Most of what follows is probably already known to those who regularly read this blog. Nevertheless here’s some newish news on the Lincoln assassination front.
Booth reading the news
1. New Site
When it comes to learning about Abraham Lincoln’s life, there really is no better resource than the Abraham Lincoln Research Site run by Roger Norton. The website at http://rogerjnorton.com is actually composed of three equally valuable sections: the life of Abraham Lincoln, the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, and Lincoln’s assassination. The proprietor of the site is Roger Norton, a retired Illinois social studies teacher. His website is the top choice for students, both young and old, to learn about Lincoln. In 2006, his site received the prestigious honor of being completely archived by the Library of Congress. Just as the LOC archives and preserves movies and TV shows deemed culturally significant, Mr. Norton’s site was archived for all time due to its educational significance. It is a very high honor for an individual’s site to achieve and speaks to the quality of Mr. Norton’s work.
Recently, Mr. Norton has expanded his website to now include a public forum. The Lincoln Discussion Symposium is open to all who wish to discuss the many aspects of Abraham Lincoln. It is a collaborative community where amateurs and experts alike can post questions and comments regarding our 16th President. Due to the large amount of traffic Mr. Norton receives from students in the school setting, forum members are expected to be courteous and respectful in their remarks. While it is still growing, the forum already houses a wonderful community of experts from the Lincoln community eager to answer questions and take part in discussions. I, myself, am a member there and endorse it fully. While my main interest lies in Lincoln’s assassination, the forum has already taught me so much that I didn’t know about the living Lincoln. Membership is growing every day, so I invite you all to visit the Lincoln Discussion Symposium and join the wonderful community of learners.
2. New Links
On the right side of the blog you might have noticed a list of “Links to Learn More”. Here I have placed links to some of the best websites out there for Lincoln assassination material. Hovering over each link will give you a short description of the site. To this list, I have recently added two new links. The first is the above mentioned Lincoln Discussion Symposium. The second is the Facebook page for the Spirits of Tudor Hall. The Tudor Hall estate was the Booth family homestead in Maryland. The theatrical patriarch of the Booth clan, Junius Brutus bought the land when he and Mary Ann Holmes emigrated from England. The Booth family originally lived in a log cabin on the property before Junius commissioned the building of the beautiful Tudor Hall manor house in the fall of 1851. Sadly, Junius never got to live in the main house as he died while on tour on November 30th 1852. The Booth family lived on the Tudor Hall property on and off from 1822 to 1858. Nowadays, Tudor Hall is used as an office for the Harford County Center for the Arts. It is also home to the Junius B. Booth Society. The house is open on select weekends for public tours about the Booth family and the history of Tudor Hall. The Spirits of Tudor Hall Facebook page advertises the house’s tour dates and times, along with highlighting wonderful pictures and articles on the Booth family (including some from here, Woot!). If I was a member of Facebook, I would Share it/Like it/Poke it/Friend it/Hug it/High Five it, whatever it is that you young people do there. One thing they are advertising on Tudor Hall’s behalf is the sale of a genuine brick from a Tudor Hall chimney. While the bricks can’t be completely authenticated to when the Booths lived there, it’s still a relic you can own dating back to Edwin Booth’s lifetime. Add the Spirits of Tudor Hall Facebook page to your favorites today.
3. New(ish) Books
I am happy to report that William Edwards’ book, The Lincoln Assassination – The Reward Files, is now available for purchase as an ebook through GoogleBooks. Previously released as a book on CD-ROM, Mr. Edwards has revamped his collection of primary source documents into a searchable ebook. The Reward Files hold many details about the military’s search for Booth and contains firsthand accounts (like Samuel Arnold’s confession) not found in other sources. This text along with The Evidence and the Court Transcripts, make up the trilogy of the government’s primary documents into the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Also, Ed Steers, the noted Lincoln author and co-author on The Evidence with William Edwards, has also just released an updated Kindle ebook version of his popular booklet, The Escape and Capture of John Wilkes Booth. Mr. Steers originally posted the news of his revised book on the Lincoln Discussion Symposium.
Well, that’s all the newish news that’s fit to print. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
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