Roundtable: Lincoln and Public History

Many readers of this journal are aware of the claim that only Jesus Christ has been the subject of more books than Abraham Lincoln has. Both scholars and authors of popular works expend no small amount of ink and energy diagnosing and debating the state of Lincoln letters. But what about the interpretations of Lincoln that exist outside book covers? A roundtable discussion that took up the subject of current and emerging trends in Lincoln-related public history was held over the course of three weeks in August and September of 2018, via a shared online document and follow-up emails. In this presentation of that conversation, some responses have been lightly edited for clarity.Sarah Jencks of Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., started the discussion. Ford’s remains one of the highest-profile Lincoln sites, nestled as it is in the heart of the capital and within walking distance of Pennsylvania Avenue, several Smithsonian museums, and the National Mall. The site is more than just exhibits sitting motionless in a historic building: Ford’s has been an operating theater since reopening in 1968, and the public historians there maintain a robust schedule of tours and programs that connect to the surrounding neighborhood.1Also joining the conversation were two of the three hosts of The Railsplitter: The Abraham Lincoln Podcast. As of September 2018, the Railsplitter team had produced sixty-six hour-long episodes, about one per week. Statistics show over fifteen thousand downloads of the podcast episodes since the series debuted in June 2017. Railsplitter productions include thematic episodes such as “Abraham Lincoln and Education” (episode sixty-one), interviews with scholars such as Ibram X. Kendi (episode eleven), and travel-and-tourist-themed editions such as the recent look at Lincoln sites in Springfield, Illinois (episode sixty-six). The “Railsplitters” are not averse to occasionally irreverent approaches to talking about the sixteenth president, as evident in the episode “Lincoln, the Civil War, and Star Wars,” in which the hosts imagine Lincoln and his contemporaries as Star Wars characters (episode twenty-seven). The show’s opening theme features a mash-up of Barack Obama invoking the mythos of Lincoln the humble railsplitter and the iconic line delivered by the time-traveling Lincoln of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989): “Be excellent to each other … and party on, dudes!”2Tim Townsend of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield rounded out the discussion. Tim is synonymous with the Lincoln Home; as historian and chief of interpretation, he developed and continues to coordinate the Spirit of Lincoln Youth Leadership Academy, an innovative outreach program that connects local youth with the historical interpretation of African American history relating to Lincoln and his world and legacy. The Lincoln Home is a centerpiece of the Lincoln heritage tourism industry, as evident in the over two hundred thousand annual visitors to the site. Yet a closer look at Lincoln Home visitor statistics demonstrate the challenges faced by public historians engaged in Lincoln-related work. Visitation crested in 2009, at 464,074, but has dipped to just over 200,000 in 2013 and most recently 232,265 in 2017.3 The fortunes of Lincoln Home visitorship are indicative of the ways that contemporary concerns impact the public’s engagement with Lincoln. For example, Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln (2012) likely contributed to robust attendance in 2013, while the state of Illinois’ budget impasse of 2015–16 harmed Springfield tourism in general.Townsend also points toward possible bigger-picture and ongoing challenges to engaging a younger and more diverse audience. Other roundtable participants touch on this issue as well. Attracting new audiences—that, demographically, look more like the broad cross-section of American society—is needed both for a healthy perspective on historical interpretation and for long-term sustainability.Devin, University of Illinois Springfield (UIS): In a few sentences, tell us who you are, your status as a Lincoln-focused public historian, and your path to being one.Sarah Jencks, Ford’s Theatre: I am the director of education and interpretation at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., a position I’ve held in similar form for more than eleven years. Before coming to Ford’s, I was a middle school history teacher and an arts education administrator, with a focus on theatre. I have a master’s degree in education, and as an undergraduate, I studied American civilization with a focus on the history of the arts in this country and a real emphasis on interdisciplinary thinking. This farrago of experiences and expertise has turned out to prepare me very well for my current role. The role of public historian, however, is one I have embraced since I took my job rather than beforehand.Devin, UIS: Thanks for starting the conversation, Sarah. I’m curious to hear if any others among us took a less-than-traditional route to public history, and what unexpected interpretive strengths it developed. For me, years of retail and service industry experience probably helped me to be hired for my first public history job as an archives technician in the researcher services branch of the National Archives, just a stone’s throw from Ford’s Theatre.Mary Fincher,The Railsplitter: I am one of three cohosts on The Railsplitter: The Abraham Lincoln Podcast. I also have a Twitter account (“Civil War Fangirl” @miss_bellatrix) where I tweet about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, as well as a blog about the same subject matter (https://cwfangirl.wordpress.com). I’ve been into Lincoln and the Civil War for thirty years now (since I was six). Being Canadian, I wasn’t taught Lincoln and the Civil War in school, but luckily my family let me embrace my passion, and I was lucky to have books to read about the subjects. Although I’ve been a member of Twitter for about ten years now, I began heavily tweeting about Lincoln and the Civil War only about four years ago. I joined the Railsplitter Podcast about a year ago. Although my university degree is in classical studies and anthropology, my passion for learning about Lincoln and the Civil War has always been something I’ve studied. Twitter and my blog, along with the podcast, have allowed me to dive deeper into the subject matter and learn so much more about it. I’ve learned not just through doing my own research but in discussions I have on Twitter and with my cohosts Nick and Jeremy on the podcast. The Lincoln community on Twitter and Facebook is something that I’ve very much come to embrace and learn so much from.Jeremy,The Railsplitter: I am another of the “Railsplitters.” I cocreated the podcast and cohost it with my pals Mary and Nick. I have a master’s degree in teaching and one in educational leadership, and I am a doctoral candidate in curriculum and instruction with a primary focus on culturally responsive pedagogy and antiracist education. I am the curriculum director for a high school in Illinois and spent seven years as an American history teacher before that. I have been a Lincoln enthusiast as long as I can remember, as every good Illinoisan should be. Significant events for me are a family trip to Civil War battlefields when I was ten and my forty-plus trips to Springfield as an adult. I have thoroughly enjoyed connecting with the Lincoln community as the quasi-historian, quasi-journalist, and full-on enthusiast that podcasting has allowed me to be.Tim Townsend, Lincoln Home: I am the chief of interpretation and a historian at Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois. I began work at Lincoln Home NHS in 1991 as a seasonal interpreter.Devin, UIS: Thanks for the introductions. As for me, I’m an assistant professor of United States and public history at the University of Illinois Springfield. I’ve been here since 2015, after completing my doctorate at Loyola University Chicago. While my “traditional” research interests run toward twentieth-century urban and political history, I am at heart a public history generalist. Before joining academia, I worked at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, and did a stint at the Pritzker Military Library and Museum in Chicago. These days, I serve on a number of advisory boards and boards of directors, including the Abraham Lincoln Association. Like many in the profession, Lincoln and the Civil War were my gateway into a life of history work. Family legend holds that on my first visit to the Lincoln Memorial as a tot, I went out of my way to “correct” some probably arcane interpretive details offered by the park guide. If that now-retired interpreter is reading: I’m sorry.Enough about me; let’s learn more from our roundtable. Generally speaking, what do you think are the most important and interesting recent trends in interpreting Lincoln and Lincoln’s world for the public?Sarah, Ford’s Theatre: The most important Lincoln-related book I’ve read recently is John E. Washington’s They Knew Lincoln, which Kate Masur heroically persuaded Oxford University Press to reissue last winter. I bring it up because the thing that I am most excited about as we interpret Lincoln and his world for the public is how Lincoln can be a starting point for understanding so much more about his world. He both made the world he lived in and was certainly made by it. They Knew Lincoln is a memoir and an oral history of the African American men and women who worked for, lived near, and admired Lincoln during his lifetime, with a particular emphasis on the world of Civil War Washington. It gives us insight into Lincoln, but more important to me, it paints pictures of people who—because they knew Lincoln—come to stand for the many more whose life stories go unremembered and untold in public history.Devin, UIS: That seems like an important point, about Washington and Masur’s effort to use Lincoln’s life as a starting point to discuss much more. Lincoln biographies are legion, and Spielberg’s film gave us a close look at the man himself. Now, perhaps, the historiographical and interpretive pendulum is swinging back toward the