Updated: Apr 10, 2020
Delaware County Historical Society is thrilled to announce a lecture with renowned Abraham Lincoln historian, Dr. Allen C. Guelzo of Princeton University at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, followed by a rare showing of the 1860 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Banner, the subject of a concerted restoration campaign.
The “Ten True Lies: Myths About Lincoln, All With a Kernel of Truth, Making Up Lincoln as a Composite” lecture is free to the public but registration is required to info@padelcohistory.org or 610-359-0832.
“We feel honored to be hosting Dr. Guelzo for his lecture on Abraham Lincoln,” Grant said. “This is all part of our overarching campaign, “Pennies4Lincoln”, which is an effort to get the funding needed to restore our 1860 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Banner. While he has seen it through pictures, Dr. Guelzo can’t wait to actually see the real thing.”
Dr. Guelzo is the Senior Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities and Director of the Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship in the James Madison Program at Princeton University.
His book on the battle of Gettysburg, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion was a New York Times best seller in 2013.
He has received three literary Lincoln Prizes: one in 2000 for Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, for which he also received the 2000 Book Prize of the Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic; another in 2005 for Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America; and another in 2013 for his book on Gettysburg.
Dr. Guelzo has also authored Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America (2008) and Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction (2012).
He has produced a six-lecture series for The Teaching Company on topics ranging from Mr. Lincoln to The American Revolution to America’s Founding Fathers.
He has served as a member of the National Council for the Humanities and has been designated as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. He was a 2018 winner of the Bradley Prize.
His most recent book is Reconstruction: A Concise History, published in 2018, and Dr. Guelzo is currently at work on a biography of Robert E. Lee.
Delaware County Historical Society has been engaged in an ardent campaign, “Pennies4Lincoln”, to restore and preserve an 1860 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Campaign Banner to its original glory. The 74-feet by 62-feet two-sided banner has been disintegrating rapidly and needs immediate restoring.
The banner features a rare depiction of the 16th president as clean shaven without his iconic beard and was used for presidential campaign parades in Media both in 1860 and in 1864.
The goal of DCHS is to raise the funds needed to restore and preserve the banner so that it can be placed on display for the community in a clear, plexiglass, air-pressured case so that visitors can view both sides.
Attendants to the “Ten True Lies” event will get a unique opportunity to see the banner as it is now.
Reserve your spot today for the event at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15 at the home of DCHS, 408 Avenue of the States in Chester. RSVP to info@padelcohistory.org or 610-359-0832.