 2022); the exhibit is only in Concord until February 26, 2023. As the title suggests, it focused on illustrations, sculpture, archival materials, and ephemera as it traced the Lincoln Memorial’s role as a symbolic site for some of the nation’s most important events and movements. Many of the pieces are political cartoons, often showing how the famed Lincoln statue reacted to key historical events. Included are Bill Mauldin’s depiction of Lincoln crying upon hearing of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, John Darkow’s Lincoln giving a thumbs up to the newly elected President Barack Obama, and Matt Davies’s Lincoln and his chair flipped over backwards in disbelief after the 2016 election results.

Other artwork includes both pen and ink and watercolor depictions of watershed events at the Lincoln Memorial featuring Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, and the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial itself in 1922. There is also the original oil on canvas painting by Norman Rockwell called “Lincoln for the Defense,” a rare full-length painting of him (and rarer still – in a white suit). Rockwell’s print of Mathew Brady photograph is included, as is a watercolor painting by Anthony Benedetto, better known to most of us as singer Tony Bennett.

I was fascinated by one additional item on display – the account book kept by Daniel Chester French, a detailed record keeper, who recorded his contract payments for the Lincoln Memorial statue ($45,000 increased to $88,400), along with records of payments to the Piccirilli Brothers for marble carving and other work.

Beyond the Lincoln Memorial Illustrated exhibit, the Concord Museum also gave insights into the intellectual community of Concord, which included not only Emerson and Thoreau, but Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. More recently, Doris Kearns Goodwin joined the party. Concord has another claim to fame. While the writers were writing, the women of the town were organizing the Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society. Founded in 1837, the Society was hugely influential in New England, hosting abolitionist speakers such as John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass. Many Concord residents provided housing for fugitive slaves and helped them to continue their travels on the underground railroad. Despite growing up only an hour north of Concord, this is something I hadn’t known before my visit.

 

A bonus – Daniel Chester French not only designed the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, he created the Minuteman statue that sits just of North Bridge. Emerson’s childhood home overlooks the statue and the park. You can almost hear that mighty shot ring out as you soak in American history bridging the beginning of the nation and Lincoln’s saving of the nation.

All photos by David J. Kent

[NOTE: This article originally appeared at Lincolnian.org]

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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The Smithsonian Castle Was On Fire!

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1865 Smithsonian fireOne scientific institution that Lincoln had protected and advanced during the war took a major hit on the frigid winter’s afternoon of January 24, 1865. Joseph Henry sat in his third-floor office in the Smithsonian Castle, alternatively updating his notebook and staring out the great rose window squeezed between the two front towers. Stirring, he noticed a sooty burning odor. Likewise, his daughter Mary was reading in the library until she noticed the room darkening, a thick cloud of smoke obscuring the view. The Castle was on fire!

Rushing to save whatever they could, father and daughter managed to grab a few books, some papers, and a bit of clothing. Others arrived to help pull out furniture items. Flames poured out the tower windows and scorched the ornamental stonework. Mary described it as “a beautiful friend tasting to the utmost the pleasure of destruction.” Her poetical observation was interrupted as the flames reached the top of the tower, where Henry’s papers were kept, destroying a historical and scientific record that had taken a lifetime to build.

Investigations showed that the fire was accidental, a result of negligence. Men renovating the building had vented a stove exhaust pipe into an air chamber inside the wall rather than to an external vent. After smoldering for days, the heated wood had finally erupted into flames. Destroyed was the apparatus room, the picture gallery, the regents’ room, and the lecture hall. Among the treasures lost were all James Smithson’s personal effects, including the manuscripts, meteorites, and minerals that had seeded the new institution. Also lost were an extensive collection of scientific instruments and nearly a hundred thousand letters and reports documenting the founding of the institution and a decade of scientific research from all over the world. All of James Smithson’s unpublished scientific research was lost forever. It would take twelve years and $125,000 to repair the building and correct faulty construction. Indirectly lost was James Melville Gillis, chief astronomer and director of the Naval Observatory, who succumbed to exhaustion during the building evacuation and suffered a fatal stroke two weeks later. Saved was Smithson’s small personal collection of books. Only 115 volumes and never bound in leather covers, they at least provide some surviving connection to the man who made the Smithsonian possible.

