Past Banquet Speakers
February 12, 2017
Bruce Rauner, Governor of Illinois
February 12, 2016
Dr. Bernice King, Director of the King Center
February 12, 2015
Fred Morsell, Presenting Frederick Douglass
February 12, 2014
Thomas Schwartz, Director, Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
February 12, 2013
Brooks D. Simpson, Author, Professor University of Arizona
February 12, 2012
United States Senator Richard Durbin
February 11, 2011
Allen Guelzo, Author, Professor Gettysburg College
February 12, 2010
Harold Holzer, Author
February 12, 2009
President Barack Obama
Michael Burlingame, Author, Professor, University of Illinois Springfield
February 12, 2008
Michael Beschloss, Author
February 12, 2007
John Meacham, Author, Editor, Newsweek
February 12, 2006
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Author
February 12, 2005
Mark A. Plummer, Professor, Illinois State University
February 12, 2004
Martin Marty, Professor, University of Chicago
February 12, 2003
Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
February 12, 2002
Allen C. Guelzo, Grace Kea Professor of History, Eastern College
February 12, 2001
Michael Beschloss, Author
February 12, 2000
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Author
February 12, 1999
James B. Stewart, Author
February 12, 1998
James Fallows, Editor, U.S. News and World Report
February 12, 1997
Paul Simon, United States Senator from Illinois (in place of Herbert Mitgang), Lincoln and Lovejoy
February 12, 1996
Some Folks, 19th Century musical entertainment of the Lincoln period
February 12, 1995
Brian Lamb, CEO, C-SPAN (in place of Jason Robards)
February 12, 1994
Sam Waterston, Actor (in place of Frank E. Vandiver)
February 12, 1993
Garry Wills, Historian, Northwestern University, Lincoln and Leadership
February 12, 1992
Jack Kemp, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
February 12, 1991
Tom Wicker, Journalist, New York Times
February 12, 1990
Mortimer Jerome Adler, Philosopher, University of Chicago, Lincoln’s Declaration
February 12, 1989
Paul Simon, United States Senator from Illinois (in place of Bill Mauldin, Cartoonist)
February 12, 1988 Entertainment, no speaker
February 12, 1987
James R. Thompson, Governor of Illinois, Lincoln and the Young Men’s Lyceum Address 150 Years Later
February 12, 1986
Mario M. Cuomo, Governor of New York, Abraham Lincoln and Our ‘Unfinished Work’
February 12, 1985
John Hope Franklin, Professor of History, University of Illinois, Chicago, The Use and Misuse of the Lincoln Legacy
February 12, 1984
Mark O. Hatfield (United States Senator from Oregon, The Oregon Connection of Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1983
William Safire, Columnist, New York Times, Lincoln’s Pundits: If Today’s Columnists Were Writing in Lincoln’s Time
February 12, 1982
(Delivered on audio tape) Don E. Fehrenbacher, Professor of History, Stanford University, The Anti-Lincoln Tradition
February 12, 1981 Entertainment, no speaker
February 12, 1980
Mary Frances Berry, United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Lincoln and Civil Rights for Blacks
February 12, 1979
William Hedgcock Webster, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
February 12, 1978
Harold M. Hyman, Professor of History, Rice University, With Malice Toward Some: Scholarship or Something Less on the Lincoln Murder?
