Month: July 2024

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Ford’s After Hours – A Day with Lincoln in DC

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Ford's Theatre tourFord’s Theatre plays an important role in the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. It was here that Lincoln was assassinated by a slavery sympathizer and actor. Today, Ford’s does double duty as a working theater and a memorial to our 16th president. Last night I did something I had never done in all my years of going to Ford’s. I took an after-hours tour.

Called “Ford’s @ 5,” the theater has been offering a limited series of tours this summer. They begin at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, after the theater and museum close to the general public. And they are wonderful.

About a dozen of us gathered in the main lobby. Promptly at 5 p.m., we were escorted by Sophie, our tour guide for the evening, down the ramp and stairs into the basement museum. Using the displays as props, Sophie gave us the history of Washington in Lincoln’s time, as well as insights into Lincoln’s family, the war, and, of course, the assassination. We learned about how the unfinished dome of the Capitol became an important symbol. Lincoln wanted construction to continue even during the war to show that the work of democracy continues. We heard about the death of Willy Lincoln in 1862 and how Mary Lincoln rejuvenated the dilapidated White House (perhaps with more exuberance than funding allowed). We heard about how John Wilkes Booth stalked Lincoln around Washington, turning his kidnapping plan into a murder plan as the South was surrendering and Lincoln was voicing a desire that African Americans be allowed to vote.

And then it was time to enter the theater itself. Sophie explained the reason Lincoln attended the theatre that night, how Booth used his fame and influence to gain access to the presidential box, and how he expressed delusion and disdain for democracy as he jumped to the stage for his escape. Sophie’s narrative added important insights into the scene around us as we gazed down at the stage and across at the flag-draped box from our balcony seats. As a special treat, Elinor, another guide who was tagging along with the tour, opened up the door to the presidential box so we could each in turn get a close-up view of where Lincoln, Mary, Henry Rathbone, and Clara Harris were seated during the attack.

To top off the tour, wine and cheese was served in the lobby, giving us time to ask additional questions and chat further with Sophie and Elinor. Check the Ford’s website to see if any spots are available for future Ford’s@5 events.

The Ford’s tour wasn’t the only Lincoln I experienced that day. Prior to the tour I visited the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, a block or two up the road from Ford’s. As Wendy Swanson detailed in a post on the Lincolnian website in May, the Portrait Gallery is currently featuring a special exhibit called “Picturing the Presidents: Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes.” Early photographs of several presidents, including the four immediately preceding Lincoln, are featured with two ambrotypes of Lincoln himself. While at the Gallery, I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit with the life-size W.F.K. Travers painting of Lincoln installed a year or so ago.

Lincoln doesn’t stop there, however. Several members of the Lincoln Group of DC have already signed up for “Mister Lincoln,” a one-man show about the 16th president featuring renowned actor Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap, NCIS: New Orleans, Star Trek: Enterprise). The show runs at Ford’s Theatre from September 20 through October 13, 2024.

[Photo from inside Ford’s Theatre Museum by David J. Kent, July 28, 2024; This post with additional photos was originally published 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 Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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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Fire of Genius to be Analyzed by LGDC Study Forum

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Fire of Genius and wineA funny thing happened on the last Lincoln Group of DC (LGDC) Study Forum meeting. The group selected Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America, to be the next book for study. The Study Forum group generally takes several months to review and discuss (and dissect) whichever book is under scrutiny. Over the last eleven years the group has tackled 20 books about Lincoln. This month was the final session for Kevin Peraino’s Lincoln in the World about foreign policy issues during the Civil War, which meant voting for the next book.

So, starting with the next study session, the LGDC Study Forum will read and discuss Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. I’m honored that the group felt my book was worthy of being studied.

Okay, so here is where things get weird. I have been a member of this particular Study Forum group for the last ten years. I am a vocal participant of the group, opining on this and that issue as we scour the books for insights and controversies. As a group we don’t hesitate to question whether the author has made their case. But now the book we’ll be digging into is the book I wrote. [FYI: I opted out of the vote, which nonetheless resulted in a significant majority in favor.]