Two days after the fire, Henry shambled to the White House. Lincoln “expressed much sympathy” and ordered the War Department to raise a temporary roof over the scorched portions of the Castle. Montgomery Meigs, a longtime friend of Henry and one of Lincoln’s favorite engineers, pulled together the needed materials and carpenters to build a roof designed by architect Edward Clark. Henry would spend the next several months organizing renovations, taking time out to attend Lincoln’s second inaugural on March 4. At his side was Mary Henry, who made a passing reference to seeing the famous actor John Wilkes Booth in the balcony above them.

Lincoln’s lifelong enthusiasm for science and technology, combined with his belief that the federal government should help the populace better their condition, made him an amenable partner of congressional efforts to institutionalize science. Once suspicious of scientists because of their overall elitism and the preponderance of con men, the national attitude toward science had begun to change. No longer the sole realm of a wealthy elite, technological advances were more and more affecting the masses, in part due to a refocusing on practical science rather than less publicly relatable theoretical research.

[Excerpted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America, available at all bookseller outlets]

NOTE: Not only is January 24th the anniversary of the fire, but there is significant current news regarding the Smithsonian Castle. The Castle will close on February 1, 2023, for renovations that are expected to take five years to complete.

[Check out my Media page for upcoming events and videos/audio of previous presentations and podcasts]

[Colorized photo of Smithsonian fire from Smithsonian Institution Archives. Full info here]

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Thomas Lincoln Dies, But Teaches Abraham Farming Science

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Abraham Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln, died on January 17, 1851, at the ripe old age of 73. Abraham opted not to travel to see his father in his waning days, in part because they were no longer close, but also because Lincoln’s third son, Willie, had been born about a month before and his wife, Mary, was exhibiting significant post=partum sickness. I visited the Lincoln homestead and gravesite near Lerna, Illinois, a few years ago in order to learn more about Thomas and wrote about it here. While they may have had a difficult relationship, Thomas actually had taught Lincoln about farming science as he grew up.

It all started in Kentucky, where Lincoln was born and lived until he was seven. Their final year in the bluegrass state was beset with a climatic phenomenon referred to as “the year without a summer.” I discuss it in more detail in my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, but it has to do with summer freezes and a volcano eruption half a world away. Taking the hint, the family moved to Indiana, where Lincoln later recalled that the family “settled in an unbroken forest” and that “the clearing away of surplus wood was the great task at hand.” Thomas took Abe into the forest and schooled him to recognize the types of trees. The exact species varied by local geography and climate, but one visitor described southern Indiana as “covered with heavy timber—comprising oaks, beeches, ash, three kinds of nut trees.” He also noted the presence of “gum trees, hackberry, sycamore, persimmons, wild cherries, apples and plums, also wild grape vines of enormous diameter and heights,” plus “a large number of maple and sugar trees . . . and a kind of poplar.” Other observers mentioned the presence of hickory, black walnut, locust, dogwood, cherry, sassafras, and elm. A variety of oak trees were present, including white, black, and Jack oak. The undergrowth was densely packed with spice wood, various briers, grape vines, sumac bushes, and dry brush, a diversity that is largely lost today.

Abe quickly learned the relevant ecology. Hickory, walnut, and white oak have taproot systems where large roots descend straight down deep into the earth. Red oak, locust, sycamore, and many pines have heart root systems characterized by many primary roots that may be visible on the surface and spread out below, with numerous secondary roots extending downward in search of water. Maples, hackberry, poplar, ash, gum, and dogwood have a flat root, one that spreads out in a shallow fan around the tree. Each of these required a different strategy for removal, with big hardwoods like oak or ash particularly difficult to remove. Abe became so knowledgeable that during his presidency he settled a dispute between visitors at the Soldiers’ Home. “I know all about trees in right of being a backwoodsman,” he said. “I’ll show you the difference between spruce, pine, and cedar, and this shred of green, which is neither one nor the other, but a kind of illegitimate cypress.” He had learned his lessons well.

Thomas also taught Lincoln the basics of agronomy (crop science), hydrology (the science of water movement), forest ecology (the variety and uses of trees), and even some civil engineering (building a log cabin that wouldn’t leak or flood). Then there was dealing with ever-present disease and weather. While their move from Kentucky to Indiana was in part encouraged by “the year without a summer,” their first year in Illinois was “the winter of deep snow,” which killed much of their livestock and nearly froze Lincoln himself to death.

