Quote: The Papers of Abraham Lincoln project is putting together a fascinating book that will be available to visitors at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum during 150th anniversary observances of the Gettysburg Address.

The collection includes 24 letters to President Lincoln and two of his own written from the end of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, to Nov. 19, 1863, when he delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Appropriately titled “On Lincoln’s Mind,” the letters cover a variety of issues that were brought to the president’s attention during the months leading to his famous speech.

About a quarter of the letters included are familiar to scholars of the period, said Daniel Stowell, but many are new discoveries including the two letters penned by Lincoln.

“They all add up to something but they are all self-contained stories,” said Stowell, director of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln.

You’ll get a preview of “On Lincoln’s Mind” each Thursday on this page, as we present one letter per week for 10 weeks leading to the Gettysburg Anniversary ceremonies....