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iographical sketches of
recipients of The Lincoln Award.
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The Lincoln Award |
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Michael Burlingame
2009 Recipient |
Michael Burlingame, Ph.D., holds the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield, was born in Washington, D.C., and attended Phillips Academy, Andover. As a freshman at Princeton University, he took the Civil War course taught by the eminent Lincolnian David Herbert Donald, who took him under his wing and made him a research assistant. When Professor Donald moved on to Johns Hopkins University, Burlingame, upon graduation from Princeton, followed him to that institution. There he received his Ph.D. In 1968 he joined the History Department at Connecticut College in New London, where he taught until retiring in 2001 as the May Buckley Sadowski Professor of History Emeritus. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Springfield in 2009.
He is an outstanding author of numerous Lincoln titles, most recently the two-volume Abraham Lincoln: A Life. He has received the Abraham Lincoln Association Book Prize (1996), the Lincoln Diploma of Honor from Lincoln Memorial University (1998), Honorable Mention for the Lincoln Prize, Gettsyburg College (2001), and was inducted into the Lincoln Academy of Illinois in 2009. |
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Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson
2008 Co-Recipients |
Rodney O. Davis, Ph.D., Co-Director, Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Dr. Davis taught American History at Knox College from 1963 until 1997, before becoming co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College. Dr. Davis has co-edited, with Douglas L. Wilson, publications that include: Herndon’s Informants: Letters, Interviews and Statements About Abraham Lincoln, and Herndon’s Lincoln. Additionally, Dr. Davis is editor or co-editor of five books and some 60 essays and reviews on Illinois History, Abraham Lincoln, and the United States in the Nineteenth Century.
Douglas L. Wilson, Ph.D., Co-Director, Lincoln Studies Center Knox College. Dr. Wilson is the George A. Lawrence Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Dr. Wilson is also a two-time winner of the Lincoln Prize for Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (2006), and Honor’s Voice (1999). |
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Allen Guelzo
2007 Recipient |
| Allen C. Guelzo, Ph.D., is Luce Professor, Civil War Era Studies, Gettysburg College, and directs The Gettysburg Semester at Gettysburg College. He is the author of several noteworthy books on Lincoln and multiple winner of The Lincoln Prize. His books include Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (1999), Lincoln's Last Months (2004), Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004), and Lincoln and Douglas - The Debates that Defined America. |
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Senator Richard Durbin
2006 Co-Recipient |
Senator Richard Durbin is the 47th U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois and the first Illinois senator to serve on the powerful U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee in more than a quarter of a century. Elected to the U.S. Senate on November 5, 1996, Senator Durbin filled the seat left vacant by the retirement of his long-time friend and mentor, U.S. Senator Paul Simon.
To honor our 16th President, he established the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area in Illinois. He says, “Our 16th President spent more than 30 years of his life in central Illinois, starting in 1830 when his family moved to Macon County from Indiana. Abraham Lincoln had virtually no formal education—perhaps 18 months of schooling. His rise from humble origins to the highest office in the land and his decisive leadership through the most harrowing period of U.S. history brings hope and inspiration to all of us. The heritage area focuses on the life of Abraham Lincoln, and brings out the rich history of each participating community, creating a broader context for Lincoln and his times.” |
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Congressman Ray LaHood
2006 Co-Recipient |
Secretary Ray LaHood now serves as President Obama's Secretary of the Department of Transportation. Prior to that, he served four terms in Congress representing the people of the 18th Congressional District of Illinois, which is largely the same district Abraham Lincoln represented during his service in Congress.
He has taken great pride in the 18th District's ties to Abraham Lincoln and has been an advocate for advancing the legacy of the 16th President. He authored a law that established the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission to lay the groundwork for celebrating Lincoln's 200th birthday in 2009. He also has been a lead Capitol Hill supporter for the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield. |
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Harold Holzer
2005 Recipient |
| Harold Holzer is a former newspaper editor, professor, political campaign press secretary, and is among our nation's leading authorities on Civil War society and politics. Author of dozens of books on Abraham Lincoln, he has been profiled on C-SPAN's Booknotes, highlighting his career as a Civil War author, collector, and historical consultant. |
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Velma Cherwek
2004 Recipient |
| For her contributions to the evolution of the modern LGDC. For over 20 years she dedicated herself to keeping the Group alive by acting as Corresponding Secretary, dinner coordinator, and central contact for the group's activities. |
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Steven Lee Carson
2003 Recipient |
| International Lincoln lecturer, writer, editor and playwright; senior member in service on many Lincoln related boards and advisory committees. Chairman, White House Conference on Presidential Children. Steve's contributions during his term as president brought the LGDC into modern times financially, legally, and organizationally. |
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Hon. Frank Williams
2002 Recipient |
| Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Chairman of The Lincoln Forum, Commissioner on the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, former President of the Abraham Lincoln Association and renown Lincoln lecturer and author. |
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Prof. Gabor Boritt
2001 Recipient |
| Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies at Gettysburg College; former Director of the Civil War Institute; renown author of such seminal works as Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream and The Historian's Lincoln: Pseudohistory, Psychohistory and History. Member, LGDC Board. |
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James Getty
2000 Recipient |
| One of America's leading Lincoln impersonators, he has dramatically brought the story of Lincoln to America at historical celebrations, on television, and at educational seminars. |
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Dr. Edward Steers
1999 Recipient |
| He has revolutionized the study of the Lincoln assassination in his widely praised classic work, Blood On the Moon and related works, noted Lincoln lecturer, former President of the LGDC, and he is the co-founder of the modern LGDC Lincolnian newsletter. |
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Edwin C. Bearss
1998 Recipient |
| Chief Historian of the National Park Service, Emeritus; battlefield lecturer with an encyclopedic knowledge of battlefields and personalities. At age 82 he continues to tirelessly lead regular tours through Civil War terrain, followed by his devoted "Iron Bladder Brigade." Chairman of the Board of the LGDC. |
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James O. Hall
1997 Recipient |
| Revered as a diligent and thorough research pioneer in the study of the Lincoln assassination; the research center and library at the Surratt House and Society in Clinton, Maryland, is named in his honor. He is co-author of the classic Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln. |
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