Overall, Lincoln began his education in the sciences by learning from his father Thomas, who had learned it from his family history of farming. Lincoln learned well, even though he was eager to explore intellectual growth to escape the farming life. Later, Lincoln would read many scientific and mathematical books on his own, gaining an understanding of basic science and an appreciation for the role of technological advancement in helping all men – even frontier farmers – better their condition and gain an equal chance in the race of life.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius and elsewhere]

I’ve been doing a lot of presentations on the topics found in the book, many of which were recorded on video and audio podcasts. Check out my Media page for upcoming events (and to see videos/audio links to previous events). 

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Join Me for Two Special Abraham Lincoln Presentations This Week (Plus a Bonus)

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This will be a busy week, with two special Abraham Lincoln presentations coming up on Wednesday and Thursday. Both will be virtual, so take a look at the info and links below and join me! 
Wednesday, January 11, 8 pm EST/7 pm CST: I will give a special presentation on Wednesday as part of the Looking for Lincoln conversations program based in Springfield, Illinois. The topic is “How Abraham Lincoln Institutionalized Science and Technology in the Federal Government,” which builds mainly off of one chapter in my recent book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America. This virtual program is free to all on January 8th beginning at 8 pm EST/7 pm CST. A Q&A will be open to all virtual attendees. See it live on the Looking for Lincoln Facebook or YouTube pages.
 
Watch live on YouTube: https://youtu.be/y48_SKeRfqM
Watch on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/523737299725293
 
 
Thursday, January 12, 6:30-7:30 pm EST: President Lincoln’s Cottage presents a series of Scholar Sessions. The virtual program will feature a conversation between the Cottage’s President/CEO Michael Atwood Mason and Lincoln Group president David J. Kent. They will discuss a wide range of topics including Lincoln’s commitment to modernizing American and other aspects of Lincoln’s life. Following their conversation, the event will be opened up to all virtual attendees for a Q&A period. Lincoln Cottage members can participate for free; there is a $10 fee for non-members.
 
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scholar-sessions-david-j-kent-tickets-486902527567
 
And the bonus!
 
Tuesday, January 17, 6:00 pm EST: The Lincoln Group of DC holds its monthly Zoom meeting featuring Diana Schaub discussing her book, His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved a Nation. Dr. Schaub is a professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and a member of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Institute. The Lincoln Group’s study forum analyzed her book in the spring of 2021, so we can safely say that this presentation is not to be missed. This is a free virtual event.
 
More details and to register: https://www.lincolnian.org/event-details/lincolns-greatest-speeches-6-pm-zoom-only
 
With Lincoln’s birthday, the 160th anniversary of the final Emancipation Proclamation, major Civil War events, and the 160th anniversary of the assassination all coming up soon, I’ll be incredibly busy over the next few months. Check out my Media page for upcoming events (and to see videos/audio links to previous events). 

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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The Year in a Writer’s Life – 2022

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David J Kent Lincoln Memorial centennialThe year in a writer’s life was spectacular. My new book was released, I did tons of media, and wrote constantly, while also juggling my duties as president of the Lincoln Group of DC. Sometimes those two lives blended to the point where the line between them wasn’t so easy to determine. Adding in my year in a traveler’s life, my reading time, and my Abraham Lincoln book acquisitions, 2022 was a busy year. [See last year’s Life here]

Much of my writing activity this year was driven by the release of my newest book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, which came out in September. Feedback on the book has been universally positive, with the public and Lincoln scholars alike praising it as “a fascinating new perspective about Lincoln’s personality and mind” and “an enjoyable dive into the type of public leaders we used to have.” One Goodreads reviewer said that he “was truly fascinated by this aspect of Lincoln that has been overshadowed by his equally notable political and military activities.” Marc Rothenberg, former Editor of the Joseph Henry Papers and Historian at the National Academy of Sciences noted:

“This is the first in-depth study of Abraham Lincoln’s interest in technology and science and how that interest impacted his life and his Presidency. As Kent demonstrates, Lincoln was a catalyst for some of that transformation wrought by science and technology.”

Harold Holzer, perhaps the most prominent and respected Lincoln historian alive, added that:

“David J. Kent has melded deep research, genuine expertise, and a fine way with an anecdote to produce a study that fills a long-missing niche in the Lincoln literature.”

Others were equally effusive. I was honored by the reception the book received from both historians and the public. I’m a bit surprised that reviews and ratings have been slow to come, but I hope that all those reading the book will leave a short note on Goodreads and Amazon and other sites so that others can be encouraged to pick up the book.

