Knox College Lincoln Scholars Receive Awards

The co-directors of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College have been honored with two national award for their significant achievements in research on Abraham Lincoln.

In March, Rodney Davis and Douglas Wilson received the inaugural Legacy Award from the Abraham Lincoln Institute. And in April they received a Special Achievement Award from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

"Professor Douglas Wilson and Professor Rodney Davis have proven themselves indispensable to the great cause of Lincoln studies," said Lewis E. Lehrman, co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, at the award ceremony on April 19 in New York City.

Lehrman cited Davis and Wilson's "remarkable trilogy" of works on Abraham Lincoln and his long-time law partner and biographer William Herndon. The books include Herndon's Informants, winner of the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award; Herndon's Lincoln, which restored the original text of Herndon's 1889 biography of Lincoln; and their most recent, Herndon on Lincoln, an edited collection of letters written by Herndon that reveal much about Lincoln that was omitted from Herndon's biography.

The books by Davis and Wilson, who co-founded the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in 1997, "have become invaluable to Lincoln scholars," said Michelle Krowl, president of the Abraham Lincoln Association, at the award ceremony in March in Washington, D.C., broadcast live on C-SPAN.

Works cited by the Association in the award include the first-ever scholarly edition of the texts of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and their editing of several books on Lincoln based on materials gathered by Lincoln's long-time law partner, William Herndon.

"The volumes focused on Herndon and Lincoln have earned Wilson and Davis the everlasting gratitude of Lincoln scholars worldwide," Krowl said.

Their books are "thoroughly researched, meticulously annotated, and worth their weight in gold to students of Abraham Lincoln in accessing [a] priceless collection of primary source material," Krowl said.

"Our nearly 30-year venture in Lincoln Studies has taken us on a marvelous scholarly escapade," Wilson said at the ceremony, accepting the award on behalf of himself and Davis. "We consider ourselves lucky indeed to have committed our energies to the Lincoln field at a time of real resurgence, when new ideas were being offered, previous discredited views were being reconsidered, and new voices were being heard."

Davis and Wilson are currently working on the final book in their series dealing with Herndon and Lincoln—a second volume of letters that Herndon wrote about Lincoln.

Wilson and Davis also served as the supervising editors for the transcription and annotation of the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Their work made it possible for scholars, as well as the general public, to read and search thousands of Lincoln-related documents via the Library of Congress website. In addition, the full text of Herndon's Informants is available free on-line via the University of Illinois Press website. 

A widely recognized scholar of Illinois history, Davis is the Szold Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History. He taught history at Knox from 1963 until 1997. Wilson is the George Appleton Lawrence Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English. He taught English at Knox from 1961 until 1997, and also served as director of libraries. Wilson has written extensively on Thomas Jefferson and has served as Saunders Director of the International Center for Jefferson Studies in Monticello.

Among their many honors, Davis and Wilson have received the Order of Lincoln award from The Lincoln Academy of Illinois. They also have consulted on numerous films and television programs on Lincoln, from historical documentaries to Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and the fantasy-horror film Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

Below, Rodney Davis, Douglas Wilson, work in their office.