Results tagged “abrahamlincoln”

This week the Newberry Library kicks off With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln. The exhibit, which opens on October 10 and runs through December 19, features a fascinating collection of letters, books, photos, and other artifacts, including the Bible upon which Lincoln swore the oath of office and a copy of what reportedly was Mary Todd Lincoln's favorite photo of her boo (an 1859 portrait in which is hair was brushed). Visitors can get a real sense of the daily workings of Lincoln's office, which intercepted around 300 letters per day; Lincoln handled much of the correspondence himself, including one man's offer to spy on the Confederacy on the Union's behalf.

For all the discussion about this year being the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, it's worth pointing out that today was final full day of our 16th President's life back in 1865. It was on this date that Lincoln and his wife took a few hours to attend Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater, and became the first President to be assassinated when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

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Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State, 9th Floor

Now that the unpleasantness has been taken care of, it's safe for President Barack Obama to return to Springfield without too much of a fear of taint. Obama will be in Springfield next Thursday, February 12, to celebrate Lincoln's 200th birthday. From announcing his candidacy on the steps of the state capitol (exactly where Lincoln delivered his famed House Divided speech), to the concert at the Lincoln Memorial, to replicating the Lincoln's at his inaugural luncheon, Obama has been a very vocal fan and studier of Honest Abe, so his birthday visit surprises absolutely no one. According to Sen. Dick Durbin's office, President Obama will be attending the Abraham Lincoln Association's annual Lincoln birthday banquet. In a statement, Sen. Durbin said, "Last week, our state proudly looked to Washington once again as another son of Illinois took the presidential oath of office. As our country's economic challenges grow, President Barack Obama will be called on to show leadership and courage similar to that shown by Lincoln during one of the most difficult periods in our history." In case you missed it, check out yesterday's interview of President Obama with NBC's Matt Lauer from the Super Bowl pre-game show.

President-Elect Barack Obama has become known for making and drawing comparisons to Illinois' other President, Abraham Lincoln. Now he's going one step further by taking the same train route from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. that Lincoln, his "political idol", did before his inauguration. The journey will begin for the Obamas on January 17 when their train will depart Philadelphia after a celebration event. There will be a stop in Wilmington, Delaware to pick up the Biden family, and then a stop in Baltimore for a speaking engagement which is expected to draw 150,000 people. And then? Washington for the inauguration on January 20.

      

Here at the Flashback Desk, we usually like to keep to the timespans of our collective lives – that is, going back to around the 80’s or 70’s. On today’s Flashback, we’re going to take you back to the 60’s – the 1860s, that is. Presumably, as the glow of the election starts to fade, some of your thoughts are bound to turn to inauguration road trips. So for those of us preparing for a January trip to a historic event, this week’s Flashback takes us to March 4th, 1861, and the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.

    

The U.S. Mint today unveiled four new designs for the penny, made to commemorate the bicentennial of Honest Abe's birth as well as the 100th anniversary of the original release of the penny. It's the first such change to the coin in 50 years, or about the last time the penny had any real use to people. The first coin will be released into circulation on February 12, 2009 with the other designs following at three-month intervals. The front (or "heads") side of the coin will bare the same portrait of Lincoln as always, but the reverse side (i.e., the "tails") will feature four different designs commererating his birth in Kentucky, his time in Indiana, his life in Illinois, and his presidency.

I love weird Lincolns! Previously: the Lincoln Douglas reunion tour, cartoon Lincoln, stencil Lincoln, Bowie Lincoln.

Palin (she's gone from "unqualified" to "Goddamn frightening" in the space of a week) have been formally nominated by the GOP, let's take a look back at previous Republican conventions.

OMG, history boner. The Illinois Bureau of Tourism is staging a reenactment tour of the Lincoln-Douglas debates to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the events. Chicago-area festivities are still TBD, sadly, but the tour recreates the duo's stops in Ottowa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, and Quincy.

Canadian illustrator Antony Hare whipped up this oddly menacing, intriguing Abraham Lincoln.

We're always on the lookout for weird or cool Abraham Lincoln stuff.

