http://www.kentucky.com/765/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2008 Kentucky.com Lincoln Bicentennial 60 Wed, 14 May 2008 03:08:52 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/314795.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/314795.html Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:23 EST
There also will be other events, including a flag ceremony and wreath-laying at the Lincoln statue in downtown Hodgenville at 8 a.m. Bush will speak briefly at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School.

The events are free and open to the public. But vehicles will not be allowed into the park on Lincoln Square in Hodgenville.

Visitors are encouraged to park at Hodgenville Elementary School, 33 Eagle Lane; or at the LaRue County Middle and High School complex, 911-925 South Lincoln Boulevard.

The National Park Service will run shuttles from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Because of the expected crowds and security, visitors are encouraged to arrive early.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/314213.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/314213.html Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:44 EST

The market for books about Abraham Lincoln appears limitless, especially as we approach the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.


How do you pick?


We took an informal survey of history buffs and Lincoln experts to get some suggestions. Here they are.


Lincoln for fun: A favorite of many of those surveyed is Land of Lincoln by Andrew Ferguson. It’s a light-hearted recounting of the Lincoln industry as it is practiced throughout America.
]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/313995.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/313995.html Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:05 EST
Kent Whitworth, executive director, Kentucky Historical Society: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin: "Not only do you get real insight into Lincoln and his 'political genius,' but you also get a fascinating view of his cabinet members and their backgrounds. I also enjoyed getting a real sense of the inner workings of Washington in the mid-19th century. I enjoyed it so much I may read it again."

James Klotter, Kentucky state historian and Georgetown College history professor:

.. Lincoln by David Donald: Considered one of the essential Lincoln biographies.

.. Team of Rivals : "Reaches a wide audience."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/313994.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/313994.html Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:06 EST
A question that acknowledges that in Kentucky, this is the kind of information that would further endear the Great Emancipator to us:

Could he dunk a basketball?

He probably could have ... but he never tried, since it was not until 1891 that James Naismith nailed the first peak baskets to the gym balcony in the Springfield, Massachusetts, YMCA. We can only speculate whether the Great Emancipator would also have been a great rebounder. Physically, he had the tools. At about 6-feet-4, he was certainly tall enough. ... He was strong enough too, with arms and shoulders that were powerfully developed by years of chopping trees in the forests of Indiana. One day late in the Civil War, after visiting soldiers at a military hospital, Lincoln amused onlookers by picking up a heavy ax, swinging it a few times at a nearby log, and then holding it by the end of the handle parallel to the ground, with his arm outstretched. After he set the ax down and walked away, several young soldiers tried to imitate him and found that none could hold the ax steady in that position.

From 'Land of Lincoln' by Andrew Ferguson ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/313072.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/313072.html Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:31 EST
They looked their parts perfectly -- Mr. Lincoln with his frock coat, top hat and famous beard; Mrs. Lincoln stylish but somewhat somber in a black bonnet and long dress. At the Wilmore school, and during a stop earlier Friday at the Rosenwald Dunbar Elementary School in Nicholasville, the famous couple regaled youngsters with stories of their trials and triumphs.

Larry and Mary Elliot of Louisville have been bringing the Lincolns to life in schools, churches and historic re-enactments since becoming Lincoln "presenters" about four years ago. What started out as a hobby is soon to become a full-time obsession for Larry Elliott, 56, who plans to devote his life to portraying Abraham Lincoln when he retires from the insurance business.

The Elliotts and other Lincoln presenters expect to be plenty busy over the next two years as America pulls out all the stops to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The observance kicks off Tuesday with special ceremonies at the Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site in Hodgenville. First lady Laura Bush will be the keynote speaker.

There will be speeches, dinners, exhibitions, musical tributes, re-enactments and all manner of other official events over the next two years, as well as numerous club meetings, luncheons and school functions to remember Kentucky's most famous son. Already, the demand for Lincoln and Mary Todd impersonators to appear at such events is growing.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/312018.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/312018.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:30 EST
Lincoln pennies make Lincoln portrait

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lexNgiV3-dY

This is weird but hypnotic and, like a Lay's chip of video, you simply can't watch it just once: An artist makes a Lincoln portrait entirely of pennies. Time-lapse videography means You Are There.

Johnny Cash reads the Gettyburg Address]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/312017.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/312017.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:36 EST
Why they can't make a great, or even halfway good, movie about him we don't know.

That doesn't really leave Abe alone, though. Quick! Name a great movie about an American president -- and fictional presidents don't count.

Thought so.

