Douglas Wilson to Discuss Research on Lincoln, Jefferson

Douglas L. Wilson, co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, will give talks in April and May about his research on Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

On April 28, Wilson is scheduled to give the inaugural lecture in the new Jefferson Lecture series at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. Wilson's lecture, "Jefferson's 'Notes on the State of Virginia' and Lincoln's 'Discoveries and Inventions'" will describe his research on the original manuscripts by Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

Prior to his current research on Lincoln, Wilson was director of the International Center for Jefferson Studies and published extensively about Jefferson's writing. Two of Wilson's research articles, "Jefferson Unbound," in the journal Historic Preservation, and "The Evolution of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia," published in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, are listed as key references by the Massachusetts Historical Society, as part of its recently completed project to digitize Jefferson's 300-page hand written manuscript of "Notes on the State of Virginia."

Wilson also is scheduled to participate in a symposium, "Reading in the White House," at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on May 7. Wilson will be a panelist for a session about Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. Wilson has written and co-edited several award-winning books about Lincoln, including "Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words," which is about Lincoln's reading and writing, as well as a cover story for The Atlantic, "What Lincoln and Jefferson Read." On the panel with Wilson is Jean Baker, author of a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln. The symposium celebrates the publication of a new book, "The First White House Library: A History and Annotated Catalogue."

Wilson is the George Appleton Lawrence Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English at Knox College, where he taught from 1961 to 1997. Wilson also has served as library director at Knox and as Saunders Director of International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. Since 1997, he and Rodney Davis, Szold Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, have co-directed the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, where their research and writings have revolutionized the field of Lincoln history. In 2009 they were awarded The Order of Lincoln, the highest honor conferred by the State of Illinois.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 47 states and 48 countries. Knox's 'Old Main' is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.