Events
Every February, Springfield, Illinois, remembers Abraham Lincoln. It has done so for more than a century, and the Abraham Lincoln Association has been at the center of that remembrance since 1908. Our Annual Abraham Lincoln Association Banquet — held each year near February 12, the anniversary of Lincoln’s birth — is the Association’s signature event and one of the longest-running scholarly traditions in American history. It draws Lincoln enthusiasts, historians, students, and public figures from across the country to the city Lincoln called home for nearly a quarter century.
The celebration unfolds over two days. The Birthday Banquet, typically held the evening of February 12, brings together members and guests for an evening of fellowship and inspiration, anchored by a keynote address from one of the nation’s leading Lincoln scholars. The following day, the Benjamin P. Thomas Memorial Symposium carries that spirit with lectures, conversations, and debates that push our understanding of Lincoln’s life, his times, and his meaning for our own. The Thomas F. Schwartz Luncheon, held at midday during the symposium, has become a cherished tradition in its own right — an intimate gathering where scholars think out loud together and the audience gets to listen in.
These February events are the heart of what we do. But they are not all we do. Throughout the year, the ALA hosts additional symposia, lectures, and public programs that bring Lincoln scholarship to wider audiences and explore the enduring questions his life raises. Our summer symposia have examined everything from Lincoln’s Indiana years to his constitutional legacy, gathering scholars and enthusiasts in settings that invite the kind of unhurried, wide-ranging conversation that a single February weekend cannot always accommodate.
Below you will find a record of our past February banquets and symposia. We invite you to explore them, watch the videos, and join us at a future event. Lincoln repays the attention. He always has.
2026 Banquet and Symposium
2025 Banquet and Symposium
2025 Banquet and Symposium
Featured banquet speaker was award winning historian Nigel Hamilton. Watch Nigel’s presentation here. Symposium presentations by James H. Read, Gordon Leidner, Elizabeth Leonard, George C. Rable. Held on February 17-18, 2024.
February 19, 2023
Sidney Blumenthal
Prominent Journalist, Historian and Political Insider
June 19, 2022
Presidential Historian and Pulitzer Prize Winning Author
February 12, 2021
Editor of the National Review
February 12, 2020
Ray LaHood
Chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Board of Directors
February 12, 2019
Author and Television Journalist
February 12, 2018
Oxford University
February 12, 2017
Bruce Rauner
Governor of Illinois
February 12, 2016
Director of the King Center
February 12, 2015
Presenting Frederick Douglass
February 12, 2014
Thomas Schwartz
Director, Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
February 12, 2013
Author, Professor University of Arizona
February 12, 2012
United States Senator
February 11, 2011
Allen C. Guelzo
Author, Professor Gettysburg College
February 12, 2010
Author
February 12, 2009
President of the United States of America
Author, Professor, University of Illinois Springfield
February 12, 2006
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Author
February 12, 2007
Author, Editor, Newsweek
February 12, 2008
Michael Beschloss
Author
February 12, 2003
Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
February 12, 2004
Professor, University of Chicago
February 12, 2005
Mark A. Plummer
Professor, Illinois State University
February 12, 2002
Allen C. Guelzo
Professor of History, Eastern College
February 12, 2001
Author
February 12, 2000
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Author
February 12, 1999
James B. Stewart
Author
February 12, 1998
Editor, U.S. News and World Report
February 12, 1997
Paul Simon
United States Senator from Illinois
Lincoln and Lovejoy
February 12, 1996
Some Folks
19th Century musical entertainment of the Lincoln period
February 12, 1995
CEO, C-SPAN
February 12, 1994
Sam Waterston
Actor
February 12, 1993
Garry Wills
Historian, Northwestern University
Lincoln and Leadership
February 12, 1992
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
February 12, 1991
Tom Wicker
Journalist, New York Times
February 12, 1990
Mortimer Jerome Adler
Philosopher, University of Chicago
Lincoln’s Declaration
February 12, 1989
United States Senator from Illinois
February 12, 1988
Entertainment, no speaker
February 12, 1987
James R. Thompson
Governor of Illinois
Lincoln and the Young Men’s Lyceum Address 150 Years Later
February 12, 1986
Governor of New York
Abraham Lincoln and Our ‘Unfinished Work
February 12, 1985
John Hope Franklin
Professor of History, University of Illinois, Chicago
The Use and Misuse of the Lincoln Legacy
February 12, 1984
Mark O. Hatfield
United States Senator from Oregon
The Oregon Connection of Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1983
Columnist, New York Times
Lincoln’s Pundits: If Today’s Columnists Were Writing in Lincoln’s Time
February 12, 1982
Don E. Fehrenbacher
Professor of History, Stanford University
The Anti-Lincoln Tradition
(Delivered on audio tape)
February 12, 1981
William Hedgcock Webster
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
February 12, 1980
United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare
Lincoln and Civil Rights for Blacks
February 12, 1979
William Hedgcock Webster
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
February 12, 1978
Harold M. Hyman
Professor of History, Rice University
With Malice Toward Some: Scholarship or Something Less on the Lincoln Murder?
