My first contact with Abraham Lincoln came in 1924, when I was three. My mother gave me a new shiny copper penny, saying, “You can have this new Lincoln penny to play with, but don’t put it in your mouth.” The next thing I knew, I had the coin in my mouth and was choking on it.

A more rewarding association began when I was about twelve. I enjoyed displaying keepsakes in my bedroom—valentines and Christmas cards, for example. In February I put up pictures of Washington and Lincoln. The Lincoln was only a newspaper photo. But in March I found I did not want to take it down. Something about that rugged and interesting face held my attention and admiration. From then on I have been collecting and cataloguing Lincoln photos, drawing and painting my own Lincoln illustrations, and writing and lecturing on Lincoln. I thank God that today at age seventy-seven I am still at it.