The University of Chicago Library > Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Lincoln Collection, Barton Codex Manuscripts 1861-1940
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| Title: | Lincoln Collection. Barton Codex Manuscripts |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1861-1940 |
| Size: | 3 linear feet (6 boxes) |
| Repository: |
Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | The Barton Codex Manuscripts are bound materials compiled by William E. Barton, a pastor in Oak Park, Illinois, who published and lectured on Abraham Lincoln. The collection includes books, scrapbooks, pamphlets, published addresses, and periodicals. Of particular interest is the volume titled Lincoln and His Cabinet. These codex manuscripts form part of the William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana. |
This collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Lincoln Collection. Barton Codex Manuscripts, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
The Rev. William Eleazar Barton (1861-1930) was one of the early twentieth century's most prominent writers and lecturers on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Born in Sublette, Illinois, in the same year Lincoln assumed the presidency, Barton grew up in an environment heavily influenced by reverence for Lincoln. After pursuing undergraduate studies at Berea College in Kentucky, Barton earned his divinity degree from the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1890. He served parishes in Tennessee, Ohio, and Massachusetts before becoming the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Oak Park, Illinois, a position he held until his retirement in 1924. Four years later, Barton accepted an appointment as lecturer at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he also organized and served as pastor of the Collegeside Congregational Church.
Barton's work as a writer produced a number of denominational manuals and a series of books presenting the wisdom and parables of a character he named Safed the Sage. For the last ten years of his life, however, Barton was best known to the public as a prolific author and lecturer on Abraham Lincoln. His publications about Lincoln included The Soul of Abraham Lincoln (1920), The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln (1920), The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1925), The Great and Good Man (1927), The Women Lincoln Loved (1927), and The Lincoln of the Biographers (1930).
In the course of compiling material for his writings and talks, Barton visited Lincoln sites in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; interviewed surviving Lincoln relatives and acquaintances; and traveled as far as California and England to collect information and conduct genealogical research on the ancestry of the Lincoln family. While acquiring a large collection of books, periodicals, pamphlets, manuscripts, and ephemera related to Lincoln and the Civil War era, Barton also purchased privately or at auction historical materials amassed by other Lincoln collectors such as John E. Burton and Osborn H. Oldroyd.
The Barton Codex Manuscripts is made up of bound materials compiled by William E. Barton, a pastor in Oak Park, Illinois, who published and lectured on Abraham Lincoln extensively. Barton also maintained connections with fellow Lincoln experts and carried out multiple research projects that delved into the many facets of Lincoln's life, times, and family history. This collection divided into three separate series: books, scrapbooks, and lastly, pamphlets, published addresses, and periodicals. Of particular interest is the volume titled Lincoln and His Cabinet. These codex manuscripts form part of the William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana.
The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/select.html
Series I: Books |
| Volume 1 | Lincoln and His Cabinet - Collection of photographs, autographs, and manuscripts of Lincoln and members in his cabinet, 1861-1865 |
| Box 1 Folder 1 | The Abraham Lincoln Association. Lincoln in the Year 1855: Being the Day-by-Day Activities of Abraham Lincoln During that Year, The Abraham Lincoln Association, 1929 |
