Related Resources

In American Memory

The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
Contains approximately 38,000 items relating to Douglass' life as an escaped slave, abolitionist, editor, orator, and public servant. The papers span the years 1841 to 1964.

Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
Important primary documents from the Manuscript Division including papers of presidents, cabinet ministers, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, military officers and diplomats, reformers and political activists, etc.

America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864
Consists of more than 725 photographs dating from 1839 to 1864. Portrait daguerreotypes produced by the Mathew Brady studio make up the major portion of the collection.

The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820
Consists of 15,000 pages of original historical material documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian West from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. Included is a page from Abraham Lincoln’s sum book and various tools and furniture fashioned by Thomas Lincoln.

African American Odyssey
Displaying more than 240 items, including books, government documents, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, plays, films, and recordings.

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation
These documents record American history in the words of those who built our government.

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
Consists of approximately 20,000 documents. Most of the 20,000 items are from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65. The Papers are characterized by a large number of correspondents, including friends and associates from Lincoln's Springfield days, well-known political figures and reformers, and local people and organizations writing to their president.

By Popular Demand: Portraits of Presidents and First Ladies
Selected images including at least one likeness of each of the first forty-one presidents and most of the first ladies.

"I Do Solemnly Swear…": Presidential Inaugurations
A collection of approximately 400 items relating to inaugurations from 1789 to 2001. This presentation includes diaries and letters of presidents and of those who witnessed inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, photographs, and sheet music.

Band Music from the Civil War Era
This collection includes both printed and manuscript music and features over 700 musical compositions, as well as 8 full-score modern editions and 19 recorded examples of brass band music in performance.

Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865
Presents three manuscript volumes that document daily life in Washington, D. C., through the eyes of Horatio Nelson Taft (1806-1888), an examiner for the U. S. Patent Office. The diary details events in Washington during the Civil War years including Taft's connection with Abraham Lincoln and his family. Of special interest is Taft's description of Lincoln's assassination, based on the accounts of his friends and his son, who was one of the attending physicians at Ford's Theatre the night Lincoln was shot.

Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
The images in this collection are drawn from the New-York Historical Society's archival collections. They include recruiting posters, stereographic photography and drawings and writings by ordinary soldiers on both sides.

Civil War Maps ~ 1861-1865
Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman’s Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts.

The Hotchkiss Map Collection
Cartographic items made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss (1828-1899), a topographic engineer in the Confederate Army. Hotchkiss made detailed battle maps primarily of the Shenandoah Valley, some of which were used by the Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson for their combat planning and strategy.

A Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment: Selections from the Tilton C. Reynolds Papers
Documents the Civil War experience of Captain Tilton C. Reynolds, a member of the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. Comprises 164 library items and includes correspondence, photographs, and other materials dating between 1861 and 1865.

Selected Civil War Photographs
Contains 1,118 photographs, most made under the supervision of Mathew B. Brady, and include scenes of military personnel, preparations for battle, and battle after-effects. The collection also includes portraits of both Confederate and Union officers, and a selection of enlisted men.

Exhibits at the Library of Congress

The Gettysburg Address
Of the five known manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address, the Library of Congress has two. President Lincoln gave one of these to each of his two private secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay. The copy on exhibit, which belonged to Nicolay, is often called the "first draft" because it is believed to be the earliest copy that exists.

I Do Solemnly Swear
More than forty items including photographs, manuscripts, campaign posters, letters, broadsides, and inaugural speeches. This unique selection of items offers a glimpse into the history of American presidential inaugurations.

The African American Mosaic
Covering the nearly 500 years of the black experience in the Western hemisphere, the Mosaic surveys the full range size, and variety of the Library's collections, including books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound.

Research Aids from the Library of Congress

A Listing of Lincoln related items available from Exhibits-‘American Treasures’ of the Library of Congress

External Resources

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The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana