News Briefs

Harold Holzer Elected Chairman Of Lincoln Forum; Group Names Frank J. Williams Chairman Emeritus

Originally published February 2019 · p. 23

Harold Holzer Elected Chairman Of Lincoln Forum; Group Names Frank J. Williams Chairman Emeritus GETTYSBURG, Penn.—The advisory board and some 300 attendees at the Nov. 18 Lincoln Forum’s 23rd annual symposium at Gettysburg elected Harold Holzer as the 900-member group’s new Chairman. Holzer, a Lincoln Prize-winning historian who has authored, co-authored, or edited 53 books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era, had served as founding vice chairman of the Forum since its creation in 1994. Chosen to work alongside Holzer on his new team were historian Jonathan W. White of Christopher Newport University as vice chairman; the Library of Congress’s Civil War and Reconstruction specialist Michelle Krowl as Secretary; and Elaine Henderson of Gettysburg as Administrator (with the retirement of Betty Anselmo, who will remain on the advisory board). Businessman and longtime Forum photographer-of-record Henry Ballone continues as Treasurer, and Thomas A. Horrocks, author of Lincoln’s Campaign Biographies and former director of the John Hay Library at Brown University, joins the executive committee alongside its re-elected members: Lincoln reenactor George Buss and historians Edna Greene Medford of Howard University and Craig L. Symonds of the U.S. Naval War College. The Forum also named outgoing, founding Chairman Frank J. Williams as Chairman Emeritus. Williams is the retired Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. “Frank Williams is a tough act to follow,” commented Holzer, “although the fact that we have worked in tandem all these years will make the transition seamless and the commitment to excellence as strong as ever. Frank has been an outstanding, inspiring leader, and will continue to be a major presence at our annual events for many years to come. I am honored to succeed him, and we are all thrilled to honor his long and distinguished Forum service by naming him Chairman Emeritus.” Added Holzer: “I look forward to working with our expanded executive committee, our board of advisors, and our new officers Jon White and Michelle Krowl, as well as my friend Henry Ballone. This team is poised to build on our record of success and attract yet more members, attendees, and superb speakers and programs.” Commented Williams: “To say that Harold Holzer is energized would be an understatement. His commitment to our Lincoln Forum family is a constant in his life. As such, he will, I am positive, continue our traditions and policies and will initiate more as Chairman, including programming which continues to exceed every attendee’s expectations. As a co-founder and Vice Chairman for 23 years, it is only right that Harold should serve as our Chairman as we move into the future.” In first announcing his plans to retire in 2017, Williams said: “I’ve loved every minute of my work in Lincoln organizations, but have concluded that the time has come to transition to a new generation of leaders who will continue the work that we began so long ago and have worked so hard to sustain. I’m enormously grateful to the executive committee, our loyal membership, the enthusiasts who attend and enjoy the annual symposia each year, and the historians who have made the Forum such a prime destination for scholarship and engagement.” Holzer, who received the National Humanities Medal in 2008, has also served as co-chairman of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and chairman of the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation. A longtime (1992–2015) senior vice president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Holzer currently serves as the Jonathan F. Fanton Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City. He won the Lincoln Prize and additional awards from Harvard and Columbia for Lincoln and the

Power of the Press (2014), and is the author of the forthcoming illustrated biography Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French. Dr. White is Associate Professor of American Studies at CNU in Newport News, Va., and author or coauthor of eight books, including the award-winning Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln and Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War. His latest, coauthored with Anna Gibson Holloway, is ‘Our Little Monitor’: The Greatest Invention of the Civil War. White also serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Institute and as a member of the board of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Dr. Krowl, a former assistant professor of history at Northern Virginia Community College and a research assistant for Doris Kearns Goodwin, has written several articles and books, including Women of the Civil War (2008); For Better or Worse: Black Families and “the State” in Civil War Virginia (2000); and entries on the Black Codes and the Emancipation Proclamation for Civil Rights in the United States. Ms. Henderson, who served for more than two decades as executive editor of encyclopedias at Grolier, Inc., currently operates Gettysburg’s Lincoln into Art gallery with her partner of nearly 40 years, painter Wendy Allen. She was a 2005 Jeopardy! champion. For information about the Lincoln Forum visit their website at www.thelincolnforum.org.