Lincoln Editor

              July - September 2001 Volume 1 Number 1
ANNOUNCING THE PAPERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Mr. Benjamin Shapell, of Beverly Hills, Califor-nia,
has the honor of being the first private do-nor
to Series II and Series III of the Papers of Abra-ham
Lincoln. Mr. Shapell sent the project a check for
$10,000, to be used specifically for the new phases
of the expanded project.
Mr. Shapell’s generous donation will be used
to design and publish the project’s new website at
www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org and to print and
mail the first issues of this newsletter. These methods
of communication with friends of the project, manu-propriate
annotation, linked electronically to images
of the original manuscripts, and a selective book edi-tion
of carefully selected documents. The Papers of
Abraham Lincoln will form the foundation for new
generations of scholarship on Abraham Lincoln, an-tebellum
America, and the Civil War era.
The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
serves as the project’s sponsor, and the University of
Illinois at Springfield will cosponsor it. As with the
Lincoln Legal Papers, the expanded Papers of Abra-ham
Lincoln will depend on a mixture of state, fed-eral,
foundation, and individual funding. Readers of
our newsletter can help us in two principal ways: (1)
notify us of the location of any “Lincoln document,”
especially those in private hands or unusual places,
and (2) support the project with a tax-deductible gift
to the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.
Through the pages of this and future issues of
the Lincoln Editor, readers can follow our progress
as we collect, assemble, and explore the fascinating
documentary record of this remarkable man.
script collectors, repositories, and scholars are vital
to the success of this project as it begins a new
search for Lincoln documents.
The project staff would like to express our
deep gratitude to Mr. Shapell for his contribution and
to assure him and all other private donors that the
project staff will use funds donated to the Papers of
Abraham Lincoln carefully and wisely to locate,
transcribe, annotate, and publish the documentary re-cord
of the life of our most admired President.
Welcome to the first newsletter of the Papers
of Abraham Lincoln, a long-term documen-tary
editing project dedicated to identifying, photo-graphing,
and publishing all documents written by or
to Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime (1809-1865).
The combined expertise of Lincoln scholars, nine-teenth-
century historians, information technology
specialists, and historical documentary editors will
produce a comprehensive collection of texts from the
life of Abraham Lincoln. This project builds upon
the experience and successes of the Lincoln Legal
Papers.
The Papers of Abraham Lincoln will consist
of three series. Series I: Legal Papers will incorpo-rate
the research and publications of the Lincoln Le-gal
Papers. Series II: Illinois Papers will incorporate
all non-legal documents from Abraham Lincoln’s
life from his birth in 1809 until his inauguration on
March 4, 1861. The vast documentation of his presi-dency
will comprise Series III: Presidential Papers.
Publication plans include both a freely acces-sible
Internet edition of authoritative texts with ap-
PROJECT RECEIVES FIRST PRIVATE DONATION—$10,000