Discover the global events and personal stories of March

The Beginning of the Peace Corps

When President Kennedy famously challenged Americans “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”, thousands of young Americans responded by signing up for the Peace Corps – established just six weeks into his presidency, on March 1, 1961, by executive order.

A Rare Abraham Lincoln Quote from Shakespeare’s Othello

On His Penultimate Day in Office, President Ulysses S. Grant Announces His Intention to Travel the Globe

On His Penultimate Day in Office, President James Buchanan Pardons a Judge

Abraham Lincoln: A December 8 Oath of Allegiance

Millard Fillmore on Civil War: Abolitionists Pervert Cause and Lincoln Tempts Tyranny

On His Last Day in Office, the Bibliophilic Millard Fillmore Sends Thanks for a Book

On His Last Day In Office, James Monroe Writes His Bank, Trying To Make Sense Of His Account

In Refusing a Parole, Lincoln Notes That Federal Prisoners Are Being “Frozen and Starved” in Libby Prison

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: States’ Rights and Slavery

The manuscripts gathered here follow the course of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, from being ratified by President Franklin Pierce to Pierce defending it after his presidency. We also look back to Pierce’s presidential predecessor, Millard Fillmore, ruminating over an impending race war after reading Harriet Beecher-Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Also present in this collection is the reaction of Abraham Lincoln to the bill when he was still an Illinois circuit attorney.

Lincoln’s Last Days

A country divided, battered, exhausted – limping towards the end of the bloodiest war in American history. Abraham Lincoln, as often was the case during his presidency, is under threat. John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer is planning an attack with other conspirators that will change the course of the nation.

Roosevelt Advises Scapegoated Woodring On How To Handle Negative Press Following Pearl Harbor

At the behest of President Lincoln, General Grant Decline’s Lee’s Suggestion of Armistice Negotiations

Both Parties Deprecated War: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address Quote, In Autograph

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address Transcript & With Malice Toward None Quote in Autograph

Abraham Lincoln’s Inaugural Ball , 1861: Invitation Printed By, and Naming as a Ball Manager, Adolphus S. Solomons

President for a Day

Who is in charge, when the presidential term ends on noon on the Sunday, but the Oath isn’t taken, until Monday?

On the First Day of His Second Term, William McKinley Promotes a War Hero

Camille Pissarro’s Autographed Letter in Support of Emile Zola Amidst the Dreyfus Affair

Young Benjamin Harrison Writes President Lincoln About “Spoils” Due Indiana

Martin van Buren, Just Two Days Into James K. Polk’s Term, Prepares to Write His Political Antagonist

Beset By an Ally-Turned-Detractor, Theodor Herzl Says It’s a “Miracle” He Hasn’t Become an Antisemite

The Death and Funeral of Nancy Reagan

“Nancy sends her love,” – Ronald Reagan, miraculously surviving an assassination attempt, is optimistic about his recovery.

Former President Rutherford Hayes Expresses Satisfaction with Himself, His Successor, and John Sherman

Lincoln Requests a “Map or Two” For His Youngest Son, Tad

President William McKinley Writes to the Widow of His Vice President and Dear Friend, Mrs. Hobart

Einstein on the Holocaust: He Never Forgot, Never Forgave

One of Benjamin Harrison’s First Personal Checks as President

President Franklin Pierce Warmly Endorses the Kansas-Nebraska Act as “Demonstrably Right and Patriotic”

Jewish Confederate Hero Alexander Hart Grants Leave to Officers During a Brief Lull in the Civil War

Ulysses S. Grant Comments on the Refugees Who Have Fled to Constantinople

The Ultimate Presidential Rarity: An Autographed Letter of the Sick, Soon to Die, William Henry Harrison

Abraham Lincoln’s Appointment of Benjamin F. Isherwood, the Creator of the Steam Navy

Former President Theodore Roosevelt Writes About Taking Books on His Upcoming Safari to Africa

Former President Millard Fillmore: Abraham Lincoln’s Election Caused the War

Praising the United Jewish Appeal, FDR Mentions Suffering Brought on by the Nazis

President Gerald Ford Writes About His Admiration of Abraham Lincoln

President John F. Kennedy Recalls Happy Palm Beach Memories With an Old Irish Friend

Abraham Lincoln Suggests Suffrage for Some Louisiana Blacks: The “Very Intelligent” and Union Veterans

Check of Jewish-Owned Cochise County Bank in Tombstone Sends Money to and from Jewish Merchants

General Custer Wants Brother Who Would Die With Him at Little Bighorn Appointed a Second Lieutenant

Einstein On His Anti-Nazi Work: “Had Those Fellows” Listened, “These Horrors Would Not Have Existed”

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Looks Forward to Receiving Books on Judaism

Woodrow Wilson, on the Ninth Day of His Presidency, Signs a White House Card

Dr. Jacob Da Silva Solis Cohen Certifies the 1864 Death of a “Contraband” in Philadelphia

California Earthquakes: “The Spirit of Humanity” and Mark Twain

The shock of the earthquake which struck San Francisco on the morning of April 18, 1906 – leveling countless buildings, starting a fire that lasted three days, and taking hundreds of lives – was felt all across the country.

Albert Einstein Advises a Young Refugee From Germany, Then Controlled By What He Called “The Hitler Gang”

Former President Tyler Tells His Son He is Hard Pressed to Support His Family

Zachary Taylor Invites Relatives to the White House, Where He Will Die of “Too Many Cherries & Too Much Cold Milk”

Max Nordau Accepts Invitation to Contribute His “Literary Might” to a Book

President William Howard Taft Praises President Grover Cleveland To Mrs. Cleveland

Rare Letter of John Tyler as Vice President Recommending a Consul to Galveston, Texas

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Has Received Jewish Books and is Reading Them With “the Greatest of Interest.”

Former President Franklin Pierce Defends Himself Against Treason Charges Brought by William H. Seward

The 75th Commemoration of the Death of Orde Wingate

Hiding Two Deadly Illnesses, Franklin D. Roosevelt Dreams of a World Organization for Peace: The UN

Abraham Lincoln Biographer Ida Tarbell Praises Isaac Markens’s “Abraham Lincoln and the Jews”

Albert Einstein Tells Cyril Clemens He Consents to Having a Street Named After Him – But That’s All

Chief Justice William Howard Taft Comments on an Abraham Lincoln Address by Emanuel Hertz

Harry Truman Muses on Presidential Succession and Disability

Albert Einstein Renounces German Citizenship;”I Will Not Be Returning to Germany, Perhaps Never Again”