Phone: (217) 785-9130 Fax: (217) 524-6973 E-mail: dstowell@papersofabrahamlincoln.org
Ph.D., History, University of Florida, 1994 (Dissertation: “Rebuilding Zion: The Religious Reconstruction of the South, 1863-1877”).
M.A., History, University of Georgia, 1988 (Thesis: “The Failure of Religious Reconstruction: The Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia, 1865-1871”).
B.A., History & Political Science, University of Georgia, 1986, Summa Cum Laude, with Highest Honors.
Director/Editor, The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, 2000-present.
Director/Editor, The Lincoln Legal Papers, 2000-2008.
Associate Editor, The Lincoln Legal Papers, 1999.
Assistant Editor, The Lincoln Legal Papers, 1996-1998.
Assistant Research Scholar, Principal Investigator, National Park Service Grant, University of Florida, 1994-1995.
Electronic Texts and Imaging, Rare Book School, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, July 2001.
Digitization for Cultural Heritage Professionals, Rice University, Houston, Texas, March 2001.
Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents, sponsored by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, June 1995.
Balancing Evils Judiciously: The Proslavery Writings of Zephaniah Kingsley, editor. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.
In Tender Consideration: Women, Families, and the Law in Abraham Lincoln’s Illinois, editor. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. “Introduction,” 1-13; “Femes UnCovert: Women's Encounters with the Law,” 17-45; “Her Day in Court: The Legal Odyssey of Clarissa Wren,” 204-27.
Judging Lincoln: The Bench in Lincoln's Illinois, rev. ed. (co-author with Susan Krause). Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2008.
Now They Belong to the Ages: Abraham Lincoln and His Contemporaries in Oak Ridge Cemetery (co-author with Susan Krause and Kelley A. Boston). Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2005.
The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases, 4 vols., editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008.
Rebuilding Zion: The Religious Reconstruction of the South, 1863-1877. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Samuel H. Treat: Prairie Justice. Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2005.
Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve: Historic Resource Study. Atlanta, GA: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Southeast Field Area, 1996.
“Building with Lincoln Logs: Transforming the Lincoln Legal Papers,” Documentary Editing 24 (June 2002): 42-46.
“‘A Family of Women and Children’: The Fains of East Tennessee during Wartime,” in Catherine Clinton, ed., Southern Families at War. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 155-73.
“Murder at a Methodist Camp Meeting: The Origins of Abraham Lincoln’s Most Famous Trial,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 101 (Fall/Winter 2008): 219-34.
“‘The Negroes Cannot Navigate Alone’: Religious Scalawags and the Biracial Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia, 1866-1876,” in John C. Inscoe, ed. Georgia in Black and White: Explorations in the Race Relations of a Southern State, 1865-1950. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994), 65-90.
“The Promises and Pitfalls of Reminiscences as Historical Documents: A Case in Point,” Documentary Editing 27 (Winter 2005): 99-117.
“Stonewall Jackson and the Providence of God,” in Charles R. Wilson, Harry S. Stout, and Randall M. Miller, eds., Religion and the American Civil War. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 187-207.
“The Ways of Providence: Baptist Nationalism and Dissent in the Civil War,” Baptist History and Heritage 32 (July/October 1997): 7-19.
“‘We Have Sinned, and God Has Smitten Us!’: John H. Caldwell and the Religious Meaning of Confederate Defeat,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 78 (Spring 1994): 1-38.
“‘We will fight for our flag’: The Civil War Letters of Thomas Barnett, Ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry,” Journal of Illinois History 3 (Autumn 2000): 201-22.
“Why ‘Redemption’?: Religion and the End of Reconstruction, 1869-1877,” in Edward J. Blum and W. Scott Poole, eds., Vale of Tears: New Essays on Religion and Reconstruction (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2005), 133-46.
The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, eds. Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000. (Associate Editor)
The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln, Second Edition, eds. Martha L. Benner, Cullom Davis, Daniel W. Stowell et al. Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009.
The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, eds. Daniel W. Stowell et al. Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2003-8.
From Courtroom to Classroom: The Lincoln Legal Papers Curriculum (co-editor with Dennis E. Suttles). Springfield, IL: Papers of Abraham Lincoln, 2002.
Review of Abraham Lincoln Portrayed in the Collections of the Indiana Historical Society, edited with an introduction by Harold Holzer. In H-Indiana (April 2007): www.h-net.org.
Review of Act of Justice: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War by Burrus M. Carnahan. In Louisiana History (forthcoming).
Review of Baptists on the American Frontier: A History of Ten Baptist Churches of Which the Author Has Been Alternately a Member, by John Taylor, edited and introduced by Chester Raymond Young. In Baptist History and Heritage 33 (Spring 1998): 85-86.
Andrew R. L. Cayton, Richard Sisson, and Christian Zacher, eds. The American Midwest. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. S.v. “Abraham Lincoln.”
