Description:

Eisenhower Dwight



Large 1p document signed by sitting 34th U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) as "Dwight D Eisenhower" at bottom right. Also signed by 52nd U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) as "John Foster Dulles" at bottom center. Signed in Washington, D.C. on November 29, 1957. Printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Bearing a 3.75" dia. presidential seal (lightly discolored) at bottom left. Certificate is toned verso, else near fine. Measures 23" x 19" overall.

 

In part:

 

"Dwight D. Eisenhower President of the United States of America, To all who shall see these presents, Greeting:

 

Know Ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the Integrity and Ability of William H. Townsend, of Kentucky, I do appoint him a Member of the Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission, and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfill the duties of that Office…"

 

The formation of the Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission was authorized by 85th U.S. Congress on September 2, 1957 as Public Law 85-262. The Commission had 33 members: 13 had been appointed by President Eisenhower (including Townsend); 7 had been appointed by the President of the Senate; 8 had been appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives; along with 3 ex officio and 2 statutory members. Formed in anticipation of Lincoln's upcoming 150th birthday (1809-1959), the Commission's principal aim was to raise public awareness of Lincoln's contributions to nineteenth- and twentieth-century American life. This would be accomplished by organizing public observances of Lincoln's birthday, and by cultivating the further study, research, and publication of Lincoln related works.

 

William H. Townsend (1890-1964) was one of the most significant Lincoln scholars of the twentieth century, and owner of the largest private collection of Lincolniana in the United States. By 1943, Townsend had amassed over 2,500 items, and upon his death, his collection was valued at over a half a million dollars in today's currency (the equivalent of $80,000 in 1964 dollars). Townsend's collection included autographed material, letters, books, photographs, engravings, oil portraits, three-dimensional art, and relics relating to Lincoln, as well as to his immediate family, business associates, and friends. Notable pieces from Townsend's collection included a linen bandage from Lincoln's deathbed; and a $5 check in Lincoln's hand rewarding Tad for taking his medicine during the winter of 1862!

 

Townsend was also the author of five Lincoln monographs, including Abraham Lincoln, Defendant (1923), Lincoln, the Litigant (1925), Lincoln and his Wife's Home Town (1929), Lincoln and Liquor (1934), and his most famous work, Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky (1955). A close friend of fellow Lincoln scholar and American poet Carl Sandburg, Townsend was the founder and first president of the Kentucky Civil War Round Table, as well as a trustee of Lincoln Memorial University (Harrogate, Tennessee.)

 


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