Based on his track record, you have to think Steven Spielberg could very well be on his way to giving the 16th president his due on the silver screen. After all, he's adapting Doris Kearns Goodwin's acclaimed book, Team of Rivals, has Tony Kushner writing the screenplay and cast Oscar winners Liam Neeson and Sally Field as Abe and Mary. Phil Funkenbusch, director of shows at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Ill., says Neeson even showed up unannounced to do some research last year.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/312015.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/312015.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:37 EST
Seriously: Before we go off the deep end -- and hold on, because we are going -- may we suggest our own George Clooney, left, and Ashley Judd, below, as Abe and Mary. Call us homers if you like, but George definitely has put together the resume for playing an American icon, and Ashley has been quietly showing the range to play Mary (well, not all that quietly, in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Bug ). We honestly think they could make a great Lincoln movie together.

Young (and sexy) Abraham Lincoln: Jake Gyllenhaal as Abe, Jessica Alba as Mary.

In 10 years: Keanu Reeves as Abe, Britney Spears as Mary. Consider 2007-08 as Britney just getting in character.

Goth Lincoln: Johnny Depp as Abe and Helena Bonham Carter as Mary. Same great Sweeney Todd couple, a lot less blood -- at least, in their own residence.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306591.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306591.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:04 EST
So which of the three states has the strongest claim to Abraham Lincoln, the beloved U.S. president whose 1809 birth will be marked with two years of bicentennial events starting Feb. 11 and 12 in Louisville and Hodgenville?

"Every one of these three places has a different and equally valid claim in terms of where he hailed from," said James M. McPherson, author of 1988's Battle Cry of Freedom , a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Civil War.

"Kentucky can claim his birthplace, and so that gives them certain bragging rights," McPherson said. "And I suppose Indiana would make the point that his formative years were spent there and that's where he got most of what little education he got. But then Illinois would say, 'Well, this is where he spent most of his adult life and this is where he achieved prominence.'"

The question was one of many that trailed students from Centre College in Danville who spent three days on a kind of cross-state Lincoln quest last month. The group visited the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site near Hodgenville, and then traveled to various Lincoln-related sites in Springfield, Ill.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306592.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306592.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:07 EST
The work for orchestra and narrator is one of the signature compositions about our nation's 16th president. But it is hardly the only artistic comment on Honest Abe.

In the near century-and-a-half since Abraham Lincoln's death, in 1865, he has been portrayed on stage and in music by many artists from many angles.

That's appropriate, says Illinois State Historian Tom Schwartz.

"Growing up on the frontier, he was not in a cultural mecca," Schwartz says. "But he quickly gravitated toward books, and he was steeped in the classics," including the Bible, Aesop's Fables and Pilgrim's Progress. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306593.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306593.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:07 EST
We're here to talk about the Weekly World News variety of Lincoln myths, the slime festering at the bottom of the Lincoln barrel.

For example: Did you hear the one about the similarities between the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations?

Was all that up-by-the-bootstraps list of Lincoln's failures true?

Was Lincoln gay?]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306578.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306578.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:05 EST
Hodgenville (Lincoln's birthplace), Louisville and several other cities had planned celebrations, but not Lexington.

A talk with University of Kentucky Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey took care of that.

"The Humanities Council had given support to the new opera River of Time ," Smith says, referring to the work being composed by Joseph Baber that will be premiered by UK Opera Theatre next year.

McCorvey suggested a few scenes from the opera, a performance of Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait and some selections by the American Spiritual Ensemble, which he directs. Voil., an event was forming.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306594.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/306594.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:05 EST
President Bush

"I spent a lot of time reading about Abraham Lincoln," Bush told ABC News on Nov. 20. "Abraham Lincoln had no earthly idea that the Gettysburg Address was a great speech. All he knew is after having given it, he was condemned by a press corps that thought the person that preceded him was much better. Because it, it, because of the length that his, of his predecessor's speech. You know, history, it's just, it, I, I've always felt that there needs to be a long leash to history. That you can't judge a administration, immediately. And, particularly one that has pushed hard for some big ideas, like, like, my administration has done."

Mitt Romney

"And if I'm lucky enough to be elected president of this country and I take that oath of office, there will be no higher promise than to abide by the Constitution and the rule of law," he told ABC News in February 2007. "That's Abraham Lincoln's political religion."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/314777.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/314777.html Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:22 EST
A lot of attention is about to be focused on their town because of events leading up to the bicentennial of the 16th president's birth.

There has been a $3.5 million reconstruction of the town square, to better set off the bronze statue of Lincoln that has sat there since the centennial in 1909. (It will be joined this year by a statue of Abe as a boy, with a fishing pole and his dog, Honey.)

Trash has been picked up. Sidewalks have been repaired, and drab buildings have gotten brick facades.

