I had the honor of introducing and reciting Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on Lincoln’s Birthday (2/12/24) at the Lincoln Memorial. Plus, I led the Lincoln Group of DC contingent laying a wreath in Lincoln’s honor.
More on the event here: https://www.lincolnian.org/post/a-lincoln-215-and-counting
On Monday, February 12, 2024, Abraham Lincoln turns 215 years old! And all are invited to join in the celebration.
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.
Finally! The long-delayed renovations to the Lincoln Memorial are about to start. My colleague in the Lincoln Group of DC, Ed Epstein, reported on the official U.S. National Park Service announcement this morning. Writing on the Lincolnian.org blog, Epstein notes:
The National Park Service in coming weeks will finally start work on long discussed and long- delayed work to vastly expand visitor space under Washington’s landmark Lincoln Memorial, by far the most visited of the capital city’s many monuments and memorials.
Most of the century-old memorial will remain open during the work, which is expected to last at least four years, the Park Service said in unveiling news of the project’s kickoff. The project was originally announced in 2016, with an $18.6 million donation from billionaire David Rubenstein, a philanthropist who has played a major role in several ventures involving historical preservation in Washington, including paying $7.5 million for repairing the Washington Memorial after a 2010 earthquake. Among other projects, he also bought an original copy of the Magna Carta from 1297 for $21.3 million and has lent it to the National Archives to put on display.
The current visitors center in the Lincoln Memorial’s basement, or undercroft, is 800 square feet. That will grow to 15,000 square feet. The project will also include new restrooms, a larger bookstore and elevator replacement work. The current bookstore is in a cramped space off the northeast corner of the memorial’s main chamber, not far from where the words of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address are carved into the wall.
The Park Service said the new visitors center will feature ceiling-to-floor glass walls that will offer a view of some of the undercroft’s arched supports, which were sunk deep into the marshy land on which the memorial was built to provide support for the massive 38,000-ton granite and marble structure. The latest trends in museum design will include an “immersive theater presentation” that will flash images of the many historic events that have taken place at the memorial onto the foundations.
Displays will explain the epic construction of the memorial and talk about how the Lincoln Memorial became the site of major civil rights demonstrations, most notably the August 1963 march on Washington, at which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech before a crowd of a few hundred thousand people.
“We’re essentially building a modern glass structure inside this historic space,” said Jeffrey Reinbold, superintendent of the park service’s National Mall and Memorial Parks. In an interview with the Washington Post, he added, “And all of the challenges of how visitors would move throughout the space, interact with this historic space … took a little longer than we expected” to plan.
The work is supposed to finish in 2026, in time for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. But given the vagaries of construction work, that could be optimistic.
Go here to read the full article by Ed Epstein on the Lincolnian.org website.
This is exciting news, and the Lincoln Group of DC will keep everyone up to date as the project progresses.
Meanwhile, my tour celebrating the release of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius continues with upcoming presentations at the Abraham Lincoln Institute’s annual symposium at Ford’s Theatre in March and the Lincoln Society of Peekskill’s annual banquet in April. You can catch any or all of the interviews and presentations I’ve done for Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. Just scroll through my Media page for events with President Lincoln’s Cottage, the Abraham Lincoln Looking for Lincoln program, my interview on The Pat Williams Show (founder of the Orlando Magic basketball team), the Our American Stories radio program, and much more. Plus, check out upcoming events.
[Photo by David J. Kent, February 12, 2023, at the annual wreath laying ceremony for Lincoln’s birthday]
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.
Sometimes science traveling means traveling back in time rather than place. This past Friday I was transported back to 1922, the year the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated. We had gathered to commemorate the 207th birthday of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Several organizations were present to lay wreaths, including the Lincoln Group of DC, whom I was representing.
The Memorial is styled as a Greek temple and made of Yule marble shipped in from Colorado. I discovered something about the science of marble during the event – it’s cold. Temperatures were in the zero degree (Fahrenheit) area, and the physics of metal chairs conducting the cold from the marble floors as wind swirled around us was noticeably emphatic.
