With the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death and funeral approaching next year, the 12th annual Lincoln Legacy lectures at the University of Illinois Springfield will focus on Lincoln’s funeral.
This year’s speakers are James L. Swanson, senior legal scholar at The Heritage Foundation, and Richard Wightman Fox, professor of history at the University of Southern California.
Swanson, author of “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer” and its sequel, “Bloody Crimes: The Funeral for Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis,” will present a lecture titled “I give you my sprig of lilac: The Death and Funeral of Abraham Lincoln.” Swanson also wrote “End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy.”
In his lecture, “What We’ve Forgotten about Lincoln’s Funeral and What We’ve Never Known,” Fox will examine what the loss of Lincoln meant to citizens of his time. Fox is the author of the forthcoming “Lincoln’s Body: A Cultural History.”
The lectures are from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Brookens Auditorium on the lower level of Brookens Library at UIS. The lectures and a reception and book-signing that immediately will follow are free and open to the public.
The lectures were featured by The State Journal-Register on October 15, 2014.
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