Lincoln Documents

Abraham Lincoln Collections

Lincoln Signed Documents

The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection includes 126 items written or signed by Abraham Lincoln, with dates ranging from his early days as an Illinois lawyer to the last week of his life.

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Letters to Lincoln

The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection includes 246 letters written to Abraham Lincoln, including many from political contemporaries during his presidency.

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Lincoln Legal Cases, 1830-1860

The collection of 139 documents related to Abraham Lincoln's legal career covers a variety of cases, many of which involved Lincoln's friends and contemporaries in Illinois.

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Lincoln Family Collections

Insanity File Collection

The Insanity File Collection comprises documents related to the insanity trial of Mary Todd Lincoln and her commitment to a sanitarium in 1875. The extensive collection includes court documents, news clippings, and letters between Mary Lincoln, Robert Lincoln, and their associates. 
View a finding aid for the Insanity File Collection here.

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Mary Todd Lincoln Correspondence

The Mary Todd Lincoln Correspondence includes letters on a variety of business and personal matters ranging in date from 1861 to 1881, including personal correspondence found in the Insanity File Collection.

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Robert Todd Lincoln Correspondence

The Robert Todd Lincoln Correspondence includes 126 personal and professional letters ranging in date from 1865 to 1925, including correspondence found in the Insanity File Collection.

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Lincoln Family Correspondence

The Lincoln Family Correspondence collection includes letters by Thomas "Tad" Lincoln; Robert Lincoln's wife, Mary Harlan Lincoln; and the Lincolns' grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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Political Collections

Cabinet Members Collection

This collection of 140 items includes letters and documents from every member of Abraham Lincoln's cabinet, before, during, and after Lincoln's presidency.

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Presidential Letters and Signatures

The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection includes at least one item signed by every president from George Washington to Bill Clinton, with extensive holdings from the late nineteenth century.

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First Lady Letters and Signatures

In addition to Presidential Letters and Signatures, the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection also includes a collection of First Lady Letters and Signatures, ranging from Louisa Adams to Hillary Clinton.

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Richard W. Thompson Collection

Richard Wigginton Thompson was a lawyer, politician, and Lincoln supporter from Terre Haute, Indiana, who spent many years in Congress in addition to being Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Rutherford Hayes. The Richard W. Thompson Collection includes more than 500 letters written to Thompson during his career in addition to notes, drafts, and letters written by Thompson. 
View a finding aid for the Richard W. Thompson Collection here.

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Thomas B. Osborne Family Correspondence

Thomas Burr Osborne was a Congressman from Connecticut in the late 1840s. The Thomas B. Osborne Family Correspondence comprises letters written by Osborne and his wife, Elizabeth, while Osborne was in Washington. The letters provide a detailed look at Washington social scenes during that era.

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Civil War Collections

Civil War Documents Collection

The Civil War Documents Collection includes letters and documents by both Union and Confederate officers and soldiers.

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Barnes Family Correspondence

The Barnes Family Correspondence comprises 16 letters written to Elizabeth Barnes of Jay County, Indiana, by family members in the Union Army and two written by her to her husband, Solomon.

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Isaac Bevier Collection

The Isaac Bevier Collection comprises letters and envelopes sent by Bevier, a soldier in the 44th New York Infantry, to his father Benjamin Bevier in Ulster County, New York.

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Catharine Garvin Collection

The Catharine Garvin Collection includes letters, documents, and news clippings related to Garvin's search for her mentally disabled son, Cornelius Garvin, who had been sold into the Union Army. 
View a finding aid for the Catharine Garvin Collection here.

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Hills Family Correspondence

The three brothers of the Hills family - Osmer, Socrates, and G.M. - exchanged letters throughout the Civil War commenting on Osmer's service in the 21st Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, Lincoln's presidency, and their family business selling bells in Pennsylvania.

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Otis Moody - Annie F. Noble Collection

Otis Moody was a soldier in the 51st Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He wrote to his sweetheart, Annie Noble of Brooklyn, New York, from 1860 to his death at Chickamauga in 1863. The Otis Moody - Annie F. Noble Collection includes 33 letters from Moody to Noble as well as two from Moody's sister-in-law written after Moody's death. 
View a finding aid for the Otis Moody - Annie F. Noble Collection here.

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D. Alonzo Pollard Correspondence

Don Alonzo Pollard served with the 7th New York Regiment in Washington, D.C., for 30 days in 1861. The eight letters of the D. Alonzo Pollard Correspondence collection were written by his mother and sisters during Pollard's month of service.

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Sylvester Sherman Correspondence

Sylvester Sherman served in the 133rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1864. His correspondence includes letters from Sherman to his future wife Lemira Shoemaker as well as letters written by family and friends.

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Slavery Documents

The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection includes 9 slavery documents, including a token from a slave sale, with dates ranging from 1816 to 1865.

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Contemporary Collections

Contemporary Correspondence

The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection includes hundreds of letters written by Lincoln's contemporaries and other notable figures of the nineteenth, late eighteenth, and early twentieth centuries.

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James T. Hickey Collection

Donated to the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection by Hickey, former curator of the Lincoln Collection of the Illinois State Library, the James T. Hickey Collection comprises 222 letters and documents related to Lincoln's associates, family, ancestors, and contemporary Illinois residents.

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Marhanka Collection

Donated to the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection by Helen Marhanka, the Marhanka Collection includes 22 documents related to Civil War officers and Lincoln's political associates.

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Ephemera

Assassination Collection

The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection includes a variety of memorial poems, mourning ribbons, and other mementoes printed after Abraham Lincoln's death.

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Election Tickets

The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection includes more than 70 election tickets to promote particular candidates and parties in both local and national elections. The collection ranges from the 1850s through the end of the nineteenth century and represents all major political parties.

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Jean Zurow Lincoln Postcard Collection

The Jean Zurow Lincoln Postcard Collection includes 556 Lincoln-related postcards and other souvenir booklets collected and donated to the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection by Jean Szalkowski Zurow. 
View a finding aid for the Jean Zurow Lincoln Postcard Collection here.