State Library and Archives of Florida Celebrates Lincoln Bicentennial with Online Exhibit

TALLAHASSEE, FL – The State Library and Archives of Florida has added a new online exhibit titled Lincoln Letters to the Florida Memory Project Web site.  The exhibit, found online at http://www.floridamemory.com/timeline/Lincoln, celebrates the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth (February 12, 1809) while highlighting the State Archives of Florida’s unique collections and encouraging further research into Florida and U.S. history. 

Lincoln Letters presents selections from the Archives’ collections that refer to Lincoln as a presidential candidate and the leader of the Union during the Civil War, as well as family portraits and illustrations related to the collections.  Through letters, diaries, government records, and business correspondence, the documents in the exhibit address a wide range of historical issues including politics, banking, religion, family concerns, battles, prisoner of war camps, wartime shortages, and Lincoln’s assassination.

The exhibit includes selections from the minutes of Florida’s secession convention, which voted to remove the state from the Union on January 10, 1862; the Zabud Fletcher Family Papers; the Call Family Papers; the Brevard Family Papers; and five letters from the papers of the Blackshear, Pittman, White, Dickens, and Drew families.  Selections from Civil War soldiers include letters written by Francis Rinaldo Nicks, who served in the Third Florida Infantry Regiment, and the diary of Wilber Wightman Gramling, who served in the Fifth Florida Infantry Regiment and had extended stays in Union hospitals in Washington and the prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York.

The documents also contain references to many other significant Civil War leaders, including Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, and Braxton Bragg on the Confederate side and Ulysses S. Grant, William S. Rosecrans, and George McClellan for the Union.  All of the writers included in the exhibit have a Florida connection.  Some lived in Florida during the war, others fought in Florida Confederate units, and some lived outside of the state but corresponded with relatives in Florida.

The Florida Memory Project provides online access to records from the State Library and Archives of Florida.  Using original documents, photographs, and other materials, the Florida Memory Project illustrates significant moments in the state’s history, provides educational resources for students of all ages, and makes available collections for historical research.  For more information, visit  http://www.floridamemory.com/