If you visit the main branch of the Allen County Public Library, you're in the presence of history, thousands of original documents and photographs from the life and times of Abraham Lincoln are available for the public to explore.

Today, we're visiting the Rolland Center for Lincoln Research.

It's a pleasure to be joined by Curt Witcher director of Special Collections at the Allen County Public Library.

Kurt, thank you for allowing us to be here today.

Great to have you, Bruce.

Absolutely.

What a spectacular collection.

I'm looking forward to talking with you about it.

More to the point, how you share this collection with others and right behind us.

Talk a little bit about some of the interactive technology here, which brings this collection to life.

Absolutely.

So this is one of our biggest and most popular digital displays.

It's called Lincoln's time and place.

And so you can explore nearly a thousand digitized images from the collection right from the kiosk here.

Anyone can just walk up.

You have a number of different options that you can choose.

I like overviews because it gives us just a wide variety of things.

We can tap on the first image and it comes right up on the screen and we can see it larger than life.

And a little caption about it.

I like the images in the collection that are more about Lincoln before presidency.

I really enjoy that.

So these two images here are among my favorites.

So this first image here i Lincoln postmaster and surveyor.

What he enjoyed about being the postmaster is he could deliver newspapers that came through the post to the residents of his little area.

He would read them first.

So his voracious appetite for reading and learning was always in evidence.

And many people don't know that this was his life before presidency.

So postmaster, surveyor.

He also was a store clerk.

He and William Berry went into business together and and they were horrible.

They had to close their business and they had a pretty substantial debt for that day.

But the story behind the story is this is where he got his name, Honest Abe, people of the time when they failed in business, they just walk away.

Abraham Lincoln said, no, I'm going to pay off all my debts.

And he did.

He worked to pay off is that he was Honest Abe.

He wasn't going to walk away from that.

I love the stories of Lincoln before presidency.

It kind of brings to life who he was as a person, who he was as as a man.

And that's, to me, the most intriguing part of this whole collection.

And it gives us, as visitors, a place in our minds to, reside the, the content, putting the content int the context of the, of the time and in this case, an attribute that we know comes back, in his roles in the legislature here and in his role as president.

You are so righ in this context, really is king.

When you try to paint an accurate picture of a person's life and we know that the Lincoln family influenced him so much.

So knowing a little bit about that family and knowing who the players were.

We have an entire digital display on just the Lincoln Family album that I love to show you.

Let's go check it out.

Okay.

So one of the real treasures of the Lincoln Collection is the Lincoln Family album.

It's a really unique, one of a kind collection of Abraham Lincoln's family.

We are the only place in the world that has the Lincoln Family album contents.

So we have photographs of Lincoln and his contemporaries down several generations.

And this kiosk allows us to really explore that.

So one can come up here and touch the kiosk and you see a genealogy, if you will, down three generations of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln.

You can pick your favorite Lincoln family member.

And images will come up.

I want to go and focus on Mary Todd Lincoln.

She was such an interestin person, led such a tragic life, and there's been so many photographs of her.

My favorite, though, is this one.

And I'm not alone.

There are hundreds of people that ask for that's literally monthly.

This is called the spirit photograph.

This was the last photograph that Mary Todd Lincoln sat for in her entire life.

And it gave her a great comfort because if you look at her shoulders and go up from there, you see the image of Abraham Lincoln behind her.

It gave her such great comfort, and it gives us excitement about this digital display because these are baseball cards sized, Bruce.

So you have a much bigger image here, and then you have a floor to ceiling wall image of Mary Todd Lincoln and her spirit photograph.

Why is it called the spirit photograph?

Well, she believed in spiritualism, and it gave her great comfort that Abraham was behind her.

He was still with her even though he had died quite some time ago.

The most frequently asked question about this photograph.

Is it real?

And the answer is yes.

It's a real photographer.

Photograph taken by William Mumbler.

And your little, 19th century, Photoshop where he kind of etched in.

We don't know how he did it, etched, in Abraham behind her.

And it gave her a great comfort.

That picture tells such a big story about Abraham and and especially Mary.

It needs all the wall space, to make that happen.

And yet, every so often, people would love to probably ask you for a peek at that baseball card.

Digital has its upsides, and I'm imagining the power of tactile, though.

That far behind?

