Carthage College Lincoln Connection

The nation is celebrating the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth this year. Wisconsin has a number of connections to Abraham Lincoln including those of Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Carthage College was founded in 1847 as the Literary and Theological Institute of the Lutheran Church of the Far West.  After a series of name changes it became Carthage College when it moved to Carthage, Illinois in 1870. It relocated to Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1962. Abraham Lincoln served as a Trustee of the College in 1860-61 and sent his oldest son Robert Todd to the Preparatory Department of the College when the college was located in Springfiled, Illinois. The special envelope above was created when the "A Nation of Readers" stamp was issued in October of 1984. 

A high point in the recent history of the college was the dedication of the Hedberg Library on October 18, 2002. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington gave the dedicatory address. The Hedberg Library at Carthage College was the 2004 Wisconsin Library Association Library of the Year.