Beginning in August I gave at least 18 presentations related to Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. Some were to Lincoln groups, others to Civil War Round Tables, one was to an Arts Club. In addition, I gave many presentations, moderated many meetings, and twice gave a course on Lincoln developed for Encore Learning, an adult continuing education program based in Arlington, VA. I also was interviewed in all media formats – print, radio, podcast, and video. You can read/listen/watch some of them via links on my Media page, plus see what events I have coming up. I already have 6 presentations related to Lincoln: The Fire of Genius scheduled for the beginning of 2023, so the coming year promises to be busy as well.

Unexpectedly, my writing life took me into the full breadth of the funeral industry in 2022. The year began normally with my representing the Lincoln Group of DC laying a wreath on Lincoln’s birthday in February at the Lincoln Memorial (which I plan to do again this year). The Memorial was also the site of the Lincoln Memorial Centennial commemoration in May, for which I was the primary organizer and served as Master of Ceremonies. Those were within the realm of activities that I’ve done before. But in June, I found myself in a funeral home hosting a special Lincoln Group meeting. There have been “presidents, vice presidents, Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, military leaders and foreign dignitaries who were honored at Joseph Gawler’s Sons,” and they have the original coffin in which Abraham Lincoln’s last direct descendant, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was held in before his cremation in 1985. In September I was invited to give a presentation at the unveiling of a new monument at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. The intricate memorial honored famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady with two large granite columbaria with inlaid photos related to Brady as well as life-size bronze statues of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, as well as a bronze replica of a Brady camera of the time period. Finally, in October I was in church, having been asked to give a eulogy at a memorial service for a long-time member and past president of the Lincoln Group who had passed away.

Outside of the Fire of Genius related activities, I continued to write for the quarterly Lincoln Group Lincolnian newsletter, for which I wrote eight book reviews and several shorter articles. I write constantly for the Lincolnian.org website, around 150 articles in the last couple of years. I also wrote an article for the Lincoln Forum Bulletin. Then there were dozens of articles each for this David J. Kent website and my Hot White Snow blog. Last year I mentioned that I planned to finish a Confederate Monuments book, but that took a back seat to other activities, so I’ll add it to this year’s list. There were also a couple of other writing projects I worked on, one or more of which should come out this year.

As with all writers, we survive on royalties for our work. I’m still getting royalties from my earlier traditionally published books on Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Abraham Lincoln. The graphically oriented style made them popular with the general public and with younger adult readers (and even middle schoolers). The royalties aren’t making me rich, but it’s nice to see them still dribbling in. I also receive a little bit from the two specialty e-books on Amazon, both of which I make available for a low price to bring information on Tesla and Lincoln to a wider audience. You can see the previous books and directly order the two e-books on my Buy the Books page (scroll down to see them all). Since most publishers pay out royalties only twice a year and my Fire of Genius book was released in the second half of 2022, the first chance of receiving royalties will be in May 2023.

What is the plan for 2023?

This year is set to begin as a continuation of the last with promotion related to Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. I have six presentations already scheduled for the next few months, with likely many more being added to my Media page soon. [You can also see previous videos/podcasts on the Media page]

I’ll continue to write book reviews for the Lincolnian newsletter and plan to submit to the Lincoln Herald, Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, and Civil War Times. There should be a review of Fire of Genius in the next issue of the latter, which also says they still want to do an excerpt. In addition to reviews, I have articles in preparation for the first two that I hope will be published this year. I’ll also be posting reviews at the Abraham Lincoln Bibliography Project.

Last year I thought I would be publishing a book related to the Confederate monument debate. It got pushed to the back burner then, but I hope to get it out this year. I’m also working on a new Tesla book that I’ll put out as a print volume on Amazon.

Of course, I’ll continue to write blog posts on Lincolnian.org, DavidJKent-Writer.com, and HotWhiteSnow.wordpress.com. And as time permits, I’ll write fiction pieces and enter writing contests.

Finally, the new work in progress I was researching last year seems to have been bumped by a new Lincoln topic. I had a conversation with my agent before the holidays who said the publisher of Fire of Genius was interested in working with me on a new book, and the ensuing discussion led me in a slightly different direction. The goal is to get a one-pager to the publisher this week so they can start doing market research, then get them a formal proposal with sample chapters this spring. Meanwhile, I have two (or even three) potential collaborations on books that may come to fore in 2023. Stay tuned!

[Photo by Bruce Guthrie, Lincoln Memorial Centennial, May 22, 2022]

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.