Review of Chaplain to the Confederacy: Basil Manly and Baptist Life in the Old South, by A. James Fuller. In Georgia Historical Quarterly, 86 (Spring 2002): 127-29.
Review of The Civil War, CD-ROM, in American Journey: History in Your Hands series, by Primary Source Media. In History Computer Review 12 (Fall 1996): 58-60.
Review of The Civil War CD-ROM: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, by Guild Press of Indiana, and Army Official Records: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, CD-ROM, by Broadfoot Publishing Company. In History Computer Review 14 (Spring 1998): 74-77.
Review of Civilization and Black Progress: Selected Writings of Alexander Crummell on the South, edited by J. R. Oldfield. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 80 (Fall 1996): 686-88.
Review of Clergy Dissent in the Old South, 1830-1865, by David B. Chesebrough. In Baptist History and Heritage 32 (July/October 1997): 127-28.
Review of A Consuming Fire: The Fall of the Confederacy in the Mind of the White Christian South, by Eugene D. Genovese. In Journal of Southern History 66 (May 2000): 425-26.
Review of Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South, 1785-1900, by Gregory A. Wills. In Baptist History and Heritage 33 (Spring 1998): 95-97.
Review of Don't Shoot That Boy! Abraham Lincoln and Military Justice, by Thomas P. Lowry. In Civil War History 46 (June 2000): 162-63.
“Exploring Georgia Byte by Byte,” review essay of The New Georgia Encyclopedia <http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org>, edited by John C. Inscoe. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 89 (Summer 2005): 242-52.
Review of "Fear God and Walk Humbly": The Agricultural Journal of James Mallory, 1843-1877, edited by Grady McWhiney, Warner O. Moore Jr., and Robert F. Pace. In Journal of Southern History 64 (August 1998): 537-38.
Review of "Fire from the Midst of You": A Religious Life of John Brown, by Louis A. DeCaro Jr. In Religious Studies Review 30 (April, July 2004): 216.
Review of For Courageous Fighting and Confident Dying: Union Chaplains in the Civil War, by Warren B. Armstrong. In Journal of Illinois History 2 (Autumn 1999): 241.
Review of A Friend to God’s Poor: Edward Parmelee Smith, by William H. Armstrong. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 78 (Fall 1994): 636-38.
John A. Garraty, ed. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. S.vv. “Osmon Cleander Baker,” 2:29-30; “Philip Paul Bliss,” 3:28-29; “James Robinson Graves,” 9:436-37; “Luther Rice,” 18:421-22; “Matthew Simpson,” 20:21-22; and “William Winans,” 23:617-18.
Review of God’s Rascal: J. Frank Norris and the Beginnings of Southern Fundamentalism, by Barry Hankins. In Filson Club History Quarterly 72 (April 1998): 209-11.
Review of Gospel of Disunion: Religion and Separatism in the Antebellum South, by Mitchell Snay. In Florida Historical Quarterly 73 (April 1995): 513-14.
Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds. Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, 2d ed. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2005. S.vv. “Postbellum Period (1865-1940),” 19-29, and “Thomas J. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson,” 398-99.
Review of Isaac Taylor Tichenor: The Creation of the Baptist New South, by Michael E. Williams Sr. In Journal of Religion 86 (July 2006): 470-71.
Review of A Kingdom Not of This World: Stuart Robinson’s Struggle to Distinguish the Sacred from the Secular during the Civil War, by Preston D. Graham Jr. In Journal of Presbyterian History 81 (Summer 2003):133-34.
Review of Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point, by Lewis E. Lehrman. In Journal of American History 96 (June 2009): 222-23.
Review of Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, by Ronald C. White Jr., and War of Words: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War Press, by Harry J. Maihafer. In Civil War History 49 (September 2003): 304-6.
Review of Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause: Southern White Evangelicals and the Prohibition Movement, by Joe L. Coker. In Ohio Valley History 8 (Summer 2008): 88-89.
Michael McClymond, ed. Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America, 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. S.v. “Civil War Revivals,” 1:117-21.
“Moonlight Offers Little Light,” review essay of Moonlight: Abraham Lincoln and the Almanac Trial, by John Evangelist Walsh. In Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 24 (Winter 2003): 66-74.
Review of Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865-1920, by Gaines M. Foster. In American Journal of Legal History 46 (January 2004): 99-101.
“The Multimedia Lincoln,” review essay of A House Divided: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, CD-ROM, by Grafica Multimedia; James M. McPherson, His Name Was Lincoln: A Multimedia Biography, CD-ROMs, Sunburst Communications; and American Heritage: Lincoln, CD-ROM, Byron Preiss Multimedia. In Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 21 (Winter 2000): 79-88.
Roger K. Newman, ed. Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. S.v. “Abraham Lincoln,” 337-39.
Review of Old Springfield: Race and Religion in Augusta, Georgia, by Edward J. Cashin. In Journal of Southwest Georgia History 12 (Fall 1997): 97-99.
