"Westchester residents interested in the county’s rich history now have another location to learn and go back in time to when one of our greatest presidents made his only stop in the area.

In 1849, the Hudson River Railroad finally reached Peekskill. On Feb. 11, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln left Springfield, Ill., and arrived in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 23 for his inauguration as president of the United States. Prior to that, he made a brief stop in Peekskill on Feb. 19, at the invitation of one of Peekskill’s most prominent citizens, William Nelson, a local lawyer and former congressman who served with Lincoln."

Read more here.
https://yonkerstimes.com/lincoln-depot-m...-for-2019/

Thanks for posting, Anita. I checked the Collected Works to see if Lincoln's words at Peekskill were recorded, and here is what I found:


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I have but a moment to stand before you to listen to and return your kind greeting. I thank you for this reception and for the pleasant manner in which it is tendered to me by our mutual friends. I will say in a single sentence, in regard to the difficulties that lie before me and our beloved country, that if I can only be as generously and unanimously sustained as the demonstrations I have witnessed indicate I shall be, I shall not fail; but without your sustaining hands I am sure that neither I nor any other man can hope to surmount those difficulties. I trust that in the course I shall pursue I shall be sustained, not only by the party that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the whole country.

Annotation

[1] New York Herald, February 20, 1861. The New York Tribune version differs verbally, but is substantially the same.

(05-12-2019 03:16 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Thanks for posting, Anita. I checked the Collected Works to see if Lincoln's words at Peekskill were recorded, and here is what I found:


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I have but a moment to stand before you to listen to and return your kind greeting. I thank you for this reception and for the pleasant manner in which it is tendered to me by our mutual friends. I will say in a single sentence, in regard to the difficulties that lie before me and our beloved country, that if I can only be as generously and unanimously sustained as the demonstrations I have witnessed indicate I shall be, I shall not fail; but without your sustaining hands I am sure that neither I nor any other man can hope to surmount those difficulties. I trust that in the course I shall pursue I shall be sustained, not only by the party that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the whole country.

Annotation

[1] New York Herald, February 20, 1861. The New York Tribune version differs verbally, but is substantially the same.

"I will say in a single sentence, in regard to the difficulties that lie before me and our beloved country, that if I can only be as generously and unanimously sustained as the demonstrations I have witnessed indicate I shall be, I shall not fail; but without your sustaining hands I am sure that neither I nor any other man can hope to surmount those difficulties. I trust that in the course I shall pursue I shall be sustained, not only by the party that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the whole country."

My friend was visiting me yesterday. She noted that she preferred the photo that I had of Lincoln (showing Lincoln shortly after arriving in Washington) sitting at a table with his top hat placed upside down on the same table. It shows Lincoln quite possibly in contemplation of the ominous situation that he faced with seven states having already seceded from the Union. And, of course, the photograph was taken shortly after his favorable, brief visit with the citizens of Peekskill, New York.

I told her that I preferred another photo that I also had of Lincoln on display. It was the portrait of Abraham Lincoln, taken on November 8, 1863, eleven days before his famed Gettysburg Address, and considered by many (myself included) to be the best photograph of him ever taken. Alexander Gardner’s close-up portrait, in contrast to the typical full-length portrait style, comes closest in my opinion and that of others, to preserving Lincoln’s expressive face and his penetrating gaze after two and a half years of President Lincoln's experiences with the Civil War.

After reading this Peekskill post, I gained a higher opinion of the earlier photograph of President Lincoln.

Has anyone been to the museum since it opened?