| Box 1 Folder 2 | The Abraham Lincoln Association. Lincoln in the Year 1856: Being the Day-by-Day Activities of Abraham Lincoln During that Year, The Abraham Lincoln Association, 1929 |
| Box 1 Folder 3 | The Abraham Lincoln Association. Lincoln in the Year 1858: Being the Day-by-Day Activities of Abraham Lincoln During that Year, The Abraham Lincoln Association, 1929 |
| Box 1 Folder 4 | The Abraham Lincoln Association. Lincoln in the Year 1859: Being the Day-by-Day Activities of Abraham Lincoln During that Year, The Abraham Lincoln Association, 1929 |
| Box 1 Folder 5 | The Abraham Lincoln Association. Lincoln in the Year 1860: Being the Day-by-Day Activities of Abraham Lincoln During that Year, The Abraham Lincoln Association, 1929 |
| Box 1 Folder 6 | Barton, William E. Esther T. Barton: A Biographical Sketch. Foxboro, Mass.: Pine Knoll, 1926 |
| Box 1 Folder 7 | Barton, William E. Lieutenant William Barton of Morris County, New Jersey, and his Descendants. Oak Park, Ill.: Vaile Press, 1900 |
| Box 1 Folder 8 | Barton, William E. The Women Lincoln Loved, printer's dummy, autographed copy, Bobbs-Merrill, 1927 |
| Box 2 Folder 1 | Barton, William E., Theodore G. Soares, and Sidney Strong. Su Ultima Semana: La Historia de la Pasion y Resurrection de Jesus, Chihuahua: Imprenta Palmore, 1921 |
| Box 2 Folder 2 | Hale, Edward E. Seven Spanish Cities. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883 |
| Box 2 Folder 3 | MacDonald, Edward. Old Capp's Hill and Burial Ground with Historical Sketches, Industrial School Press |
| Box 2 Folder 4 | Smith, T.V. Lincoln, Living Legend, The University of Chicago Press, 1940 |
| Box 2 Folder 5 | Order for Evening Worship, Boston: F. H. Gilson Company, 1892. notes and news-clippings tipped in, 1911-1928 |
Series II: Scrapbooks |
The majority of Barton's scrapbooks consist of published texts into which he pasted folded newspaper clippings, prints, and notes. For additional scrapbooks see Lincoln Collection. Barton Scrapbooks.
| Box 2 Folder 6 |
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| Box 2 Folder 7 | Untitled scrapbook filled with hand-written notes, an excerpt from John Wilkes Booth's diary, prints, and photocopied manuscripts, 1865-1925 |
| Box 2 Folder 8 | Set of clippings titled "Recollections of Lincoln," 1866-1904 |
| Box 3 Folder 1 | Press notices of sermons and addresses by William E. Barton, news-clippings and notes tipped in, 1894-1907 |
| Box 3 Folder 2 | Catalogue of relics owned by William E. Barton and Esther T. Barton, his wife, in William Barton's hand, which also contains a reprint of Barton's "Quest of an Ancestor" from The New England Magazine, 1898 |
| Box 3 Folder 3 | Ledger of church finances containing notes and financial correspondence, 1903-1915 |
| Box 4 Folder 1 | Addresses and articles on ministry, containing correspondence, reprints, and news-clippings, 1911-1928 |
| Box 4 Folder 2 | Addresses and articles on the fine arts, mostly reviews (by Barton and others) of painters and paintings, from The Advance, 1913-1914 |
| Box 4 Folder 3 | Set of news-clippings and reprints from Barton's column "The Wonder of Music," 1913-1914 |
| Box 5 Folder 1 | Addresses and articles on education, containing interleaved notes, articles, and reprints (some not by Barton), 1913-1926 |
| Box 5 Folder 2 | Church programs and bulletins from Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, 1914-1923 |
| Box 5 Folder 3 | Sermon notes and outlines (of Barton's), contains news-clippings, 1915 |
| Box 5 Folder 4 | Notes and news-clippings in volume titled "Annual Handbook, Central Congregational Church," 1915 |
| Box 5 Folder 5 | Calendar, contains interleaved notes and news-clippings, 1917 |
| Box 6 Folder 1 | Set of news-clippings from Barton's column "The Making of the New Testament," 1915-1917 |
| Box 6 Folder 2 | Collection of Lincoln letters and articles written by Nathaniel Howard from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1924 |
| Box 6 Folder 3 | Several Lincoln autographs folded into pages of extant text, n.d. |
Series III: Pamphlets, Published Addresses, and Periodicals |
| Box 6 Folder 4 | Barton, William E. "Message to a Young Man," published address delivered at the forty-third anniversary of the Boston YMCA, 1894 |
| Box 6 Folder 5 |
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