Library announces 'Richard H. Stewart Abraham Lincoln Collection' gift and exhibition

2:22 p.m., Jan. 14, 2015--The University of Delaware Library has announced a forthcoming exhibition, “Selections from the Richard H. Stewart Abraham Lincoln Collection,” which will celebrate the June 2014 gift of the collection from Joan B. Stewart.

“Selections from the Richard H. Stewart Abraham Lincoln Collection” will be on display from Tuesday, Jan. 20, through Sunday, June 14, in the Lincoln Exhibit Case located adjacent to the Special Collections Exhibition Gallery on the second floor of Morris Library.

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• June 6-9: Food and culture series
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The curator is Timothy Murray, head of the library’s Special Collections Department.

Native Delawarean Richard H. Stewart (1936-2013) was an avid student of history and a collector whose particular interest was the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. Stewart was born in New Castle in 1936, and he attended P.S. du Pont High School.

He graduated from the University of Delaware in 1957.  Following his service in the U.S. Army, Stewart attended Boston University for his graduate studies. In 1959 he married Joan Bernard, with whom he had two children, Susan and Richard Jr.

Stewart worked with the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company for 32 years, retiring as advertising director. After 2001, the Stewarts relocated to Wilmington, North Carolina.

The Stewart collection includes a variety of books, documents, artwork, artifacts and ephemera focusing on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era. The items are dated between 1861 and 2009.

Stewart was a careful collector and often kept documentation about the provenance of his items. For example, the two original Currier & Ives lithographs in the collection had once been owned by renowned Lincoln collector Oliver R. Barrett. 

Another highlight of the collection is an 1861 appointment signed by Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward. The document appoints Joseph M. Sterrett to the position of deputy postmaster of Erie, Pennsylvania. 

Also to be included are a pair of Civil War-era handcuffs known as Phelps handcuffs. Orson C. Phelps patented his handcuffs in 1866, though this pair does not bear the typical patent stamp.

The collection contains two reproductions of the April 15, 1865, edition of The New York Herald which provided one of the best-known accounts of Lincoln's assassination.

An online version of the exhibition will be available.