February 12, 1977
Library of Congress
President Lincoln Helps His Old Friends
February 12, 1976
Francis Aungier Pakenham
Earl of Longford (British MP)
Lincoln and Kennedy
February 12, 1975
Herbert Mitgang
Editor, New York Times
The Character of Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1974
Earlham College
The Spiritual Pilgrimage of Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1973
Irving Stone
Author
Mary Lincoln-The Final Judgment
February 12, 1972
T. Harry Williams
Professor of History, Louisiana State University
Lincoln and Davis as War Leaders
February 11, 1971
United States Representative from Colorado
Lincoln’s Life and Character
February 12, 1970
Bruce Catton
Author
The Inescapable Challenge Lincoln Left Us
February 12, 1969
Nelson A. Rockefeller
Governor of New York
February 12, 1968
United States Attorney General
February 12, 1967
Everett M. Dirksen
United States Senator from Illinois
Lincoln Had A Cause
February 12, 1966
William W. Scranton
Governor of Pennsylvania
Lincoln of Springfield
February 12, 1965
Director of Community Service, United States Department of Commerce
If Lincoln Could Have Talked That Day
February 12, 1964
Adlai E. Stevenson
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
February 12, 1952
Allan Nevins
Columbia University
Part of the National Wealth
T. V. Smith
Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Lincoln: Public and Private
Adlai E. Stevenson
Governor of Illinois
Lincoln as a Political Leader
February 12, 1951
Professor of History, University of Illinois
Lincoln and the Governance of Men
February 13, 1950
David C. Mearns
Assistant Librarian of Congress
Our Reluctant Contemporary: Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1949
Dumas Malone
Professor of History, Columbia University
Jefferson and Lincoln
February 12, 1948
Lincoln’s Legacy to Grant
February 12, 1947
Avery O. Craven
Professor of History, University of Chicago
The Civil War and the Democratic Process
February 12, 1946
Edgar Curtis Taylor
Headmaster, Taylor School, Clayton, Missouri
Lincoln the Internationalist
February 12, 1945
Librarian, Newberry Library, Chicago Illinois
Lincoln’s Political Philosophy
February 12, 1944
D. Graham Hutton
Director, British Information Services, Chicago
Lincoln Through British Eyes
February 12, 1943
Benjamin P. Thomas
Harry E. Pratt, and Paul M. Angle, Abraham Lincoln Association: Past, Present, Future
February 12, 1942
Editorial writer, Boston Herald
Lincoln’s ‘Conquest’ of New England
February 12, 1941
Charles W. Gilkey
Dean, University of Chicago Chapel
Lincoln’s Philosophy of Life
February 12, 1940
William Allen White
Editor, Emporia Gazette
We Are Coming Father Abraham!
February 11, 1939
James Weber Linn
Professor of English, University of Chicago
Such Were His Words
J.V. Moldedhawer
Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, New York
The Lincoln of the Second Inaugural
February 12, 1938
John McAuley Palmer
Brig. Gen. United States Army, Retired
Abraham Lincoln
Evan A. Evans
United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Chicago
‘Let Us Have Faith That Right Makes Might’
February 12, 1937
Harold C. Jaquith
President, Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois
The Persistent Personality of Lincoln
Charles Nagel
St. Louis, Missouri
My Recollections of Lincoln
February 12,1936
Andrew C. McLaughlin
Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago
Lincoln, the Constitution and Democracy
T.V. Smith
Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago
A Philosopher Looks at Lincoln
February 12, 1935
Tyler Dennet
President, Williams College, Massachusetts
Lincoln and the Campaign of 1864
Benjamin P. Thomas
Executive Secretary, Abraham Lincoln Association
Lincoln’s Humor: An Analysis
February 12, 1934
Frederic L. Paxson
Professor of History, University of California
The Promise of the First Republican Administration: Abraham Lincoln, 1860
February 13, 1933
Rector St. James’ Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Spiritual Life of Lincoln: An Interpretation
February 12, 1932
John Maxcy Zane
Lincoln, the Constitutional Lawyer
Louis A. Warren
Lincoln National Life Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana
The Environs of Lincoln’s Youth
February 12, 1931
Carl Sandburg
Lincoln’s Genius of Places
Henry Horner
Judge, Probate Court, Cook County, Illinois
The Universality of Lincoln
February 12,1930
John Callan O’Laughlin
Editor-in-Chief, Copley Press, Washington, D.C.
