See Multiple Abraham Lincolns in Bardstown This April: Lincoln Presenters Conference at My Old Kentucky Home
A Presidential Sight (or Several) in Bardstown
This April, don’t be surprised if you catch a glimpse of someone resembling Abraham Lincoln, with his wife Mary on his arm, wandering the grounds at My Old Kentucky Home.
Or even more surprised if you spot him solo scant moments later, checking out the exhibits at the Oscar Getz Whiskey History Museum.
Wait….could that be Abe and Mary again wandering arm in arm around Courthouse Square? No, you are not seeing double, triple or even quadruple; neither are you hallucinating, and the multiple Lincolns are not the result of overindulging in Bardstown’s signature product.
You have simply stumbled on the annual conference of the Abraham Lincoln Presenters, which will be held in Bardstown April 9-12.
A National Gathering of Lincoln Presenters
The event has been held (generally in a midwestern state with a connection to the nation’s 16th president) since the organization’s founding in 1990 – reaching its apex in 2022 with 220 reenactors from 40 states.
That number has gradually declined to some 80 reenactors from 25 states, according to association member Larry Elliott, and while their numbers may have dwindled, their zeal has not.
Elliott has more than just admiration for the Great Emancipator, as the two share a birthplace, Hodgenville, and his great-great-great grandmother, Mary Brooks Larue, was the midwife who delivered Abraham on February 12, 1809.
This year, as he has done for the past 22 years, Elliott will don the stovepipe hat as one of the 20 Lincolns, while his wife Mary will be one of 15 portraying the other Mary, as in Todd Lincoln.
To keep things lively, there will also be two Ulysses S. Grants, and one Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who, as mothers tend to, will do her best to keep things in check.
Where to Meet the Lincolns
Bardstown residents and visitors are invited to join in the Lincoln mania as the reenactors make their way from one historic site to another.
After leaving the Lincoln Museum and birthplace in Hodgenville, they will head to Bardstown to tour My Old Kentucky Home State Park and Federal Hill. This will be your first opportunity to meet and greet the distinguished guests, but far from the last.
For $20, the public can join all the Abes and Marys plus Ulysses S. and Nancy for lunch at the Old Talbott Tavern, the oldest stagecoach stop west of the Allegheny Mountains (Lincoln once stayed here as a child when his parents were in town).
Other stops where you can meet up with the reenactors will be Knob Creek, Lincoln’s boyhood home and the Kentucky Railway Museum.
And who knows where else you might happen upon them while wandering the streets of Bardstown.
Lectures, Dinner & Special Events
If you want to make sure you have a chance to talk politics with Abe, military tactics with Grant, fashion trends with Mary and parenting with Nancy, you may also sign up for daily guest lectures by Lincoln experts. The lectures are designed to enrich knowledge – not just about Lincoln, but about Bardstown as well.
The major event of the four days will be a dinner with the full complement of reenactors on April 10th. The dinner will be held in the banquet room at My Old Kentucky Home, beginning at 6:00 p.m. with social time and photo opportunities with all the Lincolns.
Tickets are limited to 125 people and are priced at $125.
“They will go fast, so be sure to get your order in early,” says Elliott.
For all tickets and information on the four-day event, contact Ellison at (502) 599-6830 or email him at LarryLikeLincoln@gmail.com. You can also grab tickets to the special event here.
A Historic Way to Celebrate America’s 250th
The event, held every year around the time of Lincoln’s assassination, always provides a step back in history. But in this year, which is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, there is no better way to celebrate than with its greatest president – make that 20 of him.