A year ago June, some historians came from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield IL to my parents home in Rockford IL to help in the restoration of the Lincoln Letter (Photoessays #29 and #11). The letter fit into a very specific historical niche and was previously unknown. The Presidential Library's "Papers of Abraham Lincoln" project seeks to collect all the correspondence to and especially from Abraham Lincoln.
When I contacted the Library, they eagerly made an appointment to come to my parents home and make a professional scan of the letter so it would be widely available to Lincoln scholars. We also wanted professional help removing it from the frame which we knew was inappropriate. Two staff members traveled from Springfield (about 4 hours drive) to meet with me and to scan the letter. We wished to share the letter and include it in the 'canon'. The restoration historian brought his tool box and partially disassembled the frame and the mounting. Once he got the backing off, he saw that the print and the letter we attached to some horrible cardboard with some awful tape (shown below) and he refused to go any further worried that he would damage the documents.
The complete scan can be found at
http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/Document%20Images/229634-01.jpg
Interesting that this document is the only one marked 'private collection'
The photo shows the historian taking the frame apart in my parent's kitchen as my cousin and mother look on. Every woman in my family (on both sides) including myself is that same height (sub 5'2") except one of my daughters who is a towering 5'4". As far as height goes in my family, it's bad, you don't have a chance.
1 comment:
That is very cool! I read essays #29 and #11, too, to learn more about it. I also found the story about your parent group (and J) somewhere around essay #29; I thought that was interesting.
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