Collection Guide
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F. Ray Risdon Collection of Lincolniana and American Political Life
COL-039
COL-039
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Description
F. Ray Risdon collected Lincolniana for almost fifty years. His collection passed to Occidental College Library in 1957, by
which time he had amassed 3000 monographs, 1500 pamphlets, and 85 linear feet of non-book items. Of special interest to Mr.
Risdon were the myriad ways in which people choose to commemorate President Lincoln, and this collection includes not only
a wide variety of commemorative material, but also correspondence regarding the creation of a Lincolniana collection between
Mr. Risdon, the Lincoln Society of Los Angeles of which he was a member, and the booksellers who helped Mr. Risdon locate
the items.
Background
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the 16th president of the United States. Before his election to the presidency in 1860, he
had been a lawyer, a member of the Illinois state legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives, and had failed in two
attempts at gaining a seat in the U.S. Senate. His career tracked the major political movements of the mid-nineteenth century,
as his support of the Whigs shifted to the anti-slavery Republican Party after the former party split along sectional lines
in the wake of the compromises on slavery in legislation of the early 1850s. Shortly after his triumph in the 1860 election,
and even before his inauguration, the Southern states began the process of secession in reaction to the first election since
1848 (of Zachary Taylor) of a president who would not favor the pro-slavery faction in Congress. Lincoln’s conduct during
the Civil War has placed him among the most renowned of presidents. John Wilkes Booth assasinated him on the night of April
14, 1865, and he died the next day.
Extent
85.0 Linear feet
175 document boxes
3248 monographs
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from holdings must be submitted in writing to the Special Collections Department.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Availability
Collection is open for research.