Abraham Lincoln 216th Birthday Event: Symposium & Banquet

Abraham Lincoln Portrait

February 15, 2025

The Abraham Lincoln Association celebrates the 216th anniversary of the birth of our 16th president.

The Banquet speaker will be Professor Michael Burlingame, former ALA president and the foremost living scholar of Lincoln.

The Banquet takes place at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 15, 2025, at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel in downtown Springfield. You can reserve rooms here.

The annual Benjamin P. Thomas Symposium starts the day at 10:00 a.m. with four scholar-writers with new insights on Lincoln and the Civil War Era.

Registration for the banquet is $100 per person. Attendance at the all day symposium is free but registration for the lunch is required at $45 per person. Both can be purchased via the button below.

Registration deadline for both is February 5, 2025.
2025 Banquet Keynote Speaker
Michael Burlingame

Michael Burlingame

“Adventures and Misadventures of a Lincoln Scholar”
Michael Burlingame: Abraham Lincoln, A Life
Symposium Schedule

Coffee & Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.

The cost of the luncheon is $45

Tim Good — 10:00 a.m.

Ted McClelland — 10:45 a.m.

Luncheon — 11:30 a.m.

Jon White and William Griffing — 12:00 p.m.

Kate Masur — 1:15 p.m.

Roundtable of all speakers, with Professor Michael Burlingame — 2:15 p.m.

Book-Signing — 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
2025 Lincoln Symposium Speakers
Tim Good
Tim Good: The Lincoln Douglas Debates

Tim Good

“Lincoln and Lynching”

Ted McClelland
Ted McClelland: Chorus of the Union

Ted McClelland

“‘Protect the Flag’: Stephen Douglas’s Greatest Speech”
Jon White
William Griffing
Jon White and William Griffing: A Great and Good Man

Jon White and William Griffing​

“Rediscovering the Great and Good Man: Unearthing New Sources about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.”

Kate Masur
Kate Masur: Until Justice Be Done

Kate Masur

“America’s First Civil Rights Movement: Fighting the Midwestern Black Laws of Lincoln’s Era.”