1. Understanding Lincoln: First Campaign Statement (1832)
2. Understanding Lincoln: Lyceum Address (1838)
3. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Williamson Durley (1845)
4. Understanding Lincoln: Handbill on Infidelity (1846)
5. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Mary Todd Lincoln (1848)
6. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to William Herndon (1848)
7. Understanding Lincoln: Notes for Law Lecture (1850)
8. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to John Johnston (1851)
9. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Richard Yates (1854)
10. Understanding Lincoln: House Divided Speech (1858)
11. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Judd (1858)
12. Understanding Lincoln: Autobiographical Sketch (1859)
13. Understanding Lincoln: Cooper Union Speech (1860)
14. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Grace Bedell (1860)
15. Understanding Lincoln: First Inaugural Address (1861)
16. Understanding Lincoln: First Draft of Emancipation (1862)
17. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Reverdy Johnson (1862)
18. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Greeley (1862)
19. Understanding Lincoln: Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
20. Understanding Lincoln: Gettysburg Address (1863)
21. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Joseph Hooker (1863)
22. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Albert Hodges (1864)
23. Understanding Lincoln: The Blind Memorandum (1864)
24. Understanding Lincoln: Letter to Grant (1865)
25. Understanding Lincoln: Second Inaugural Address (1865)

This series of 25 videos on key Lincoln documents supports an online graduate course offered jointly by the Gilder Lehrman Institute and Dickinson College. Each document is presented and described by Matthew Pinsker, the Brian C. Pohanka '77 Faculty Chair in American Civil War History at Dickinson College.

No one would have appreciated the power of online education more than Abraham Lincoln, one of the great self-made, lifelong learners in world history. This course, taught by Lincoln scholar and digital history pioneer Matthew Pinsker, aspires to create a learning experience that Lincoln himself would have embraced. We will focus our study on five popular characterizations applied to the sixteenth president during and after his life: the Railsplitter, Honest Abe, Father Abraham, the Great Emancipator, and Savior of the Union. We will critically examine each of these themes in order to understand their origins and assess their validity. In the process, students will gain a better understanding of Lincoln as a man and a president.