Heart of Lincoln Land

Lincoln Apparel’s latest T-shirt, "Young Mr. Lincoln", features bright colors and lines and a vibrant portrait of Abraham Lincoln – perfect for celebrating Lincoln’s Birthday. Copyright © 2010 Lincoln Apparel.

Saturday is Lincoln’s Birthday, so be sure to celebrate it! Here is a list of all of the events I can find in Springfield for Lincoln’s 202nd Birthday. Note that all of these are free, unless otherwise noted. Be sure to check out my Lincoln T-shirts at Springfield Novelties and Gifts, 229 S. 6th St. (near Monroe Street) in historic downtown Springfield while you’re attending, they’d be perfect for this (or any) occasion!

Thursday, February 10th, 2011:

• 7 pm – "Tad Lincoln’s Father", a one-woman performance, will be showing at the Vachel Lindsay Home at 5th and Edwards. A light dessert will precede it at 6:30.

Friday, February 11th, 2011:

• 9 am – "Lincoln’s Emotional Life" discussion with Lincoln author Michael Burlingame at Lincoln Land Community College Trutter Center.
• 9 am – The kickoff to the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s inaugural trip in 1861 begins at Grace Lutheran Church at 7th and Capitol (near the Lincoln Home Visitor Center); Springfield Lincoln re-enactor Fritz Klein will be portraying Abraham Lincoln.
• 10:30 am – Lincoln (portrayed by Fritz Klein) will depart from his home at 8th and Jackson to head for the Great Western Railroad depot at 10th and Monroe, where he will leave his hometown of Springfield for his inaugural journey to Washington, DC.

• 11 am – A simultaneous reading of Lincoln’s Farewell Address (one of his most beautiful speeches, in my opinion) will occur at the Great Western Depot (now known as the Lincoln Depot). There will be an attempt to break the world record for the most people reading the same document aloud simultaneously, so people across the country are being asked to recite it, too. (The world record is 223,363 participants reading aloud from "Charlotte’s Web" in 2006.) You can participate here: http://www.state.il.us/streaming/hpa/hpa-live.asx or on the Springfield State Journal-Register’s website here: http://extras.sj-r.com/r/depot

  A similar attempt was made in 2009 with the Gettysburg Address, but it fell short. Note that since the Farewell Address is even shorter than the Gettysburg Address, the document will be read multiple times, because the Guinness Book of World Records requires the reading to be at least 5 minutes long.

• 12:00 noon – "Jameson Jenkins: The Man Lincoln Knew", a presentation at the Lincoln Land Community College East Campus near 15th and Cook, will show Abraham Lincoln and Jameson Jenkins, a conductor on the Underground Railroad who lived in Lincoln’s neighborhood, helped slaves escape to freedom. Jason Boyd will be portraying Jameson Jenkins.
• 1 pm – "Women’s 1860s Clothing", a presentation on the clothing styles and fashion of the 1860s, will occur at the Lincoln Home Visitor’s Center at 7th and Jackson.
• 1 pm – "Children’s Toys of the 1860s" – also at the Lincoln Home Visitor’s Center, a presentation and demonstration of toys kids played with in Lincoln’s time (including toys the Lincolns played with).
• 2 pm – Mary Lincoln re-enactor Pam Brown will reminisce about her life in Springfield at the Lincoln Home Visitor’s Center in a program entitled "Mary Lincoln’s Memories".
• 3 pm – "Never Lose Sight of Freedom", a short film about the Civil Rights movement, will be shown at the Lincoln Home Visitor’s Center.
• 6:30 pm – The Abraham Lincoln Association’s keynote speaker, Michael Holt, will discuss "Lincoln’s Mistakes as President Elect" at Brookens Auditorium at UIS.

A few of my colorful "Back to Springfield" Lincoln T-shirts, originally done for the Lincoln Bicentennial, are still left – and they’re perfect for Lincoln’s Birthday. Copyright © 2008 Lincoln Apparel.