On Tuesday, Lincoln's 199th birthday, 5,000 to 10,000 are expected at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site for a program that includes first lady Laura Bush and what apparently will be LaRue County's first Jumbotron.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/314794.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/314794.html Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:36 EST
His friend Joshua Speed had brought Lincoln home for a three-week visit with his family. After several meals in the formal dining room, Joshua's mother, Lucy, noted that Abe exhibited terrible table manners.

But some historians believe that Lincoln's exposure to slavery at what now is called Farmington Historic Plantation had a profound effect on the rest of his life.

Later that year, in what is thought to be his first written comment about slavery, he wrote to Joshua's half-sister, Mary, about seeing slaves loaded on boats at the Louisville waterfront.

They were chained together "like so many fish upon a trot line," he wrote. He also noted that "they were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them from their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless and unrelenting than any other. ... "]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/332775.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/332775.html Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:39 EST
Severe weather forced the cancellation of the opening ceremony of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial on Feb. 12 in Hodgenville. But with the scheduled launch Tuesday of "Virtual Hodgenville" on the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Web site ( www.abrahamlincoln200.org ), the public will be able to see a lot of material that would have been used at the ceremony.

The ceremony was to have featured first lady Laura Bush; U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne; LaRue County Judge Tommy Turner, a member of the national Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and co-chairman of the commission in Kentucky; U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Ky., and actor Sam Waterston, who was to have delivered Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Visitors to the Web site will be able to read the texts of the speeches and hear the music that had been planned for the ceremony. This will include period and patriotic music by Saxton's Cornet Band, the American Spiritual Ensemble and soprano Angela Brown.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/320849.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/320849.html Sun, 17 Feb 2008 02:03 EST
Its pale-brown stucco exterior, with green shutters and dark-brown trim, looks as unassuming as any 34-room summer cottage can, despite a seven-year, $16 million restoration. But the place is likely to be Washington's next niche tourist attraction.

For Lincoln and his family, the Lincoln Cottage, as it's now called, was the 19th-century equivalent of Camp David. Three miles north of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it's 300 feet higher than the swamp-level White House. That made it breezier and as much as 7 degrees cooler, said Frank Milligan, the cottage's director.

From 1862 until his death in 1865, Lincoln commuted 45 minutes each way daily by horse or carriage from June well into fall. The cottage, built in 1842 for Washington banker George Riggs, enabled Lincoln to escape to read, think and relax.

Several presidents after Lincoln also used the cottage before it spent the 20th century as an administrative building for a military retirees' home. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private network of national history conservers, rescued it in 1999. The trust chipped away 23 coats of paint, restored the building and its grounds, and created a visitors center with parking.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/316691.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/316691.html Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:03 EST
"It is disappointing any time you plan for a major event like this and Mother Nature doesn't cooperate," said Iris LaRue, director of the Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville. "But what can you do?"

First lady Laura Bush canceled her appearances in Hodgenville, where she was to speak at the Lincoln birthplace, and in neighboring Hardin County, where she had been going to tour damage from last week's storms.

The National Park Service said there were no plans to reschedule the kickoff event. It was canceled because of icy parking lots and speakers' stages.

Lincoln was born 199 years ago Tuesday, but the bicentennial celebration starts this year and goes to 2010.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/316690.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/316690.html Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:03 EST
The cooperative spirit of the nation's 16th president permeated the stately structure as the House and Senate for the first time this session agreed on a measure. It was a resolution in honor of Lincoln on the anniversary of his 199th birthday.

Before the speeches began, Kentucky State University's concert choir received heavy applause for a rousing rendition of Battle Hymn of the Republic .

State Sen. Julian Carroll, a 76-year-old Democrat and former governor from Frankfort, said during a floor speech that a colleague asked him in jest which of the Senate seats in the Old Capitol was his.

"I told him I don't remember," Carroll said.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/315613.html http://www.kentucky.com/765/story/315613.html Tue, 12 Feb 2008 02:06 EST
First lady Laura Bush is scheduled to headline a guest list that includes Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Gov. Steve Beshear and members of Congress. Actor Sam Waterston will deliver Lincoln's Gettysburg address, a cornet band will play 19th-century music and the American Spiritual Ensemble will perform.

Organizers expect about 5,000 visitors at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site.

One unwelcome development could be a blast of wintry weather that could recreate frigid conditions of 199 years earlier. A relative later recalled it was bitterly cold and sleeting the day Lincoln was born.

Weather forecasters said the Hodgenville area could get 1-3 inches of snow and perhaps a quarter-inch of ice from a winter storm that began Monday afternoon.]]>