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for searching only. Acknowledgments
The obligations that we have incurred defy a full accounting, for the scope and duration of this project have been such that our indebtedness has multiplied beyond our ability to properly record it. While we recognize this delinquency, we nonetheless take pleasure in acknowledging those obligations of which we are most keenly aware.
By far the largest portion of the letters and interviews gathered by William H. Herndon are in the Herndon-Weik Collection at the Library of Congress, and we pay tribute to the steadfast support and assistance of the staff of the Manuscript Division during our numerous visits. Oliver Orr helped launch the project by providing valuable assistance at the earliest stages, and John R. Sellers has faith‚fully aided us at every step along the way. To Mary Wolfskill and her helpful staff in the Manuscript Reading Room we owe a special debt of gratitude. James Gil‚reath, of the Rare Book Division, lent his considerable expertise and support, and for welcome hospitality during our sojourns in Washington we add thanks to Emily Gilreath.
The Huntington Library generously provided fellowships for our study of the important Herndon and Lincoln-related materials in the Ward Hill Lamon Pa‚pers and elsewhere. Martin Ridge, John Rhodehamel, Paul M. Zall, Virginia Ren‚ner, Robert Skotheim, and the late William Mof‚tt were all very supportive of our project and helped in various ways to make our visits to that great institution ex‚traordinarily productive.
Some Herndon materials are in the Weik Papers at the Illinois State Histori‚cal Library, whose former director, Janice Petterchak, cheerfully and promptly responded to many queries and where Cheryl Schnirring in the Manuscript De‚partment obliged us when our schedules were tight. Thomas F. Schwartz, curator of the Library's Henry Horner Lincoln Collection, State Historian of Illinois, and coordinator of the Abraham Lincoln Symposium, offered us early opportunities to speak about this project and its progress and kindly made some of his own unpublished work on Lincoln available to us. For these and many other valuable services we stand greatly in his debt.
At the Filson Club in Louisville, the splendid repository of Kentuckiana, we are under obligation to James Holmberg, Mark Wetherington, and Dorothy Rush. At the Willard Library in Evansville, where many of the records of the Southern Indiana Lincoln Inquiry are kept, we owe much to Lynn Martin, Susy Kiefer and Carol M. Bartelt.
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