Lincoln Forum XXXI

“Lincoln and the Founders: New Interpretations for America 250”

November 15-17, 2026

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Sunday, November 15 (New Date)

1:00 PM - Registration Begins: Wyndham Hotel

5:00 PM - Cash Bar in the Wyndham Presidential Ballroom Foyer

6:00 PM - Buffet Dinner in the Wyndham Presidential Ballroom

Welcome to Forum XXXI: Chairman Harold Holzer

National Anthem: Federal City Brass Band

Introduction of Scholarship Winners: Clark Zimmerman and Thomas A. Horrocks

Matthew Pinsker, Boss Lincoln: Debating New Political Insights and Evidence

Monday, November 16

6:30 AM - Breakfast Buffet in ballroom foyer until 8:30 AM

9:00 AM - Session 1
Moderator: Jonathan W. White

Lincoln Presidential Foundation Lecture

Welcome by Erin Carlson Mast

Lucas E. Morel, “Declarations of Independence: Lincoln’s Fight to Define American Identity”

10:00 AM - Joshua A. Claybourn, “Lincoln, the Declaration, and the American Idea”

11:00 AM - Edna Greene Medford, “That All Men are Created Equal: African Americans and the Founders”

Noon - Buffet Lunch in the Wyndham Presidential Ballroom

1:30 PM - Session 2
Moderator: Michelle Krowl

Walter Stahr, “Lincoln and Taft”

2:30 PM - “Why Lincoln? Historians Remember What Inspired Them,” with Harold Holzer, Michelle Krowl, Andrew F. Lang, Christian McWhirter, Erin Carlson Mast, and Jonathan White, moderator

4:00 PM - All-author Book Signing, Wyndham Lobby

5:30 PM - Cash Bar in Wyndham Presidential Foyer

6:30 PM - Buffet Dinner in the Wyndham Presidential Ballroom

Briefing on America250 Events in Gettysburg: Wendy Allen

Special Event: Presentation of the Forum’s Lincoln in Film Award, followed by Sam Waterston in conversation with Harold Holzer

Tuesday, November 17

6:30 AM - Breakfast Buffet in ballroom foyer until 8:30 AM

7:30 AM - Board of Advisors Annual Meeting

9:15 AM - State of the Forum / Election of Officers for 2026-2027

Session 3
Moderator: Jake Friefeld

9:30 AM - James Oakes, “Was the Emancipation Proclamation Illegal?”

10:30 AM - Kevin Levin, “Uncle Abe” on the Verge of Lunacy: Robert Gould Shaw Confronts the Challenge of Emancipation

11:30 AM - “Lincoln’s Constitution,” with Edna Greene Medford, Lucas Morel, James Oakes, Walter Stahr, and Jonathan White, moderator

12:45 PM - Buffet Lunch in the Wyndham Presidential Ballroom

2:00 PM - First-Time Attendees’ Battlefield Tour with Carol Reardon

Afternoon Breakout Sessions at 2:00 PM

  1. Lois Romano in conversation with Samuel Wheeler: Inconvenient Widow - More on Mary Lincoln, with a special booksigning.

  2. Tom Horrocks and Scott Schroeder: Lincoln Assassination Ephemera: Influencing the Memory of a Murder

  3. Stephen Engle and Walter Stahr: Lincoln and the Civil War Governors

  4. Joshua Claybourn, Lucas Morel, and Scott Rosenau: More on Lincoln and the Founding

  5. Kevin Levin, Edna Greene Medford, and Susannah J. Ural: Lincoln and Black Soldiers

  6. Matthew Pinsker and James Oakes: Lincoln Scholars in Conversation: The State of Lincoln Scholarship, 2026

5:00 PM - Cash Bar in the Wyndham Presidential Forum

6:00 PM - Buffet Dinner in the Wyndham Presidential Ballroom

Presentation of the 2026 Lincoln Forum Awards

Jeff Shaara: Finishing “The Unfinished Work: A Novel of Abraham Lincoln”

This schedule is subject to change.