Holy Cross Celebrates Lincoln’s 200th Birthday

Exhibit of Abe memorabilia on display in Dinand Library

While Worcester lies some thousand miles east of Illinois, the city holds its own special connection to the Prairie State’s most famous political export.

Abraham Lincoln, born 200 years ago last week, was a young congressman when he visited Worcester on behalf of Zachary Taylor and the Whig party in 1848. It was a brief stop on his Northeast speaking tour, but his arrival was still important enough to merit an invite to dinner with the governor.

Mark Savolis, head of Archives and Special Collections in Holy Cross’ Dinand Library, has a keen eye for these tangential associations. Savolis delivered opening remarks at a Feb. 12 celebration, which, in conjunction with an archival exhibit in Dinand Library’s Reading Room, marked the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. After Savolis spoke, research librarian John Coelho delivered the primary lecture on Lincoln’s unique and evolving place in history.

For Coelho, who spoke of the renewed emphasis on the nation’s 16th president, the anniversary exhibit was a timely moment to reexamine the mythology of the man from Springfield.

“With the all interest during this Presidential campaign, Lincoln has come back to the forefront of our political thought,” Coelho says. And while we view him today as one of the most dynamic figures of American history, the president himself was a quiet thinker who considered public office more a “stewardship” than a position of power.

The library event was originally intended as a quiet accompaniment to the Archives exhibit, which is on display through the end of the month. Instead, word of the morning’s planned celebration quickly spread and almost 50 people jammed the playfully festooned Faculty Room for the remarks.

The exhibit, curated primarily by Archives work study students Casey Monahan ’09 and Genevra LaVoci ’09, along with archival assistant Susan Selby, is an amalgamation of material from Holy Cross and from Savolis’ personal Civil War-era collection. It runs the gamut of Lincoln memorabilia — from embossed campaign envelopes to copies of Leonard Volk’s famous plaster casts of the President.

Much of the material is incredibly poignant, as in an original edition of The World newspaper documenting Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theatre, or in the mourning ribbons and the copies of eulogies delivered for the fallen leader after his death.

Some of the exhibit is even specific to Worcester. There are programs from a memorial service in the city, and from a centennial celebration at Mechanics Hall, as well as pages from a Holy Cross scrapbook with a color rendering of Lincoln.

And while they may have had a monopoly on historical documents, Archives was not the only segment of the College celebrating Lincoln’s special day.

Several professors called attention to the important anniversary, though perhaps none so colorfully as history professor Rev. Anthony Kuzniewski, S.J. His class, Lincoln and His Legacy, had a celebration when a student, Bob Farrelly ’09, who shares the president’s Feb. 12 birthday, arrived to vigorous applause while sporting a stovepipe hat from the Lincoln Museum. Afterward, the class watched “The Young Mr. Lincoln,” a biography film.

Students reacted positively to the experience. “Celebrating Lincoln’s birthday within the context of the current administration really brings into focus the sacrifices made in that era,” says Chris Goebel ’09, a history major with minors in economics and philosophy. And while it was a fun diversion, “the celebration of the president’s birthday gave our class a chance to reflect on these events for our world today.”

For his part, Fr. Kuzniewski had a strong impetus to make the day memorable.

“We’re all still the beneficiaries of Lincoln’s legacy,” he says, “and it’s important to observe that.” Besides, as he points out, the opportunity “only comes once a century, so it’s good to take advantage of it!”

As for a specific association between Lincoln and Holy Cross, founded in 1843, Savolis admits the possibility exists.

“Lincoln would’ve left by train to Providence. If he looked up at the right time,” Savolis says, “he might just have glimpsed the top of Fenwick Hall on his way out of town.”

By Ross Weisman ’09

Related Information:

• Archives and Special Collections