August 19, 2007

Symposium in Redlands to feature 'all things Lincoln'

By JERRY SOIFER
The Press-Enterprise

REDLANDS - A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and the chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court are among 10 scholars scheduled to appear at a two-day symposium on Abraham Lincoln hosted by the University of Redlands.

The event, scheduled for Oct. 20 and 21, will culminate the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Watchorn Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands. It also leads into the nationwide celebration of the Feb. 12, 2009, bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, said Larry Burgess, director of the A.K. Smiley Library in Redlands.

"We've got some of the best minds that have ever written on Lincoln to be in one place at one time," said Burgess. "This is our attempt to get further interest in the 2009 bicentennial of Lincoln."

The Lincoln Shrine was donated to the city on Feb. 12, 1932, by Robert Watchorn, an emigrant from England who rose to become a government official, oil tycoon and philanthropist. Watchorn built a winter home in Redlands and retired in the community. He identified with Lincoln's rise from poverty and became a collector of Lincoln memorabilia.

Featured participants include James McPherson, professor emeritus at Princeton University who won the Pulitzer in 1988 for his history of the Civil War, "Battle Cry of Freedom," and Frank Williams, chief justice in Rhode Island, founder of The Lincoln Forum, a group of Lincoln enthusiasts, and a prolific author on Lincoln.

McPherson, Williams and the eight others have been featured speakers at the annual Watchorn Lincoln dinner, held each Feb. 12 in Redlands for 30 years. The Lincoln symposium is open to the public.

Don McCue, curator of the Lincoln Shrine, said, "I'm looking forward to the all-star scholar panel on Oct. 21. We will get all 10 up on stage for a wide-ranging debate on all things Lincoln. It should be quite entertaining."

Civil War enthusiast Robert Summers, of Los Angeles, has signed up to attend. "Abraham Lincoln is a person who comes along once in a civilization," Summers said. "What he had to offer the United States and in a broader sense, the world, will transcend time."

Also scheduled to attend:

Harold Holzer, author of the 2006 book "Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President." He is the vice president of external affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Ronald Rietveld, professor of history at Cal State Fullerton, who teaches classes on the Civil War and courses on American religious history.

Ronald White, professor emeritus of San Francisco Theological Seminary, who is the author of "The Eloquent President" and "Lincoln's Greatest Speech."

Jean Baker, professor of history at Goucher College in Baltimore, a biographer of first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.

Douglas Wilson, co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center in Galesburg, Ill., author of the 2006 book, "Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words."

Edna Greene Medford, a history professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., who has written articles and books on slavery and freedom from the Colonial era to the Civil War.

David Long, associate professor of history at East Carolina University, author of "Lincoln's Re-election and the End of Slavery."

Charles Strozier, professor of history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, who wrote "Lincoln's Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings."