Lincoln on the Big Screen

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Detail, Lincoln poster
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Have you seen Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln? With a Rotten Tomatoes critic approval rating of over 90% and audience approval of more than 80%, viewers praised the film for its earnestness and significance, and for Daniel Day-Lewis's performance as the president.

But what do historians have to say? How do they approach the film, and how do they assess it? Even if your students haven't seen the film, reading historians' reviews can help them understand the ways of thinking and types of knowledge that historians use to assess historical accuracy, bias, intended audience, and more.

What do historians' reviews focus on? Do they talk about the same things as "normal" critics' reviews? Do all historians share similar opinions about the movie? How do historians structure their reviews? Does each review make an argument?

Take a look at these reviews to get started:

  • James Grossman, Executive Director of the American Historical Association, says Lincoln does "what a film like this should do: stimulate discussion about history."
  • Kate Masur, associate professor of history at Northwestern University, criticizes the movie as "more to entertain and inspire than to educate."
  • David Thomson, film historian and critic, considers the film "necessary" and its release right after the 2012 presidential election significant.
  • Allen Guelzo, director of the Civil War studies department at Gettysburg College, questions whether highlighting Lincoln's conflict between ending the war quickly and holding out until passage of the Thirteenth Amendment made the movie too complicated.

Students not ready for reading these reviews? Ask them where they think the sound in films comes from. The Washington Post reveals that many of the sounds in Lincoln come from historic buildings and artifacts—including one of Abraham Lincoln's pocketwatches.

For more information

Was Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter more historically accurate than Lincoln? No, but you could still use it to teach! Check out our blog entry on the film.

Also see our blog entry on the film The Conspirator. How does it portray Mary Surratt, the only woman accused in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln?

Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project

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Image for Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project
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This wealth of historical materials, in a variety of formats, addresses Abraham Lincoln's years in Illinois (1831–1860) and Illinois history during the same period. The website provides more than 2,300 transcriptions of documents, including correspondence, speeches, treaties, and other official papers. In addition, there are 295 images of Lincoln, his family, friends, associates, and contemporaries, as well as Illinois towns, homes, and businesses, and 63 recordings of songs.

Materials are organized into eight thematic sections: African American Experience and American Racial Attitudes; Economic Development and Labor; Frontier Settlement; Law and Society; Native American Relations; Politics; Religion and Culture; and Women's Experience and Gender Roles. Each theme includes a background essay, relevant documents and images, video discussions by prominent historians, and narrated slide shows. "Lincoln's Biography" divides his life into eight segments with a summary and biographical text by scholars, as well as a bibliography.

Abraham Lincoln Papers

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Image for Abraham Lincoln Papers
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This website features approximately 20,000 documents relating to President Abraham Lincoln's life and career. All of the materials are available as page images and about half have been transcribed. Resources include correspondence, reports, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings. While the documents date from 1833 to 1897, most material was written between 1850 and 1865, including drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln's second inaugural address. A chronological index offers names of correspondents and document titles.

Special presentations on the Emancipation Proclamation and the Lincoln assassination provide introductions, timelines, and 24 images of related documents and engravings. Additional resources include 16 photographs of the Lincolns and key political and military figures of Lincoln's presidency. This is an excellent resource for researching Lincoln's presidency and American politics prior to and during the Civil War.

Open Yale Courses

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Photo, Professor Joanne B. Freeman, Open Yale Courses
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Yale University has made a sampling of their courses available for listeners, viewers, and readers.

As of writing, the history subsection contains six courses—two of which relate directly to U.S. history ("The American Revolution" and "The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877") and one which touches on relevant issues, "Epidemics and Western Society Since 1600." Each of these courses offers links to individual pages for each lecture. Lecture pages contain short text overviews of the topic at hand; a list of any reading which was required for the day; and links to lecture audio, video, and transcriptions.

Our site links you directly to the Yale's history courses. However, consider exploring other topics as well. Maybe a lecture on Roman architecture will give you background for discussing monuments in Washington, DC, or an economics course will give you a new way of thinking about the American Revolution. Interdisciplinary possibilities are endless.

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Image for Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
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This large, attractive site provides high-quality material on American history for historians and teachers. The collection contains more than 60,000 "rare and important" American historical documents, images, and objects from 1493 to 1998; about 10,000 of these are available online. Authors include George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln.

Each week an annotated, transcribed document is featured, and an archive contains 80 past featured documents. "Treasures of the Collection" offers 24 highlighted documents and images. Six online exhibits cover topics such as Alexander Hamilton, the Dred Scott decision, Abraham Lincoln, and topics such as freedom and battles. Podcasts with historians address issues such as Presidential history and the Great Depression. Additional resources include links to historical documents, published scholarship, and general history resources on the web.

Lincoln Fire Department Museum [NE]

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The Lincoln Fire Department Museum presents the history of Lincoln, Nebraska's firefighting department, founded in 1886. Collections include historic firefighting equipment, photographs, and other related artifacts. Highlights include a fire trumpet, period uniforms, and a 1911 American LaFrance motorized fire engine.

The museum offers exhibits.

Old Fort Harrod State Park [KY]

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Fort Harrod State Park is located in central Kentucky. The Park seeks to preserve Kentucky's pioneer history, and has reconstructed the fort close to the site of the original fort. Today, the reconstructed fort serves as a living history site, complete with interpreters in correct period clothing show visitors how pioneer tasks such as woodworking, weaving, broom making, and blacksmithing were performed. In addition, the site served as the location of the marriage of Abraham Lincoln's parents in 1806. Finally, the park features a museum which houses Civil War artifacts, a gun display, Native American artifacts and a collection of Lincoln memorabilia.

The site offers general information about the park intended for visitors, including an events guide, park maps, and a small photo gallery featuring 16 photographs of the park and the fort.

Lincoln Heritage Museum

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Located on the campus of the only college named for Abraham Lincoln in his lifetime, the award-winning Lincoln Heritage Museum exhibits a significant collection of Abraham Lincoln and Civil War related artifacts, as well as local and Lincoln College history, Presidential letters, and a tribute to September 11, 2001. On display are such items as several 1860 Lincoln presidential campaign banners, a ballot box in which he voted, several of his personal books (including Shakespeare), and tools, several furnishings from the Lincoln's Springfield home, and Lincoln family personal items including Mary Lincoln's jewelry.

Admission to the museum is free, and museum staff supply schools with personalized and living history tours catered to the topics being covered in individual classes.

Nebraska Lied Main Street [NE]

Description

"Since 1994, the Nebraska Main Street program has made a difference in the lives of countless Nebraska residents by providing communities the opportunity to revitalize their traditional downtown commercial business districts through economic development and historic preservation." The main street program helps to revitalize downtown's across Nebraska by encouraging building restoration, raising community awareness, and providing resources and support to aid in the revitalization of downtown districts.

The site offers resources for preservationists, information regarding the organization, design services, and an events calendar.

This is a neighborhood revitalization organization.