The Mary and James Beaumont Endowed Lincoln Legacy Lecture Series is the Center for Lincoln Studies' flagship event. It brings our community together to learn about a single topic each year. In some years a speaker deals with the topic in Lincoln's time, and the second speaker discusses how the topic is relevant in our contemporary moment. In other years, the speakers explore the deep historical roots of the topic and its relationship to Abraham Lincoln. The lecture is generously supported by a gift from Mary and James Beaumont.
The 24th annual Beaumont Endowed Lincoln Legacy Lecture Series focuses on the topic of Abraham Lincoln and America 250.
Jon Grinspan, curator of political history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, joins us to discuss the often contested meaning of America through the contested nature of public events stretching from the first Fourth of July through the centennial a hundred years later.
Saladin Ambar, professor of political science and senior scholar at the Eagleton Center on the American Governor, will discuss three murders that took place in Mississippi River towns in the mid-1830s and how these killings shaped Lincoln’s worldview, one of his earliest speeches, and his relationship to America's founding principles.
Past Lectures:
- 2025 "Lincoln and the Age of Disruption"
- 2024 "Lincoln and Political Conflict"
- 2023 "Lincoln and Digital Humanities"
- 2022 "Lincoln and African Americans"
- 2021 “Lincoln and Anti-Racism”
- 2020 “Lincoln and the American Political Tradition”
- 2019 "Lincoln, Immigration, and Citizenship"
- 2018 "Lincoln vs Douglas"
- 2017 "Lincoln and Education"
- 2016 "Lincoln and Reconstruction"
- 2015 "Lincoln and Voting Rights"
- 2014 "Lincoln's Funeral"
- 2013 "Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address"
- 2012 "Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation"
- 2011 "Lincoln and the Civil War"
- 2010 "Lincoln and Race"
- 2009 "Lincoln and the Environment"
- 2008 "Lincoln and Presidential Campaign Politics"
- 2007 "Lincoln and the Law"
- 2006 "Lincoln and America's Faith"
- 2005 "Lincoln and Economic Opportunity"
- 2004 "Civil Liberties and Lincoln's Presidency"
- 2002 "Lincoln and Race"