Absolutely.

Bruce.

And we have three major exhibi cases where we can show people actual artifacts from Lincoln' time, from his contemporaries.

You can see actual things that he may have held that soldiers held and wrote in during the Civil War.

When you take a walk over to the gates.

Over here, let's do it.

There's almost nothing more exciting than actual artifacts from the time period.

And that's what these display cases are.

We have nearly a hundred different artifacts, actual artifacts from Lincoln's time from the Civil War time period.

And it's amazing how people get really involved with actual artifacts.

A couple of my favorites are here.

Bruce.

One is this Wilkins Civil War diary.

This person served many months, years in the Civil War.

He wrote in field diaries that were vest pocket sized during the war.

And then after the war, he transcribed those into this larger ledger.

It's amazing.

This was a Hoosier veteran.

You can see what a Hoosier veteran was thinking and that he actually wrote this, I guess, twice in a way, in his field manual.

And then in this, larger ledger.

Another one of my favorite Bruce is that miniature of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Union veterans carry these around.

Union soldiers carr these around to hand to enslaved peoples, to let them know you're free.

Now, the president of the United States has declared it.

And that's an actual copy of one of those emancipation proclamations that a Union soldier would have handed to an emancipated person.

I mean, you're right here with history.

And this as it is true with first person source material, in a sense, and, that it is, also the product of years of making yourself available and doing some active looking.

I assume it's active and passive together to bring the physical collection, into into being like, like this.

It's quite the feast for the eyes to get right up t the actual documents themselves.

And a wonderful complement to the digital that we've seen so far.

And, just all of that, a smal portion of the research center.

And while we still may have time yet, I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you about how all of this came to be.

Absolutely.

Love to have a chat.

Let's.

Curt thank you again for taking time to give us an introduction to the center.

Absolutely fascinating resource for the community and for the world.

How did this collection come to be and come to be in Fort Wayne?

Oh my gosh, Bruce, it's like an amazing story on top of an amazing story so early on in the company's life, Lincoln National's life, the principals wrote to the Lincoln family to ask if they could use the Lincoln name because of the whole Honest Abe thing where insurance company will want people to trust us.

So they wrote to the Lincoln family saying, can we use the Lincoln name for Lincoln National Insurance, Lincoln National?

And Robert Todd wrote back and said, not only yes, but here' a photograph of Abraham Lincoln.

And from that photograph started this thirst, this quest to build a collection of some of the early directors of Lincoln National had their own collections that they started to build.

And then it came together in one Lincoln National Collection.

And for a big part of the 20t century, they continued to grow.

That collection of Lincoln artifacts, things about Lincoln, you name it, letters, books, photographs, busts of Lincoln.

And then during eon, Roland's time period, they actually brought kind of a museum to life.

And now Lincoln's life, legacy and legend come alive in a new $6 million state of the art facility located in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Ian was very committe and Roland was very committed to Lincoln materials celebrating Abraham Lincoln, as well as celebrating a very fortunate company that he really helped bring along.

And in some major, major ways.

So when the museum closed, Ian's interest and commitmen to Lincoln and Lincoln material was as strong as ever when the museum closed.

Ian kind of gathered his friends and associates and really led a charge for trying to keep the Lincoln material that Lincoln National had collected in Indiana.

And oh my gosh.

Again, wonderful story on top, a wonderful story.

We partnered with the Indian State Museum and historic sites.

We put together a joint program.

We said not only would we make this available to everyda people like it had been before, but we would digitize everything we possibly could so that now we would have a physical, on site experience and a virtual around the world experience.

We think that combination of collaboration and partnership and technology won the day, and Lincoln National deeded the collection to the state of Indiana.

It's curated three dimensiona and Indianapolis two dimensional here in Fort Wayne.

Wonderful story.

It has certainly connected wit researchers and those pursuing, other tasks and opportunities to document aspects of Lincoln in his time.

Talk of how it must seem like being se free to go from private research related to general public, worldwide related and having digital help that cause.

It's so exciting.

I mean, it's a really a lifetime experience for m to be involved with that again.

So much support from Ian Roland and the Roland family Foundation.

They basically made the Roland Center happen, and that's why it's called the Roland Center for Lincoln Research.

But what a neat thing we were able to do here in the 21st century, Bruce.

