Making history come alive for future teachers
Lydia Smith
The project received extensive media attention. Here are links to a sample of the coverage:
2/10/09
A student at Miami University has discovered what experts say is a fingerprint belonging to Abraham Lincoln from nearly 150 years ago.
Lydia Smith, a first-year student from Granville, Ohio, was transcribing a letter written by Lincoln on Oct. 5, 1863, when she noticed a smudge that she suspected could be Lincoln's thumbprint.
“Real kids and real learning, exciting stuff,” commented Tom Kopp, a faculty member in teacher education. He and Betsy Butler, an archivist in King Library Specials Collection, designed and launched the collaborative project that led to the fingerprint discovery. The goal of the project is to demonstrate to students the value of learning and teaching from first-hand historic sources.
A total of 25 student volunteers, most of them education majors, were trained to transcribe historic letters in Miami’s special collections in a project funded by the School of Education, Health and Society.
“We are overwhelmed with their enthusiasm and dedication,” said Kopp. “I have never seen young people so in touch with history or the history of this institution. They speak of Miamians from the 1800s as if they knew them.”
The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, a project of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, reviewed and confirmed the print, making it the second rare fingerprint of the 16th president housed at Miami’s libraries.
The collection at Miami includes the first authenticated fingerprint of Lincoln with a signature known to historians since it was first verified in 1957. Lydia Smith's discovery of the second fingerprint has historians taking notice.
“Miami’s collection includes the first certified document that provides a critical comparison for us," said John A. Lupton, associate director of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project. “I have seen a number of fingerprints that I assumed to be Lincoln’s, but never more than one in one repository. The fact that Miami has two makes it fascinating.”
The 1863 letter was among hundreds of miscellaneous letters stored in Miami’s Walter Havighurst Special Collections section of King Library and uncovered this fall. With this find, the university now owns four Lincoln letters, all of which are part of a larger collection of Lincoln-related items donated to Miami in 1967 by alumnus William A. Hammond (’14) who had spent 30 years collecting Lincoln-related items.
Both Lincoln and Miami University are celebrating their 200th birthdays this month. Miami, founded in 1809, celebrates its charter day on Feb. 17. It is the 10th oldest public university in the nation.
The transcription project was funded by a grant from the School of Education, Health and Society.