world of Lincoln as opposed to the inner workings of Lincoln. But I’m not a Lincoln scholar, so other thoughts?Jeremy,The Railsplitter: I think two recent watershed moments for the public engagement with Lincoln are Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and Spielberg’s (come on, we really mean Day-Lewis’s) Lincoln. I heard much more dialogue, interest, interpretation, and misinterpretation around those releases than any others of the past few decades. I distinctly remember people overstating the degree to which Lincoln worked with his rivals because they saw the book’s title on best-seller lists as well as folks connecting with all of Lincolniana based on the last few months of his life as shown by Hollywood. I am a fan of both works, but I find the conundrum of being excited about people talking about Lincoln while tolerating oversimplification of a complicated man to be fascinating.The most important recent development in the public understanding of Lincoln? For me, without question, it is the phenomenon of two distinctly different political platforms laying claim to him. Whether the left can lay claim to him is debatable, but I believe it is vital to his legacy for historians to clearly articulate the path of Lincoln’s Republican Party and how it became what it is today. There’s a ton of public interest around Lincoln as a Republican, and I feel historians can do great work in drawing those lines.Mary, The Railsplitter: I agree with Jeremy about an increased interest in Lincoln following the movie Lincoln and Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. Another event that sticks out as having rekindled an interest in Lincoln is the 150th anniversary of his assassination in 2015. Coverage of that commemoration was so well done, and places like Ford’s Theatre made excellent use of social media to allow access to a wide variety of audiences.Jeremy raises an excellent point about two different political parties laying claim to him. There is much discussion about this debate, and I see it as something that can make more people want to learn about Lincoln and, in turn, the history of both parties.Devin, UIS: What are some of the advantages and disadvantages to teaching about Lincoln at public history sites, compared with traditional “book” histories?Mary,The Railsplitter: I think a huge advantage is having social media. You can reach a much wider audience than before. It allows for great discussions. It’s not just a one-on-one thing as it is with a traditional book (although I firmly believe books are still needed and reading them is just as important as it ever was). People are able to be engaged with Lincoln and his history, be it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Another advantage is you are able to engage people who may not be inclined to pick up a book and read it. Or people who just have a mild interest in Lincoln but have not read a book about him. They could come away from the experience wanting to know more about Lincoln and then read a book. From there they would hopefully want to seek out more information.One disadvantage with the podcast specifically is that not everyone to There is a similar disadvantage with sites in that people have to and can people from but with the of social the world is a UIS: us about some recent or programs at your did they come What do you to with Railsplitter: the podcast, we recently did an episode The three of us each an or to do with Lincoln and then the on it. For example, how do you go about book about Lincoln? The was a great discussion about Lincoln which and and other to such as the want to just focus on one of his enjoyed doing the For to find out from our who like us what to discuss for a episode by the on Facebook as well as What we to with this is discussions on social media about also on doing our The three of us read a book about Lincoln, we our to read along with and we look at a few each While we our with our first The we were able to have the on our show for the episode about the book. we can do this with the book we What we to is to people reading about Lincoln and read a book about him that not be well Ford’s Theatre: are in the of our first ever interpretive in with our at the National It has been an and that has us about what stories we tell here on Lincoln Home: that are of our Spirit of Lincoln Youth Leadership have since Abraham Lincoln’s on The of this is to high to high school with a of and by the stories of challenges that have been faced and by those who have come before The is to reach who could most use a of and The want the participants to that life can be in the The Spirit of Lincoln Youth Leadership also a youth program that features the role of the United States and African American women in the for The program began in with four and by the number had to to from the is an to through how the challenges they such as not or can be by learning how from our past Lincoln, and similar challenges when they were A new of the is from or to Illinois is a that to the of to through the of and events in from through twentieth-century Chicago. The features that the many places that