We're able to tak traditional museum experiences, looking at, enjoying and appreciating artifacts and marry into that digital experiences where you can do two things that we really wanted to give everyday people to researchers and everyone in between.

We want you to be able to create your own experience, and we want to make things larger than life.

That's what digital does for you.

You can still enjoy artifacts, but you can make things larger than life.

You can take a little small postcard sized photograph and enlarge it to its full size, and you can decide how you want to enjoy Abraham Lincoln's life.

Maybe today you want to look at his early life.

Maybe next week or next month.

You want to see what kind of a Civil War president was he?

How did he lead?

How did he command his troops?

What was his battle strategy?

So it's a great collection still for the researcher, and it's a phenomenal collection for the enthusiast or the everyday person who just wants to know more about what I believe, who I believe is the greatest president of all time.

Abraham Lincoln.

Well.

It also seems it opens a number of opportunities for educators, to continue to expose, more eyeballs, if you will, to, the collection and help create a certain level of awarenes across that spectrum of thought.

You're absolutely right.

I love that phrase.

It's one of our mantras.

More eyes on the collection.

Our Lincoln librarians are really skilled at helping scholars research important books, magazines, article about what you just articulated.

They're all so great at helping educators make their lesson plans more meaningful.

Educators K through 12.

We have lesson plans.

We have primary source lists.

We have all kinds of guides on our site.

Freely available for educators to use.

We know how challenging it i to be in the classroom in 2024.

So we want to come up alongsid of educators and say, tell us, tell us how we can help you.

We have over 33,000 digital assets online that you can take a look at.

You can bring into your classroom.

We will zoom into your classroom.

We will welcome your classroom here at the Rowland Center at the main library here in Fort Wayne.

However you want to engage.

We would love to come up alongside of educators and help them engage.

And when you're looking at that engagement, whether it's in person or through digital, I'm thinking of at least two things of of importance to preservationists.

Your you're hanging on to the original document.

Sharing it as well in as much a pristine condition, as as possible.

How many have been visiting you?

Virtually any.

Any sense for the thousands.

Thousands of people have visited us at virtually every month.

At the various websites, there's actually two major websites that people can use, whichever one they're comfortable with, Bruce, to really get to know and enjoy the collection.

This location, the Rowland Center, has had over 20,000 people visited on site the first two years, and I think that number is just going to continue to go up.

So 20,000 a year in person, a thousand a month on the virtual side.

I think we're beginning to accomplish more eyes on the collection, but we're always interested in get more eyes on the collection.

And to that, turning to those who, have an eye for, awareness and, and, friend raising.

And I'm thinking of the friends of the library and the friends of the Lincoln Collection.

Talk of their collaborations.

Well, it's really wonderful.

The friends of the library support many amazing program offerings throughout the entire library system, from, storytimes and other programs to Lincoln at the library programs.

We had one just a few weeks ago.

And Dan Weinberg, who's like a famous Lincoln scholar, Lincoln collector, was one of the featured speakers.

The friends of the Lincoln Collection.

They help underwrite this whole operation, from digitizing to curating to helping with the Roland Center and Bruce.

They bring in some of the best well known Lincoln scholars.

So it's wonderful to have two amazing friends, organizations supporting what goes on here in the Roland Center.

So the friends of the library support all kinds of activities across the entire library system, including some of our phenomenal Lincoln at the library programs where we just bring in speakers and talk about pieces of the collection of pieces of Lincoln's life, parts of Lincoln's life.

And then the friends of the Lincoln Collectio are just an amazing organization that really underwrite all of the Roland Center operations, our Lincoln librarians, and they have brought in the past.

Bruce, amazing speakers here to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Speakers like Harold Holes R and Frank Williams who have written books who have their own websites and podcasts about Lincol and various aspects of Lincoln, have come right here to the library, and hundreds of people have enjoyed, Lincoln's life through those experts eyes.

Why is it important for the public to have access?

Well, with a collection like this, it can touch so many lives in so many different ways.

And I believe that's the root of why it's important for the public to have access.

It's really almost the best, Bruce, that a collection like this, which is a research collection that qualifies as a research collection, is nestled inside a public library because we get people from all walks of life, all demographics, all interest levels, and they can come in here can create their own experience and can enjoy a phenomenal collection.

