Lincoln Editor

              October - December 2008 Volume 8 Number 4
RESEARCH BEGINS AT NATIONAL ARCHIVES BUILDING
In October, the Papers of Abraham Lincoln began one of
its most challenging research tasks—searching through the
records at the National Archives Building in downtown
Washington, D.C. (Archives I, below) for documents written
or signed by
and written to
A b r a h a m
Lincoln. The
project expects
to locate tens
of thousands of
documents in
the voluminous
records of the
War and Navy Departments, military records, and the
records of the United States Congress, as well as smaller
collections of records for the United States Supreme Court,
the government of the District of Columbia, and other parts
of the federal government. Archives I houses fifty-three
record groups that researchers must examine. Veteran
researcher David Gerleman and new editorial staff member
Daniel Worthington are conducting the initial phase of
research at Archives I.
Since June 2006, researchers have been examining
the records of the State, Interior, Treasury, and Justice
Departments housed in twenty-seven record groups at the
National Archives building in College Park, Maryland
(Archives II). Ed Bradley, who began the search at Archives
II, continues to lead the effort there, joined by new
researchers Andrew Roling and Chandler Lighty. When they
complete the search for documents at Archives II, they will
join Gerleman and Worthington at Archives I.
PROMOTIONS AND NEW STAFF FOR D.C. AREA
During the summer, both Dr. A J Aiséirithe and Dr. David
Gerleman were promoted from Research Associates
to Assistant Editors with the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.
Aiséirithe is working with the staff of the Library of Congress
to prepare high-resolution color digital images of more than
22,000 documents within the project’s scope there.
Gerleman has been searching for documents at the National
Archives in College Park, Maryland, and recently began
research at the National Archives Building in Washington,
D.C. In addition, Dr. Ed Bradley, who helped to inaugurate
the search for documents at the National Archives in College
Park, was transferred from a temporary visiting position to
a permanent position as Assistant Editor with the project.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Shelby Cullom
Davis family, the Papers of Abraham Lincoln has also been
able to expand substantially its staff at work in Washington,
D.C. Assistant Editor Daniel E. Worthington is conducting
research with David Gerleman at the National Archives in
downtown Washington. Research Associates Andrew Roling
and S. Chandler Lighty have joined Bradley in College Park
to complete the search for documents among the remaining
record groups there.
Daniel Worthington earned his B.S. and M.A. in
History at Middle Tennessee State University in
Murfreesboro and his Ph.D. in American History at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). While
at UIUC, Worthington wrote a history of the University of
Illinois Graduate College, in addition to his dissertation on
war-related research at American universities during World
War I. For 13 years, he worked at HarpWeek, rising from
the position of indexer to that of managing editor.
Andrew Roling earned his B.A. in History from St.
Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and his M.A. in
American History from Eastern Illinois University in
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