Saturday, February 12th, 2011 – Lincoln’s 202nd Birthday:

• 8:30 am – the annual Painter Lectures at the Lincoln Home. This year, Lincoln’s relationship with three central Illinois communities – Bloomington, Pittsfield, and Charleston – will be discussed by Guy Fraker, Wayne Temple, and the staff of the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, respectively. The Springfield African American History Foundation will be discussed by Douglas King.
• 8:30 to 11:30 – Robert Bray will sign copies of his book "Reading with Lincoln" at the Lincoln Home Visitor’s Center
• 10 am to 3 pm – Abraham Lincoln Birthday Party at the National Museum of Surveying, which opened late last year on the north side of the Old State Capitol square on the 500 block of East Washington Street.
• 11 am – Annual American Legion pilgrimage to the Lincoln Tomb
• 11 am – Annual Abraham Lincoln Association Symposium at the Old State Capitol. This year, "Lincoln and the Election of 1860" will be discussed by Jonathan Earle, and "Lincoln, Civil Liberties and Dissent" will be discussed by Jonathan White.
• 1 pm – Abraham Lincoln Association luncheon. Russell McClintock will discuss "Lincoln and the Coming of the War". This is sold out.
• 2 pm – Valentine Open House at the Vachel Lindsay Home hosted by Mary Lincoln’s sister, Ann (portrayed by Kathy Reed); period refreshments will be served. At 2:45, Ann will reminisce about her relationship with Mary and her family.
• 2:30 pm – Abraham Lincoln Symposium Roundtable at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library featuring speakers Jonathan Earle, Michael Holt, Russell McClintock, and Jonathan White (with Brooks Simpson as moderator).
• 2:30 pm – Annual VFW pilgrimage to the Lincoln Tomb
• 5 pm – Reception to benefit the endowment for the Abraham Lincoln Association at the Crowne Plaza Hotel ($75)
• 6:30 pm – The annual Abraham Lincoln Association Banquet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel featuring Allen Guelzo, author of "Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation" (a book I have – I believe it won the Lincoln Prize) and "Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President". The State Journal Register says this costs $85, a few tickets are still available, and I’m not sure if the $85 includes the $75 for the reception or not. The ALA website (via the above link) makes it look as if the $75 is for the whole thing. I’m also not sure why they don’t hold it at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel downtown like they used to.

Sunday, February 13th, 2011:

• 8:30 am – Lincoln’s Birthday Worship Service at the First Presbyterian Church (the church the Lincolns attended, at 7th and Capitol)

That’s all the events that I know of. I’ll likely be at many of them, including the Painter Lectures, the Symposium and the simultaneous reading of the Farewell Address. In fact, I would’ve come out with a Farewell Address Lincoln T-shirt design but over the holidays I forgot about it and now it’s a little late. I’ll probably still do one anyway because I like that speech. Right now I’m working on getting the "Purpose" design reprinted – there will be new colors added to the design this time – I’ll let you know about that and other plans for Lincoln Apparel this year after the holiday weekend. Have fun on Lincoln’s Birthday this year and be sure to check out – and wear – my Lincoln Apparel T-shirts!

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The new "Young Mr. Lincoln" T-shirt with the "Original 80s Colors" color scheme. Copyright © 2010 Lincoln Apparel.

As I promised before, by the holiday season I’d have my new "Young Mr. Lincoln" T-shirts available for purchase. The day before Thanksgiving, I updated the Lincoln Apparel website with the new shirts, so take a look at them!

The T-shirts feature the rockin’ bright colors and complex artwork I am known for and come in two color combinations – “Original 80s Colors” (the first color scheme I thought of for the design) and “Illinois Colors” (featuring blue and orange, colors that represent Lincoln’s home state). More color schemes may be available in the future. I may actually limit the amount of shirts made with each color scheme, to make each “Young Mr. Lincoln” T-shirt more unique.