We like Spock, but we love Bowie.

New $5 bills make their debut today, and all we can say is....look at that big purple five. That thing is a monster! But it's a "low vision" feature, designed to "[help] those with visual impairments to distinguish the denomination." The bill also includes light purple shading on the front, clusters of tiny yellow 5s on the front and back, and an "enhanced" portrait.

God bless you, French subtitles.

It’s coming, folks. The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial in 2009. You won’t be able to eat your Wheaties in the morning without reading something about Lincoln, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias announced yesterday that the state is getting out of the loan business. On Monday, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Patrick J. Londrigan signed the foreclosure order on the Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Convention Center, the first step in removing ownership from the politically connected powerbroker Bill Cellini. Although the owners quickly fell behind on payments, the loan was restructured in 1990, ensuring that the owners didn't have to repay the loan as long as the hotel didn't turn a profit. As a result, only two payments have been made on the loan in the last ten years.

This is going to get way boring, but what the eff. The City Council meeting is streaming online! Watch it yourself, or just follow along with us. Updates at the bottom, until we get too tired of doing this. 10:02 They take attendance. 10:03 This stream is...meh. It keeps cutting out. "We have taken a major step in making our city government more transparent." Turns out they didn't know how hard it would be to...

"Grinders" via pantagrapher.

Jason Pisarik, an accountant from Lombard, defended his title as the Ultimate Couch Potato and won. People are mad about a political ad from Las Palmas, the Mexican restaurant in Wicker Park. With a mural like this, what do people expect? A baby boy in Evanston and a baby girl in Naperville were born at the same time and tied for the Chicagoland's First Baby in 2007 designation. Almost a million people have visited...

Rich Whitney, Green Party Candidate for Illinois Governor

Over the summer, Chicagoist went to Springfield for the first time since the ubiquitous 7th grade state capital field trip. While we didn’t remember Springfield ever being particularly thrilling, we had heard some positive reviews of the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and just assumed that we didn’t get to see all that the capital had to offer last time we were down south.

TECH NOTE: We're not trying to silence you today or anything, we're having technical difficulties that are causing comments to not work across the entire Gothamist Network. Hopefully this will be resolved by later tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. This week's CTA news: US Cellular customers can make cell phone calls on the trains, everyone can make 911 calls, and we're now able to track buses to try to figure out why...

Contractors working on a wetlands restoration project in DuPage County recently unearthed a set of molars belonging to an American mastodon, extinct ancestor of modern elephants. Mastodons roamed America 3.75 million years ago, but died out just 11,500 years back. They favored the kind of spruce forests that thrived in the Chicago area about 16,000 years ago, which also died out at about the same time mastodons did, so scientists think this area could be the mastodons' last stand. Thus the discovery of fossils from the fairly well-understood species is still significant, because they may hold clues to the mastodons' downfall.

Yesterday the state submitted conceptual plans for a small commercial airport in Chicago's far south suburb of Peotone. This is the most formal step yet toward development of a 3rd Chicago-area airport. The proposed airport would be named the Abraham Lincoln National Airport, which seems sort of strange since we're pretty sure that airplanes weren't even invented in his lifetime.. but whatevs.. we're all a bunch of Abe lovahs around here.

The Chicago Historical Society may be our fair city's longest standing museum, but its age doesn't mean it's using a walker or eating dinner at noon or anything. In stark contrast, the museum will celebrate its 150th birthday next year with a $22 million rehab that will leave its exterior shell intact, but will transform the existing exhibit halls and public spaces into a vibrant representation of "the city's collective memory."

As we all know, this Saturday is Abraham Lincoln's birthday and being in the official Land of Lincoln, Chicagoist wanted to celebrate in a unique way. For the first time ever, we're sponsoring a photo contest. But this isn't just ANY photo contest, this is a Land of Lincoln photo contest where every photo submitted must have Abraham Lincoln in it.

It's the biggest shopping day of the year, so we thought we'd offer you all some shopping tips. We say "all," and we mean "serious, serious Abraham Lincoln aficionados." Tis the season, mofos.