Lincoln Collection. Lincoln Miscellaneous Manuscripts, 1587-1924

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Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas and the Civil War

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The Rev. William Eleazar Barton (1861-1930) was one of the early twentieth century's most prominent writers and lecturers on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Born in Sublette, Illinois, in the same year Lincoln assumed the presidency, Barton grew up in an environment heavily influenced by reverence for Lincoln. After pursuing undergraduate studies at Berea College in Kentucky, Barton earned his divinity degree from the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1890. He served parishes in Tennessee, Ohio, and Massachusetts before becoming the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Oak Park, Illinois, a position he held until his retirement in 1924. Four years later, Barton accepted an appointment as lecturer at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, where he also organized and served as pastor of the Collegeside Congregational Church.

Barton's work as a writer produced a number of denominational manuals for church organization and a series of books presenting the wisdom and parables of a character he named Safed in Sage. For the last ten years of his life, however, Barton was best known to the public as a prolific author and lecturer on Abraham Lincoln. His publications about Lincoln included The Soul of Abraham Lincoln (1920), The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln (1920), The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1925), The Great and Good Man (1927), The Women Lincoln Loved (1927), and The Lincoln of the Biographers (1930).

In the course of compiling material for his writings and talks, Barton visited Lincoln sites in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; interviewed surviving Lincoln relatives and acquaintances; and traveled as far a California and England to collect information and conduct genealogical research on the ancestry of the Lincoln family. While acquiring a large collection of books, periodicals, pamphlets, manuscripts, and ephemera related to Lincoln and the Civil War era, Barton also purchased privately or at auction historical materials amassed by other Lincoln collectors such as John E. Burton and Osborn H. Oldroyd.

The Lincoln Miscellaneous Manuscript section of the William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana consists of 10 linear feet and contains an array of material relating to Abraham Lincoln, his parentage, the Civil War and his presidency. This section includes briefs, pardons, and commissions in Lincoln's hand, original letters of Mary Todd Lincoln, one of the few extant letters written by Lincoln to his wife, and a letter written by Willie Lincoln while accompanying his father on a trip to Chicago. It also includes letters written by members of the Lincoln cabinet and other notable political and military figures of the time, material by Gideon Welles. The manuscripts have been arranged alphabetically. Several items were identified as being oversized and have been moved to Box 12 and Box 13. A SEE reference has been added to the descriptions of the oversized items.

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

• Names
  • Barton, William Eleazar, 1861-1930, collector
  • Blair, Montgomery, 1813-1883
  • Chase, Salmon P. (Salmon Portland), 1808-1873
  • Conkling, Roscoe, 1829-1888
  • Curtin, Andrew Gregg, 1815-1894
  • Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889
  • Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875
  • Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818-1882
  • Lincoln, Robert Todd, 1843-1926
  • McClellan, George Brinton, 1826-1885
  • Meade, George Gordon, 1815-1872
  • Seward, William Henry, 1801-1872
  • Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891
  • Stanton, Edwin McMasters, 1814-1869
  • Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874
  • Welles, Gideon, 1802-1878
  • Douglas, Stephen A, (Stephen Arnold 1813-1861)
  • Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
• Geographic Coverage
  • United States -- Politics and government -- 1849-1877
  • United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865