With the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination coming up on April 14, a couple things come to mind. We've been to many of the Lincoln related places in and around DC over the last thirty plus years. Most recently, we've walked past Ford's Theatre and Petersen House. We live near the Navy Yard where John Wilkes Booth rode his horse over the bridge to Virginia. Whenever I walk over to the Capitol Visitor Center, I pass by the catafalque and the inauguration table. We finally watched Lincoln, the movie, a couple weeks ago. I was going to major in history, but decided on a more practical nursing degree. That being said, I didn't particularly like the movie - and I've seen a lot of them on this subject and the Civil War. In the end though, there was a very relevant connection between me and Lincoln through just one person. I worked with a colleague at the Library of Congress who conserved and preserved Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. It took her about a year and she shared the photos of the process with me. When I heard the words "with malice toward none..." I thought of her immediately. And that was the only part of the movie I liked. Two degrees of separation? Mary Lincoln would like that. (Photos taken from the IMDb and the Library of Congress websites)
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