The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association is now available on the Scholarly Publishing Collective, where you can find the most recent published content online for forty other University of Illinois Press journals. The Journal is open access, with 45 years of history freely available. New content appears online six months after the publication of the print issue.

The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association is the only journal devoted exclusively to Lincoln scholarship. In addition to selected scholarly articles—on Lincoln in the popular media, for example, or British reactions to the War— the journal also features photographs and newly discovered Lincoln letters and other unpublished primary source documents. It is the official journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association (ALA).

Volume 1, Issue 1, published in 1979 under the name Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association. As the President at the time, Floyd S. Barringer wrote a Foreword to the first issue covering the publication history of the ALA. The same year was the fiftieth anniversary of the first issue of the association’s previous publication, The Abraham Lincoln Association Papers, in 1929. From 1940 to 1952, the publication was called Abraham Lincoln Association Quarterly. Notably, Barringer includes some words from a former President, George W. Bunn Jr., who wrote in the last issue of the Quarterly: “The job will never be fully ended as long as the memory of Lincoln survives, but there will always be those who will carry it on.” Thus, the tradition continued with this latest iteration of the publication, which has now been running for more than 45 years.

In more recent Journal history, James M. Cornelius is the immediate former editor, having served from 2019 to 2023, overseeing ten issues. In 2022, the Journal got a new cover design, which now features Lincoln’s signature as well as a photograph of a statue of Lincoln.

With the publication of Volume 45, Issue 1, in 2024, the Journal welcomed new editor Glenn W. LaFantasie. “My goal is to continue the journal’s long tradition of publishing high-quality scholarship on Lincoln and his times. I’m also looking forward to learning more about Lincoln by editing cutting-edge articles that explore new and different aspects of Lincoln’s nineteenth century,” said LaFantasie. Articles featured in this issue are “Lincoln’s ‘Angel Mother’ and His Surrogate Fathers” by Charles B. Strozier and Wayne Soini, “On Lincoln’s ‘Instrumentality’ to End Slavery: Meditation on the Divine Will and the Emancipation Proclamation” by John A. O’brien, and “Ruth Burns Stanton: House Servant to the Lincolns, Bradfords, and Semples” by George Provenzano.

The most recent issue, Volume 45, Issue 2, contains “The Stuart and Lincoln Law Partnership” by Terence Esvelt, “Finding a Place for Frémont: Lincoln, North Carolina, and Black Troops in 1863” by John Bicknell, “Saint-Gaudens’s Standing Lincoln: Social Turmoil, Classical Oratory, and Plaster Casts” by Martha Dunkelman, and a collection of book reviews.

Looking for more scholarship to check out? Here are a few popular articles:

• “The Shifting Terrain of Attitudes Toward Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation” by Chandra Manning (Vol. 34, Iss. 1)
• “‘Had Mr. Lincoln lived’: Alternate Histories, Reconstruction, Race, and Memory” by Matthew Norman (Vol. 38, Iss. 1)
• “Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made Man” by Kenneth J. Winkle (Vol. 21, Iss. 2)
• “The Lost Cause of the North: A Reflection on Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural” by James L. Huston (Vol. 33, Iss. 1)
• “Lincoln’s Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus: An Historical and Constitutional Analysis” by James A. Dueholm (Vol. 29, Iss. 2)

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