The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. As part of the Lincoln Bicentennial celebrations, Harvard University's Houghton Library will cosponsor with the Lincoln Forum and the Lincoln Group of Boston a symposium on "Abraham Lincoln at 200: New Perspectives on His Life and Legacy." The symposium, to be held at Houghton Library and other Harvard University venues will coincide with a major exhibition featuring books, manuscripts, ephemera, and artifacts from Houghton Library's Abraham Lincoln Collection. The symposium will examine or reexamine several aspects of Lincoln's career, such as his views on race and slavery, his role as Commander-in-Chief, his use of the press to shape public opinion, his relationship with Congress and his influence on the legislative process, and his role as a politician and as a party leader. Several prominent Lincoln and Civil War scholars have agreed to participate, including Jean H. Baker, Michael Beschloss, Gabor Boritt, Brian Dirck, David Herbert Donald, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Drew Gilpin Faust, Richard W. Fox, Harold Holzer, John Marszalek, James McPherson, Edna Greene Medford, Matthew Pinsker, Gerald J. Prokopowicz, Craig Symonds, Thomas Turner, Michael Vorenberg, and Frank J. Williams.

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and Howard University in Washington will co-produce a conference on Emancipation and Race in the Age of Lincoln. The conference will focus on the international dimension of emancipation and will compare different nations' approaches to the issue of emancipation. The conference coincides with the District of Columbia's Emancipation Day and will feature public evening events.