On several occasions, and quite frequently in recent years, we’ve invited the author of the book to join us for the final session on his or her book. This gives us the opportunity to get further insights on their writing and research process, as well as answer some of the nagging questions we had developed over previous months. It’s a great opportunity to get more information and the authors enjoy the interaction. But, and this is a big “but,” we’ve never had the author sit in for all of the sessions, some of which can get rather contentious as different group members may not agree on interpretation or veracity of any given point. To make this “but” even more interesting, that author (aka, me) is one of the more engaged members of the group. Which puts me in the strange position of having to deal with potential criticism and/or finding that my presence inhibits some members from offering their honest feedback on the book. I’ve made it clear that I want people not to feel they can’t give the book the attention they would give any other book, but I just finished being president of the organization (and a leader of the group for a decade) and have sometimes moderated this Study Forum. Whether that has any effect on the deliberations remains to be seen.

Bottom line is that I’m a bit anxious about the decision to discuss Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. Not so much because I can’t take criticism. I know how much research I put into the book and feel confident I’ve sufficiently made and documented my case. But still, it’s a weird feeling being part of a group that will analyze a book I’ve written for several months…while I’m present. It could be an interesting experience.

The Study Forum group meets monthly, which means the next meeting is in August. That meeting will be a break from the norm as the goal is to meet in person in downtown Washington, DC for the first time since the beginning of the Covid pandemic (normally we meet virtually via Zoom). Logistics of having a remote hookup are still in the works, which is especially important given our moderator and several other regular members (we usually have about 15 people on the call) live well away from Washington, DC. Members will start to read the book and the first official meeting to begin discussion will be in September.

We’ll see how it goes.

 

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 Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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 Botswana Experience

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Lioness, Chobe National ParkI recently returned from a 16-day trip to southern Africa. I’m still recovering from the 15-hour flight from Cape Town back to America (and the three-and-a-half-hour flight from Zimbabwe before that) but wanted to get an overview of the trip up as a preamble to more detailed future posts. The trip took us to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and unexpectedly, Zambia.

Photo: Lioness in Chobe National Park. She scooted her two young cubs under the nearby bush as soon as she saw us.

The first stop, and the first 15-hour flight, was to Cape Town, South Africa. Wary of arriving at the beginning of the organized tour with no buffer time, we planned a two-and-a-half-day stay in the most southwestern city of the southernmost country in Africa. Cape Town is a large, modern city most noted for its iconic football (aka, soccer) and rugby stadium and Table Mountain, the high plateau that dominates the skyline of the city. It also has Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of the 27 years he was a political prisoner by the apartheid white supremacist government. The day up to the mountain via cable car was anticlimactic given it was socked in pretty conclusively with clouds and drizzle, but it was memorable in its own way anyway. We also rented a car and drove (on the left side) down the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (where we saw elands and ostriches). We also drank a lot of good South African wine, added my 61st aquarium visited, and enjoyed the sunny weather of the South African winter (cold in the morning, warm in the afternoon).

Then it was back to the airport and a flight to Maun, Botswana, known as the “Tourism Capital” of Botswana, mainly because it is an entryway into some of the more attractive safari parks in the country. Here we officially started our tour. From Maun we immediately boarded a small plane (a dozen seats) to fly up the Okavango Delta. The Delta is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is one of the few interior delta systems that don’t flow into an ocean. In fact, the Delta begins in the Angola highlands and the river spreads out into the Botswana flatlands. The amount of surface water area varies significantly depending on season. Rather than flow into a large sea, the water just dries up. This is partly by rapid evaporation and transpiration and partly by sinking into the Kalahari Desert, which covers about 70 percent of Botswana. There was plenty of water while we were there, and plenty of birds, almost all of which were new to us. More on that in future posts.

Video above: An elephant in Okavango Delta warns us not to get any closer.

After a couple of days in the Delta we flew back to Maun and started the trek up through the Moremi Game Reserve to see elephants, various antelopes, zebras, wildebeest, and even more kinds of birds. From there we drove further north through the Chobe National Park. Chobe is known for its vast number of elephants, about 50,000 in the park alone. There are also large numbers of lions that prey on elephants. While they mostly look for calves or juveniles, the lions have been known to take small adults. At one point we crossed over the bridge over the River Khwai, which all of us conflated with the movie of the same name (but different spelling and location). I swear I heard whistling.

The final stop was across the border into Zimbabwe for its best-known feature – Victoria Falls. I’ll have much more on this in a future post, but the Falls are a must-see experience. The massive Zambesi River crosses through several countries on its way to the Indian Ocean. On the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe it drops over 100 meters (well over 300 feet) into a narrow gorge. Measuring in at about twice the height and twice the width of the combined Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls is classified as the largest waterfall in the world. The Zimbabwe side has the best view, with a walkway wiggling in and out along the cliffside where you’re sure to get wet from the mist. The Zambian side has a narrower view of one end.  