to the Illinois and from people as they learn about stories and The of the is to history and youth by stories of through UIS: Thanks for this of some of the innovative coming out of the National I know that have a of effort and to the any of you like to us some insight into recent and current challenges that your sites have Railsplitter: A we as is an audience and an are not reading of and about we know our but in other The has us and many others a to a new in about have a following because we have such a but we are always to reach more have that a of folks want to to us about the same for an every week. This is an that there is and history for like Railsplitter: I Jeremy on that we as it can feel with the that is out but another is just how the Lincoln community has and and my are all of this I find the way in which the of that community work this of where we in as is shared and in a way that allows people to learn UIS: you been able to any in the interest of What are some of the trends in the and that you are Railsplitter: I think what is outside the world of Lincoln to where our interests The same for visitors to the most recent I saw more discussion and about which party Lincoln Like I believe the world of Lincoln is come and UIS: holds that most visitors to Lincoln sites and of popular Lincoln history to into one of two on trips and people over the of do you think your can this to connect with and not to be in Lincoln and Lincoln’s Railsplitter: I think because we are a podcast, we can reach a wide that a few years not have been able to be There are such a variety of to about Lincoln that can to different of For a few people the Lincoln a were very lucky a few weeks to have the as a on our He which is a book about Lincoln’s like that look into more of Lincoln as a an interest outside the that popular Lincoln Twitter, and Facebook are to a wide variety of Twitter and with my blog, I’ve come to know many people around my who are in Lincoln and the Civil I think if we can that engagement we have a few years then we see that having on our show from of to scholars to it what doing to more is so important in the of public history, and I think also the UIS: What of programs or would you most like to see in the of Lincoln-related public do you think have been to What it for them to Home: As a we the that we are very popular and very I would that to the of we are In my thirty years in Springfield I have been of and events that were great Lincoln events but reach the same the is about more people the on the of the public who just the of Abraham Lincoln. should really be at the of programs we are That is not to there is with the more traditional Lincoln programs or that they should not be But we to that many of the programs we at to an audience whose and passion are the of Abraham Lincoln. That is a very small of should be able to the with any program or we If we do what we or we should have a than Abraham Lincoln was a great man and you should should have programs that Lincoln in with his community and should about the and he and the faced and how those and Lincoln and, in some we want to our we to our stories and the of programs we as well as where and how we to tell the stories of what before Lincoln, and and where and with what after Lincoln, and and where and with This would not the Lincoln but would rather Lincoln in a much and make the stories of his much more should to about the of Lincoln, but we also to about many others who also did great some of heard of Abraham Lincoln. are on a variety of programs with state historic sites at Springfield, the Abraham Lincoln National and many other community that we and our The Railsplitter: I would to see sites, Twitter, and the strengths of each can be and I believe more people can be For an of a can be on a podcast to or what has been at or a can a new Lincoln agree with what Tim has about the This is an excellent point, and I believe it can be to the podcast I’m of as well as There is a to Lincoln in our world. While those of us who Lincoln on a know that he is we to be able to show that to people who may not have an interest in him. have to that interest for people and him in a that a wide audience. this back to and our strengths are so is very important in the of public history.Devin, UIS: What challenges do you see on the for your site or more Railsplitter: worked in for a few years to my current job at a I know is always a at any site. I do see this as in the Twitter, a blog, and the podcast, is not really an could be a like an site with we have to our interests This is social media is such a great to in this the Railsplitter Facebook as well as the Twitter account allows us to with our to many sites I this is the with them for with visitors think with to do with public history, be it at a site or through Twitter, a blog, or a podcast, another is to on of the trends in social media as well as out what your visitors want to on of the research about Lincoln is important and to make that new that visitors would find interesting to any or If are not for this up could be a

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