February 12, 1977
Roy P. Basler, Library of Congress, "President Lincoln Helps His Old Friends
February 12, 1976
Francis Aungier Pakenham, Earl of Longford (British MP), Lincoln and Kennedy
February 12, 1975
Herbert Mitgang, Editor, New York Times, The Character of Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1974
D. Elton Trueblood, Earlham College, The Spiritual Pilgrimage of Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1973
Irving Stone, Author, Mary Lincoln--The Final Judgment
February 12, 1972
T. Harry Williams, Professor of History, Louisiana State University, Lincoln and Davis as War Leaders
February 11, 1971
Wayne Aspinwall, United States Representative from Colorado, Lincoln’s Life and Character
February 12, 1970
Bruce Catton, Author, The Inescapable Challenge Lincoln Left Us
February 12, 1969
Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New York
February 12, 1968
Ramsey Clark, United States Attorney General
February 12, 1967
Everett M. Dirksen, United States Senator from Illinois, Lincoln Had A Cause
February 12, 1966
William W. Scranton, Governor of Pennsylvania, Lincoln of Springfield
February 12, 1965
LeRoy Collins, Director of Community Service, United States Department of Commerce, If Lincoln Could Have Talked That Day
February 12, 1964
Adlai E. Stevenson, United States Ambassador to the United Nations
1953-1963 No banquets held
February 12, 1952
Allan Nevins, Columbia University, Part of the National Wealth
T. V. Smith (Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Lincoln: Public and Private
Adlai E. Stevenson, Governor, State of Illinois, Lincoln as a Political Leader
February 12, 1951
James Garfield Randall, Professor of History, University of Illinois, Lincoln and the Governance of Men
February 13, 1950
David C. Mearns, Assistant Librarian of Congress, Our Reluctant Contemporary: Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1949
Dumas Malone, Professor of History, Columbia University, Jefferson and Lincoln
February 12, 1948
Lloyd Lewis, Chicago, Lincoln’s Legacy to Grant
February 12, 1947
Avery O. Craven, Professor of History, University of Chicago, The Civil War and the Democratic Process
February 12, 1946
Edgar Curtis Taylor, Headmaster, Taylor School, Clayton, Missouri, Lincoln the Internationalist
February 12, 1945
Stanley Pargellis, Librarian, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, Lincoln’s Political Philosophy
February 12, 1944
D. Graham Hutton, Director, British Information Services, Chicago, Lincoln Through British Eyes
February 12, 1943
Benjamin P. Thomas, Harry E. Pratt, and Paul M. Angle, Abraham Lincoln Association: Past, Present, Future
February 12, 1942
F. Lauriston Bullard, Editorial writer, Boston Herald, Lincoln’s ‘Conquest’ of New England
February 12, 1941
Charles W. Gilkey, Dean, University of Chicago Chapel, Lincoln’s Philosophy of Life
February 12, 1940
William Allen White, Editor, Emporia Gazette, We Are Coming Father Abraham!
February 11, 1939
James Weber Linn, Professor of English, University of Chicago, Such Were His Words
J. V. Moldedhawer, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, New York, The Lincoln of the Second Inaugural
February 12, 1938
John McAuley Palmer, Brig. Gen. United States Army, Retired, Abraham Lincoln, Commander-in-Chief
Evan A. Evans, United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Chicago, ‘Let Us Have Faith That Right Makes Might’
February 12, 1937
Harold C. Jaquith, President, Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, The Persistent Personality of Lincoln
Charles Nagel, St. Louis, Missour), My Recollections of Lincoln
February 12,1936
Andrew C. McLaughlin, Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago, Lincoln, the Constitution and Democracy
T.V. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago, A Philosopher Looks at Lincoln
February 12, 1935
Tyler Dennet, President, Williams College, Massachusetts, Lincoln and the Campaign of 1864
Benjamin P. Thomas, Executive Secretary, Abraham Lincoln Association, Lincoln’s Humor: An Analysis
February 12, 1934
Frederic L. Paxson, Professor of History, University of California, The Promise of the First Republican Administration: Abraham Lincoln, 1860
February 13, 1933
Joseph Fort Newton, Rector, St. James’ Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Spiritual Life of Lincoln: An Interpretation
February 12, 1932
John Maxcy Zane, Chicago, Illinois, Lincoln, the Constitutional Lawyer
Louis A. Warren, Lincoln National Life Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana, The Environs of Lincoln’s Youth
February 12, 1931
Carl Sandburg, Chicago, Illinois, Lincoln’s Genius of Places
Henry Horner, Judge, Probate Court, Cook County, Illinois, The Universality of Lincoln
February 12,1930
John Callan O’Laughlin, Editor-in-Chief, Copley Press, Washington, D.C., Lincoln and the Press (read by A.W. Shipton of the Illinois State Journal)
Allan Nevin, Professor of History, Columbia University, Lincoln’s Plans for Reunion
February 12, 1929
Mary E. Humphrey, Springfield, Illinois, Springfield of the Lincolns
Claude G. Bowers, Editorial writer, New York Evening World, Lincoln and Douglas
February 12, 1928
Paul M. Angle, Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association, Abraham Lincoln: Circuit Lawyer
Arthur Charles Cole, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Abraham Lincoln and the South
February 12, 1927
Paul M. Angle, Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association, Where Lincoln Practiced Law
William E. Dodd, Professor of History, University of Chicago, Lincoln’s Last Struggle--Victor
February 12, 1926
Paul M. Angle, Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association, The Building of the Lincoln Monument
Michael Pupin, Professor of Electro-Mechanics, Columbia University, The Revelation of Lincoln to a Serbian Immigrant
February 12, 1925
A. L. Bowen, Springfield, Illinois, A. Lincoln: His House
John H. Finley, Editor, New York Times, The Education of Abraham Lincoln
February 12, 1924
Henry A. Converse, Springfield, Illinois, The House of the House Divided
Andrew C. McLaughlin, Professor of History, University of Chicago, Lincoln as a World Figure
February 12, 1923
Brig. Gen. Ronald Storrs, British Civil Governor of Jerusalem, The Esteem in Which Lincoln is Held in the Near East
John H. Walker, President, Illinois State Federation of Labor, Lincoln, Friend of the Common People
Frank O. Lowden, formerly Governor of Illinois, Lincoln, the American
1922 No meeting or banquet held
February 12, 1921
William C. Sproul, Governor of Pennsylvania, Lincoln and the Present World Outlook
Don Frederico A. Pezet, Peruvian Ambassador to the United States, Lincoln as Viewed by Latin America Today
1920 No meeting or banquet held
February 12, 1919
Clinton L. Conkling, Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln in His Home Town
February 12, 1918
William Renwick Riddell, Justice, Supreme Court of Ontario, Abraham Lincoln
Thomas Power O’Connor, Member of Parliament from Ireland, Address
Addison G. Proctor, Youngest Delegate to the Republican Convention of 1860 of Kansas, The Nomination of Lincoln
Hugh S. Magill, Jr., Director, Illinois Centennial Celebration
February 12, 1917
John Grier Hibben, President, Princeton University, The Spirit of Lincoln in the Present World Crisis
Thomas Sterling, United States Senator from South Dakota, Lincoln, the Man and His Great Achievement
February 12, 1916
James Hamilton Lewis, United States Senator from Illinois, Lincoln: The Fulfillment of Prophecy
Lawrence Y. Sherman, United States Senator from Illinois, Lincoln and the Commonplace
William A. Quayle, Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church, Lincoln and Tomorrow
February 12, 1915
Archbishop Glennon, St. Louis, Missouri, Abraham Lincoln the Man and the Democrat
Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor, New York, The Beauty of Lincoln and His Place in Art
Samuel Fallows, Bishop, Reformed Episcopal Church; Department Commander, Illinois Grand Army of the Republic, Lincoln the Height of America
February 12, 1914
Joseph T. Robinson, United States Senator from Arkansas, Mr. Lincoln’s Title to Enduring Fame. A Tribute from the South
Percival G. Rennick, Peoria, Illinois, Lincoln: The Kindliest Memory of the Land
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, New York, Lincoln: Man and American
February 12, 1913
Count J. Von Bernstorff, German Ambassador to the United States, Lincoln as Germany Regarded Him
Joseph W. Bailey, United State Senator from Texas, If Lincoln Lived in This Day
February 12, 1912
Henry Cabot Lodge, United States Senator from Massachusetts, Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution
Frank B. Willis, United States Representative from Ohio, Abraham Lincoln: The Man
February 11, 1911
William Howard Taft, President of United States, Abraham Lincoln
Martin W. Littleton, New York, The Two Great Leaders
February 12, 1910
Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, Some Results of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
February 12, 1909
J. J. Jusserand, French Ambassador to the United States, Abraham Lincoln as France Regarded Him
William Jennings Bryan, The Royal Art of Government
James Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, Some Reflections on the Character and Career of Mr. Lincoln
Jonathan P. Dolliver, United State Senator from Iowa,Our Heroic Age
