Laura Cohen Apelbaum and Wendy Turman of the Jewish Historical Society look at the life of Jewish Americans in Washington, DC during the Civil War.

From the Maine Humanities Council website:

"Thomas J. Brown is Associate Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Southern Studies. He is a Distinguished Lecturer with the Organization of American Historians. In this lecture, Brown examined the ways in which debates over regionalism, race relations and governmental power have influenced how America has remembered Abraham Lincoln, particularly in public monuments."

From the Maine Humanities Council website:

"Elizabeth D. Leonard is the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History at Colby College, where she has taught since 1992. Leonard is the author of three books on the Civil War era, and she is under contract to write the biography of Joseph Holt, Lincoln's judge advocate general. In this talk, she explores Holt's role in the manhunt that followed the assassination. She also delineates the arguments that took place between those who were determined to avenge Lincoln's death (and the war itself) and those who aimed to forgive the rebel South and forget the plight of the recently freed slaves."

From the Maine Humanities Council website:

"Before he was the leader of a nation torn apart by a Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was a young man growing up during tumultuous times in Illinois. In the first presentation of the [Maine Humanities Council's] Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium, historian Bruce Chadwick explained Lincoln's rise to power from his first unsuccessful race for the state legislature to his election as President."

Kansas Museum of History curators look at a black umbrella—used to shelter Abraham Lincoln from the weather during his inaugural tour in 1861—in the museum's collection.

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"During this session, Smithsonian Teacher Ambassador and Maryland Teacher of the Year (2007) Michelle Hammond facilitate[d] a discussion among participants of lesson ideas involving Lincoln, and shares a few ideas of her own.

. . . This session foster[ed] dialogue among those attending about how best to integrate the lessons of Lincoln, his life and times into the classroom."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"For a nation at war over slavery, President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was inevitable. Its timing and content, however, were not without great struggle. The 'how' of the proclamation was just as critical as the 'when,' but it began a chain of events that changed not just our Constitution but the face of the nation. Lonnie Bunch, Founding Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, will examine Lincoln's challenges to introduce a document that became a cornerstone event for communities of all races for generations to come."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"Like photography today, photography during the Civil War had many functions, from private to public. The session, led by Shannon Thomas Perich, will examine a variety of Civil War-related photography from the Photographic History Collection with the goal of gaining a greater understanding of how photography was incorporated into everyday lives, and how we value those photographs today as historical objects. Objects will include the 1860 Rutgers college yearbook that belonged to Texan George McNeel; Alexander Gardner's Sketchbook of the War; glass-plate negatives by Brady's studio of Lincoln's Cabinet; the portrait of a Union washerwoman; and Lincoln portraits incorporated into cartes-de-visite albums."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"Abraham Lincoln nursed a life-long fascination with technology. William Herndon, his friend and law partner, called attention to his 'decided bent toward machinery or mechanical appliances.' Lincoln is the only President to have been awarded a patent; handled several patent cases during his years as an attorney; and offered public lectures on invention and innovation. During the American Civil War President Lincoln seldom missed an opportunity to investigate new weapons, or to sponsor what seemed to him to be a useful innovation. In the summer of 1861, at the urging of Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry, Lincoln made the acquaintance of balloonist T.S.C. Lowe, and witnessed demonstrations of the role that observation balloons might play in providing improved reconnaissance for the Union Army. The President not only encouraged Lowe's plan to form a Balloon Corps to serve with the Army of the Potomac, but intervened on his behalf when military officials proved less than enthusiastic about the experiment. With the help of the President, Lowe was able to create and equip the Balloon Corps, which saw extensive service from 1861 to 1863. Students and teachers at a variety of levels will find something of interest and value in this session, which will explore the problems encountered in introducing a conservative military establishment to a new technology. In the process, we will shed new light on an unfamiliar side of Abraham Lincoln. The session will be led by Tom Crouch, Senior Curator, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"In this session, participants will be introduced to the idea of reading portraiture and, in this case, what a portrait might say about Abraham Lincoln and they era in which he lived. They will utilize what they learned from David Ward in the previous session and the Portrait Gallery’s 'One Life: The Mask of Lincoln' exhibition to brainstorm lesson ideas for classroom instruction. Participants [were] encouraged to share ideas about the use of portraiture in the classroom as presenter Briana Zavadil White facilitate[d] a highly interactive session with fellow educators."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.