“Young Mr. Lincoln” is my biggest design yet – at 17×22 inches, it fills up the entire front of an adult small T-shirt, and looks awesome on bigger sizes, too. The design features colorful, vibrant artwork that I created, and is based on the earliest known photo of Lincoln, taken in 1846. The design is meant to bring out the energy of Lincoln’s Springfield years, as these were some of the best years of his life. I used lots of different colored lines to create the picture of Lincoln that is on the shirt. The lines in the background are areas where the original 1846 negative was scratched. Rather than remove the scratches, I decided to keep them and make them into colored lines to make the design feel more energetic.

The new "Young Mr. Lincoln" T-shirt with the "Illinois Colors" color scheme. Copyright © 2010 Lincoln Apparel.

Finishing up the design is Lincoln’s signature, and the text “The Young Springfieldian”, to state who and where Lincoln was at this point in his life. All variants of the design are screen printed onto 100% cotton, black American Apparel T-shirts. Like my other T-shirts, these T-shirts are made in the U.S.A. and sweatshop free, the way Lincoln would want them.

You can read more about the creation of this shirt in my previous post. In addition to my website, the new “Young Mr. Lincoln” shirts (along with all of my other T-shirts) should be available at Springfield Novelties and Gifts located at 229 S. 6th Street (near Monroe Street) in historic downtown Springfield very soon.

Happy holidays, everyone, and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too. Enjoy the new shirts, and I hope you all thanked Abraham Lincoln for providing us with a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

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Richard Nixon created President’s Day in 1971. Photo courtesy whitehouse.gov

As a Lincoln fan and somebody who loves history, President’s Day has always striked me as the most useless holiday on the calendar. Why do we need such a generic holiday on the calendar? Is there any reason why all of our presidents should be placed on equal footing? C’mon, you can’t seriously say that James Buchanan, Richard Nixon, and Millard Fillmore are on the same footing as Lincoln and Washington.

What’s more, President’s Day (which is the 3rd Monday in February) can never fall on Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th) or Washington’s Birthday (February 22nd). Talk about useless! No wonder so many states and localities (Illinois included) make a separate holiday for Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday.

All President’s Day is really known for is stupid sales at big box stores. I don’t know of any celebrations that happen on President’s Day. I really wish our Federal Government would care more about our history and separate it out back into Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th) and Washington’s Birthday (February 22nd) the way it was intended to be. President’s Day is a “compromise” that doesn’t satisfy anyone. You wouldn’t celebrate the 4th of July on any other day, so why should we celebrate the contributions of Lincoln and Washington on a holiday not named for them that can’t occur on either of their birthdays?

Abraham Lincoln (Picture Copyright © 2009 Chris Umhoefer, Lincoln Apparel)

Maybe we should call President’s Day Richard Nixon Day. The seedy history of President’s Day begins with him, when he decided that in 1971 that he was just as worthy as Lincoln and Washington and that Federal government workers only needed one day off in February. So he merged the two into the holiday now known as “President’s Day”. Three years earlier, in 1968, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act established that most federal holidays would fall on a Monday, except for days like, oh, Christmas (oh, how convenient and important to our nation’s history). This is why, for instance, MLK Day (established in 1986) is on a Monday and not normally on his birthday (January 15th) either.

George Washington (courtesy whitehouse.gov)

Prior to 1971, Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday had been commonly celebrated for 105 years. Lincoln’s Birthday was first widely celebrated in 1866, after Lincoln’s assassination, and Washington’s Birthday was commonly celebrated during Lincoln’s time. I wish they were celebrated widely today, but instead we’re left with the mundane but “convenient” President’s Day, which contributes to our nation’s already high historical illiteracy rate and doesn’t really celebrate anything.

We as a nation need to be more aware of the contributions of great figures in our history, and why their contributions are relevant to today, and President’s Day and the Uniform Monday Holiday Act don’t help. They hurt, and de-emphasize our history. For the sake of our nation and our history, we need to make Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday federal holidays again, and have them fall on their actual birthdays.

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