Need an Abraham Lincoln expert

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  • halfmileharry

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    Dec 2, 2010
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    South of Indy
    Anyone know of a local Lincoln expert?
    My mother found some old letters in a chest written to my great great grandfather. The writer was speaking of Gettysburg. Letter was signed "Abraham Lincoln"
    I looked them over and they look pretty legit to my untrained eye.
    I searched handwriting on the internet and the writing looks extremely similar. Again to my untrained eye.
    The paper is extremely old and it's NOT a copy.
    Just needing an expert to continue the path to verification.
     

    T.Lex

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    Mar 30, 2011
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    Here's a perhaps awkward question: did your g-g-grandfather have a reason to correspond with Lincoln? That is, was there a family/social/professional connection? Establishing that might go a long way to confirming the provenance of the letters.
     

    rob63

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    I'm fairly knowledgeable about Lincoln and the Civil War, but you need someone familiar with his hand-writing and that is going to be a pretty limited group. In addition to the previous suggestions of the Lincoln Library, and the Indiana State Museum, I will add the Indiana Historical Society and the Allen County Public Library. I would contact one of them for advice, and an appointment.
     

    snorko

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    I would contact someone at the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, IL. If you make the trip out there the museum is a must, so is his tomb which is very sobering

    I second this. Another avenue for direction may be to contact the Spencer County Historical Society. They have dealt with a lot of Lincoln stuff.
     

    rob63

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    Most of the self-proclaimed Abraham Lincoln experts on INGO are shooters now.

    It is a probably a good indicator of why they eventually ended up as shooters that I argued with a number of them over Lincoln and was labeled a victim of the pro-Lincoln propaganda machine even though I personally am not a fan of Lincoln. (However, I am a fan of long sentences.)
     

    Brad69

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    Jul 16, 2016
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    Perry county
    Old Abe

    Yeah he got arrested for operating a ferry without a license!
    On Anderson creek they have a nice picnic area and display.
    Rumor has it his family was not well liked in the area.
     

    Trigger Time

    Air guitar master
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    Aug 26, 2011
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    SOUTH of Zombie city
    Sent him a message but I'll post this just for anyone else needing a quick check to see if an autograph you may have is worth sending In to an authenticator like PSA or JSA, which are the only 2 I would recommend as someone who collects autographs from sports, hollywood, to presidents.
    Create a poorly worded and described for sale ad on eBay with a CLEAR and closeup photo (more photos the better). Place a ridiculously high price on your item with buy it now so no one actualy buys it. Like $20,000 or in this case maybe 100k. Listing should be free with fees only if it sells. Create an account with PSA authenticators on their website. They only used to offer quick opinion on eBay items, but they may do it direct submission on their site, so obviously check that first. I've used it for eBay so I haven't checked the direct psa submission way online.
    Then on their website select eBay "quick opinion" and fill out all of the eBay item number info and who you think the signature belongs to and what it's on. The fee is $10, but if you end up sending the item into them for authentication they deduct the $10 as long as you include your transaction number or the page you can print.
    They will come back as "likely genuine" "likely not genuine" and in some cases they will be undetermined. They list the opinions.
    So it's not a for sure authentication but it will tell you on a high dollar autograph if it's worth sending in. Or if you're on the fence about buying an item on eBay it will,let you know if it's worth taking a chance.
    Like for me, Mickey mantle is my all time favorite and I collect anything of his that's signed that I can afford. I've gotten pretty good at spotting genuine mantles vs fakes, but his is one of the top 10 of faked signatures out there and there are some excellent forgers and the quick opinion has saved me a couple hundred bucks a couple times. Nothing is 100% perfect except for seeing the autograph signed in person but obviously that isn't possible with deceased individuals.

    With Lincoln it wasn't as common for him to sign his whole name. He usually abbreviated and then signed "Lincoln" in its entirety.
    Lincoln is another mass forged signature. Also he had people in the Government and even Mrs Lincoln that would sign his name for him. So even having an analysis of the paper and ink won't always get you a positive ID. Forgers will even use 160+ year old paper and ink to forge a signature. You are talking about a signature that's worth thousands of dollars alone and with the content of a letter in his hands depending on the context you are talking about potentialy thousands more. A complete letter in Lincoln's hand and a signature, wow, for me it's historically priceless but for insurance purposes i don't think I would have less than $30k on it if it's real. And that's per signed letter.
    If it turns out to be real, I would suggest making actual high quality photo copies of the letter or letters and submitting the copies to the US National Archives and also the Indiana State Museum for posterity.
    Good luck!!!
     

    M67

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    Jan 15, 2011
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    Southernish Indiana
    205ec425a60ec2ddc2ba4e1baecb4fb6.jpg
     

    Spear Dane

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    Sep 4, 2015
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    Kokomo area
    It is a probably a good indicator of why they eventually ended up as shooters that I argued with a number of them over Lincoln and was labeled a victim of the pro-Lincoln propaganda machine even though I personally am not a fan of Lincoln. (However, I am a fan of long sentences.)

    I'm sorry I missed those discussions. He is the defining pivot point in the political history of this country and a number of his actions fall under the "We had to burn the village in order to save it." category.
     

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