Video above: A small part of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Which gets me to the unexpected visit to Zambia. The tour officially ended in Victoria Falls, the Zimbabwean town along the eponymous falls. But we were told by someone we ran into near Chobe that it was an easy walk across the bridge into Zambia, as long as you got a double-entry visa when you crossed into Zimbabwe from Botswana. Always willing to tag on another country, that’s what we did (even though the crossing, and especially the return, was not as easy as suggested).

And just like that it was time to go back home.

I plan to do additional posts on specific stops and/or events as soon as I can download and sort all the photos. Stay tuned.

[Photos by David J. Kent]

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 andEdison: 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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Lincoln Attends Laying of Cornerstone for the Washington Monument

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Washington MonumentThe fourth of July, our annual anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, has always a day of commemoration. Throughout his life, Abraham Lincoln attended many of these celebrations. But July 4, 1848, was even more special than usual. On that date, Lincoln watched the cornerstone of the new Washington Monument being laid.

Lincoln was serving his single term as a U.S. congressman at that time. It would be a busy 1848 year for him. He had given his “spot resolution” speech on the floor of the House of Representatives a few months earlier and would give another speech on internal improvements in another month or so. By September, he would be stumping across Massachusetts in support of Zachary Taylor’s Whig candidacy for president. But Lincoln was not about miss the groundbreaking for a monument for the father of our country.

That monument was a long time coming. George Washington had completed his second term as president in 1897, after which he moved back to Virginia to live out life on his Mount Vernon estate. He died in December 1899. While plans to erect some sort of monument had started even before his death, but disagreement about its form and cost kept the idea in stasis until it began again in earnest in the 1830s. Funding and design disagreements continued until the idea of a simple, but giant, obelisk began construction in 1848.

As might be expected, a large ceremony accompanied the symbolic laying of the cornerstone. Executive officials, congressmen (including Lincoln), various fire companies, school children, and fraternal organizations. This latter group included the Freemasons, the “secret” society of which Washington had been a member. Originally seen as part of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s grand design for the city, the Monument again ran into funding problems. The core of the monument is made of bluestone gneiss for the foundation and granite for the construction. But that’s just the inside. The outer facing consists of three different kinds of white marble.

Why three kinds of marble? That’s because the lack of funding stopped building progress for many years. The bottom third of the Monument has marble from Baltimore County, constructed from 1848 to 1854. The Monument stump then sat unfinished at a height of 152 feet. And that is what Abraham Lincoln could see every day from the White House as he fought to save the nation during the Civil War. Following the war, Congress eventually appropriated more money, but by this time people were second-guessing the simple design and more embellished plans were submitted. By the time this played out (with the original simple design intact, albeit with some modifications to the foundation to withstand the weight of the additional height) it was 1879. Construction then ran from 1879 to its final completion date in 1888. Initially, marble from Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts was used, but only for a narrow zone just above the original base. The rest of the obelisk was finished using Cockeysville marble coming from the same quarry town as the original.

Lincoln never got to see the Washington Monument completed, but he not only saw the building of the Smithsonian castle, he also spent a lot of time there during the Civil War. The design of the Castle, the first and only building at the time of what is now a vast Smithsonian Institution complex, had been completed prior to Lincoln’s arrival for his single term in Congress. Construction began just as he arrived and was ongoing throughout his term. The East Wing of the Castle was completed about the time Lincoln left Congress, and Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, moved in with his family while construction continued. The West Wing was completed later that year (1849). The exterior took a few more years, finally being completed in 1852 while Lincoln toiled away at his legal practice back in Illinois.

Then came the Civil War and Lincoln came back to Washington as the nation’s president. Joseph Henry became an informal science adviser to Lincoln and several events and signal light tests were done in the Castle. Then tragedy struck just as the four years of horrible war came to a close – the Castle was on fire (read my account of the fire here). One tower was destroyed, along with some of Joseph Henry’s belongings and virtually all of James Smithson’s papers, instruments, and mineral collection.

On the Fourth of July a few years ago, I sat on the hillock at the foot of the Washington Monument. I had spent the day at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival and was now watching the annual fireworks display bursting across the sky between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Both structures had taken some time to complete, but now, with “bombs bursting in air” above them, it was impossible not to be inspired.

Happy 4th of July!

[Photo of Washington Monument taken by David J. Kent]

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 andEdison: 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.