Lincoln and the Press (read by A.W. Shipton of the Illinois State Journal)
Allan Nevins
Professor of History, Columbia University
Lincoln’s Plans for Reunion
February 12, 1929
Mary E. Humphrey
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield of the Lincolns
Claude G. Bowers
Editorial writer, New York Evening World
Lincoln and Douglas
February 12, 1928
Paul M. Angle
Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association
Abraham Lincoln: Circuit Lawyer
Arthur Charles Cole
Professor of History, University of Wisconsin
Abraham Lincoln and the South
February 12, 1927
Paul M. Angle
Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association
Where Lincoln Practiced Law
William E. Dodd
Professor of History, University of Chicago
Lincoln’s Last Struggle–Victor
February 12, 1926
Paul M. Angle
Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association
The Building of the Lincoln Monument
Michael Pupin
Professor of Electro-Mechanics, Columbia University
The Revelation of Lincoln to a Serbian Immigrant
February 12, 1925
A. L. Bowen
A. Lincoln: His House
John H. Finley
Editor, New York Times
The Education of Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1924
Henry A. Converse
The House of the House Divided
Andrew C. McLaughlin
Professor of History, University of Chicago
Lincoln as a World Figure
February 12, 1923
Brig. Gen. Ronald Storrs
British Civil Governor of Jerusalem
The Esteem in Which Lincoln is Held in the Near East
John H. Walker
President, Illinois State Federation of Labor
Lincoln, Friend of the Common People
Frank O. Lowden
formerly Governor of Illinois
Lincoln, the American
1922 No meeting or banquet held
February 12, 1921
William C. Sproul
Governor of Pennsylvania
Lincoln and the Present World Outlook
Don Frederico A. Pezet
Peruvian Ambassador to the United States
Lincoln as Viewed by Latin America Today
February 12, 1919
Clinton L. Conkling
Lincoln in His Home Town
February 12, 1918
William Renwick Riddell
Justice, Supreme Court of Ontario
Abraham Lincoln
Thomas Power O’Connor
Member of Parliament from Ireland
Addison G. Proctor
Youngest Delegate to the Republican Convention of 1860 of Kansas
The Nomination of Lincoln
Hugh S. Magill, Jr.
Director, Illinois Centennial Celebration
February 12, 1917
John Grier Hibben
President, Princeton University
The Spirit of Lincoln in the Present World Crisis
Thomas Sterling
United States Senator from South Dakota
Lincoln, the Man and His Great Achievement
February 12, 1916
James Hamilton Lewis
United States Senator from Illinois
Lincoln: The Fulfillment of Prophecy
Lawrence Y. Sherman
United States Senator from Illinois
Lincoln and the Commonplace
William A. Quayle
Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church
Lincoln and Tomorrow
February 12, 1915
Archbishop Glennon
Abraham Lincoln the Man and the Democrat
Gutzon Borglum
Sculptor, New York
The Beauty of Lincoln and His Place in Art
Samuel Fallows
Bishop, Reformed Episcopal Church; Department Commander, Illinois Grand Army of the Republic
Lincoln the Height of America
February 12, 1914
Joseph T. Robinson
United States Senator from Arkansas
Mr. Lincoln’s Title to Enduring Fame. A Tribute from the South
Percival G. Rennick
Peoria, Illinois
Lincoln: The Kindliest Memory of the Land
Dr. Stephen S. Wise,
Lincoln: Man and American
February 12, 1913
Count J. Von Bernstorff
German Ambassador to the United States
Lincoln as Germany Regarded Him
Joseph W. Bailey
United State Senator from Texas
If Lincoln Lived in This Day
February 12, 1912
Henry Cabot Lodge
United States Senator from Massachusetts
Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution
Frank B. Willis
United States Representative from Ohio
Abraham Lincoln: The Man
February 11, 1911
William Howard Taft
President of United States
Abraham Lincoln
Martin W. Littleton
The Two Great Leaders
February 12, 1910
Booker T. Washington
Tuskegee Institute
Some Results of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
February 12, 1909
J. J. Jusserand
French Ambassador to the United States
Abraham Lincoln as France Regarded Him
William Jennings Bryan
The Royal Art of Government
James Bryce
British Ambassador to the United States
Some Reflections on the Character and Career of Mr. Lincoln
Jonathan P. Dolliver
United State Senator from Iowa
Our Heroic Age