Despite the cold there were many visitors gazing in awe up at the 19-foot tall seated statue of Lincoln. Quickly noticed are the Gettysburg Address and 2nd Inaugural Address etched into the side walls and the epitaph over Lincoln’s head. More observant visitors would notice the 36 Doric columns surrounding the Memorial, one for each of the states that comprised the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. The names of the states and their date of statehood are engraved over the colonnade.
Easily overlooked, but not to be missed, is the inscription on the steps where Martin Luther King, Jr. stood as he gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, one hundred years after Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
The wreath laying event was organized by the Lincoln’s Birthday National Commemorative Committee, which is associated with the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. In the photo above, Col. Andrew Johnson of MOLLUS admires the wreath laid by President Obama earlier in the day. The photo below captures the wreaths of the Lincoln Group of DC and the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church (“Lincoln’s Church) after they had been presented.
Of course, Presidents Day honors more than just Abraham Lincoln; George Washington’s birthday is February 22nd and the federal holiday was originally solely to celebrate his birth (while Lincoln’s birth was celebrated officially by many individual states). Over the years the day has come to mean different things to different people, but generally serves to remember all 43 U.S. Presidents and those to come.
Later this week is yet another celebration of Lincoln’s influence on the world. Check out the February 18th free program being held at the National Archives in downtown Washington, D.C.
David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.
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In partnership with the National Park Service, the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia invites everyone to a special series of events on Saturday, March 7, 2015 where we’ll celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address. Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln will take the oath of office on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and recite his famous inaugural address.
The inauguration begins a full day encompassing three separate events. More details here.
Event 1: Inaugural reenactment at the Lincoln Memorial, 9:15 – 11:30 am [Free]
Chuck Todd, the current moderator of Meet the Press and former chief White House Correspondent will deliver the keynote address. Dr. Lucas Morel of Washington and Lee University and Dr. Edna Greene Medford of Howard University will also speak. Mr. Lincoln will take the oath of office from Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, after which we’ll have wide ranging musical entertainment by the Military District of Washington; multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and music historian Bobby Horton; and the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Children of the Gospel Choir.
This event is free and open to the public. Music begins at 9:15 am at the Lincoln Memorial.
Event 2: Lincoln Inaugural Banquet at the Willard Hotel, 1:00 – 4:00 pm [Tickets]
After the inauguration, join us at a special inaugural banquet at the historic Willard Hotel. In addition to a fantastic meal, Lucas Morel and Edna Greene Medford will discuss the impact of Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural to the past, present, and future…as well as the 50th anniversary of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday,” the topic of a recent Oscar-nominated movie co-produced by Oprah Winfrey. Bobby Horton will provide the musical entertainment!
Tickets are necessary. If you would like to hear the Bobby Horton concert but not the banquet, you can do that too! Check out the details here (scroll down for all three events).
Event 3: Bobby Horton Concert, New York Ave. Presbyterian Church, 7:30 pm [Tickets]
Cap off the day with an amazing concert at the church Abraham Lincoln called home, the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Bobby Horton will regale us with a full concert in this historic building beginning at 7:30 pm. For those who don’t know him, you’re in for a treat, as in his most entertaining style he will lead us in songs of the Civil War soldier, both norther and southern. More about him:
A seasoned performer, Horton is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and music historian. He has performed with the musical- comedy trio Three On a String, throughout the United States and Canada for 40 plus years. He has also produced and performed music scores for sixteen PBS films by Ken Burns – including “The Civil War”, and “Baseball,” two films for The A&E network, and twenty-one films for The National Park Service. His series of recordings of authentic period music has been acclaimed by historical organization and publications through America and Europe.
You can join us for one, two, or all three events. A shuttle bus is available for transport between the Lincoln Memorial and the Willard hotel (see links for details and tickets).
This is an incredible opportunity to take part in history at three of the city’s most historic landmarks – Lincoln Memorial, Williard hotel, and Lincoln’s Church. Please join us Saturday, March 7th for one or all of these great events.
More information and tickets can be found here.
See you on March 7th!
David J. Kent is a lifelong Lincolnophile and is currently working on a book about Abraham Lincoln’s interest in science and technology. He is also the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and an ebook Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time. His next book is about Thomas Edison.
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Abraham Lincoln Historian, Scientist, Traveler
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