Why is that important?

I passionately believe that history is our best teacher.

Knowing our history and learning from history, seeing how others have met, challenges have dealt with triumphs, have moved forward, have moved the nation through a civil war.

That's amazing when you think about that.

So the public should have access to enjoy, to entertain themselves and to enrich themselves, thos for each one of them to enjoy.

When to educate themselves.

And we want them to entertai themselves with, oh my goodness, this is a part of my history and and your history.

It really is our history.

So why not have access to the documents that evidence and history, When folks come through, whether it's through their computer or through the doors right near us here.

What's your expectation for them as they are being exposed to the contents of all this?

And then when they're there, heading out, what do you want to have them take with them on a personal level?

Great question, great question.

And I would just offer two answers.

One, when they're here.

We really want them to have a very enjoyable experience.

We want to see shiny eyes and smiling faces.

We want them to really embrace the technology, and we want them to really get kind of geeked like we are about seeing the actual artifacts.

And then when they leave, we want them to hav kind of a zeal in their soul for I need to come back.

I need to continue to explore.

Temporary exhibits change once a year.

Our major exhibits change.

So, we hope they come back.

Yeah.

When they're showing up and coming back and more books are written and so on.

What is it that draws us to Abraham Lincoln?

Oh my goodness, what a phenomenal question, Bruce.

And there's not one really good answer.

I think there's a cacophony of good answers.

One talk about an amazing rags to riches story, right?

Here's a man who had one year or less of formal education, president of the United States.

That kind of tells everyone, if you really want to, you can do that.

He's a president that brought people with conflicting ideas and conflicting strategies together.

A scholar, Doris Kearns Goodwin, wrote a book, Team of Rivals.

It was about Abraham Lincoln, how we could bring people together for the common good.

Gosh, isn't that a characteristic we want in our leaders to be able to work with a wide range of people?

His writings, his speeches.

Still today, in 2024, he's the most written about President.

No, that's not.

Except for all the famous ones in the 21st century.

Go of all time.

I think it's the rags to riches.

It's his thoughtfulness.

It's his zeal for learning.

It's the common person who's done well, who had a plan.

Sometimes his plans didn't work out, but continued to believe in himself and continue to work toward something greater.

Rags to riches.

You can do it.

Someone who can work well with a wide range of people.

Who wouldn't like Abraham Lincoln?

There are several contributing factors to what I understand is called the North Star for you and for the research center.

What is that guidance that you turn to as we're moving through this year into another anniversary year?

Throughout, for Civil War historians, and for lovers of Lincoln everywhere.

Yeah.

Our North Star is something that, we've heard a couple of times, and that is how can we enjoyably and technologicall get more eyes on the collection?

That's our North star.

Whatever we do exhibit wise, whatever we do technology wise, it has to be at the end of the day to get more eyes on the collection.

And our our North Sta is all eyes on that collection.

So we want the scholar and the academician to know that the collection is here, and you know how many resources are available online for their use, and that they have two expert librarians who can help them out.

For the mom with three grade schoolers who just wants to show them a little piece of history that they can play with, they can walk up to a monitor and they can choose their own adventure.

And that brings history to lif in a way that nothing else can.

To the person who's learning English as a second language to come in here, say something about a great president, and then read the captions as a way of practicing reading English.

I mean, there are so many ways that people embrace this collection and use this collection.

And at the end of the day, or the North Star is we're putting more eyes on the collection.

They're enjoying it, they're using it, and we're not really dictating like how they should be using it.

That's up to you.

Technology lets you determine what you want to look at and read and study and enjoy today.

Yeah.

Behind that North Star are other galaxies and solar systems.

And in future thoughts for the continued growth and sustainability of something like the Lincoln Collection, what what are some of those white board ideas that might be kicking around.

Some of those white board ideas?

One that's been with me for a while and we just haven't reached the right tipping point technology wise.

We'd really like to have a hologram of Abraham Lincoln in the role and center that you and I could just walk up to and ask a question, and he would answer that question factually, accurately.

When that be amazing.

Lincoln, from Lincoln's own mouth.

It it would, it would it I would start with amazing and go up from there.

I really would.

Curt Witcher is the director of a special collections here at the Allen County Public Library.

It's been a tru joy, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.