Review essay of Our Secret Constitution: How Lincoln Redefined American Democracy, by George P. Fletcher; Judging Lincoln, by Frank J. Williams; and Lincoln’s Constitution, by Daniel A. Farber. In Indiana Magazine of History 101 (March 2005): 71-75.
Peter N. Parish, ed. Reader’s Guide to American History. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997. S.vv. “Church and State,” 108-9; and “Dwight L. Moody,” 462-63.
Review of Religion, Race, and Reconstruction: The Public School in the Politics of the 1870s , by Ward M. McAfee. In Journal of American History 86 (September 1999): 789-90.
Review of The Sacred Flame of Love: Methodism and Society in Nineteenth-Century Georgia, by Christopher H. Owen. In Methodist History, 37 (April 1999): 207-8.
Review of The South: A Tour of Its Battlefields and Ruined Cities, A Journey through the Desolated States, and Talks with the People, by John Townsend Trowbridge, with a new introduction by J. H. Segars. In Civil War Book Review (Winter 2007): www.cwbr.com.
Review of Southern Rights: Political Prisoners and the Myth of Confederate Constitutionalism, by Mark E. Neely Jr. In American Journal of Legal History, 44 (2000): 461-62.
“The State of State Baptist Histories,” review essay of Texas Baptists: A Sesquicentennial History, by Harry Leon McBeth; A System and Plan: Arkansas Baptist State Convention, 1848-1998, by C. Fred Williams, S. Ray Granade, and Kenneth M. Startup; Alabama Baptists: Southern Baptists in the Heart of Dixie, by Wayne Flynt; and Tennessee Baptists: A Comprehensive History, 1779-1999, by Albert W. Wardin, Jr. In Baptist History and Heritage, 37 (Winter 2002): 97-111.
Review of Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America, by John H. Wigger. In Faith and Mission, forthcoming.
“Tales of Two Evangelists,” review essay of Laughter in the Amen Corner: The Life of Evangelist Sam Jones, by Kathleen Minnix, and The Sanctified South: John Lakin Brasher and the Holiness Movement, by J. Lawrence Brasher. In Journal of Southwest Georgia History 11 (Fall 1996): 102-8.
“Understanding Lincoln,” review essay of Lincoln’s Quest for Equality: The Road to Gettysburg, by Calr F. Wieck, Abraham Lincoln’s Political Faith, by Joseph R. Fornieri, and Freedom, Union, and Power: Lincoln and His Party in the Civil War, by Michael Green. In Indiana Magazine of History 102 (March 2006): 41-45.
Review of When the Bells Tolled for Lincoln: Southern Reaction to the Assassination, by Carolyn L. Harrell. In Lincoln Herald 101 (Summer 1999): 77-78.
Review of This Wilderness of War: The Civil War Letters of George W. Squier, Hoosier Volunteer, edited by Julie A. Doyle, John David Smith, and Richard M. McMurry. In Georgia Historical Quarterly 83 (Summer 1999): 378-79.
Awards
Book of the Year Award, for The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases, Illinois State Historical Society (Editor), April 2009.
Award of Superior Achievement, for In Tender Consideration: Women, Families and the Law in Abraham Lincoln’s Illinois, Illinois State Historical Society, April 2003.
Annual Book Award, for The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic (Associate Editor), March 2001.
Norman W. Cox Award, Best Article Published in Baptist History and Heritage in 1997, Southern Baptist Historical Society, April 1998.
Certificate of Commendation for Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve: Historic Resource Study, American Association for State and Local History, October 1997.
M. E. Bradford Award, Best Dissertation in Southern Studies, St. George Tucker Society, August 1996.
“‘Government Girls’ in Wartime Washington,” paper presented at “Lincoln’s Washington: Abraham Lincoln in Congress and the Presidency,” United States Capitol Historical Society Annual Spring Conference, Washington, DC, May 2009.
“Abraham Lincoln and the Contest for the General Land Office in 1849,” paper presented at “Abraham Lincoln in Ante-Bellum Illinois, 1830-1861,” 29th Annual Illinois History Symposium, Jacksonville, Illinois, March 2009.
“Patronage as a Weapon: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and the Contest for Kentucky,” paper presented at “Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis: Two Visions of America,” Louisville, Kentucky, October 2008.
“From History to Fiction: Abraham Lincoln’s Most Famous Murder Trial and the Limits of Dramatic License,” paper presented at Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association annual meeting, San Francisco, California, March 2008.
“Whigs in Disarray: Abraham Lincoln and the Scramble for Federal Patronage in 1849,” paper presented at the Missouri Valley History Conference, Omaha, Nebraska, March 2008.
Roundtable Participant, “Lincoln and the Law.” Lincoln Forum Symposium, Gettysburg, PA, November 2007.
Roundtable Participant, “Lincoln, Grant, and Logan: A Discussion.” John A. Logan Museum, Murphysboro, Illinois, September 2007
“Abraham Lincoln and Southern Honor,” paper presented at “Honoring a Master: Rethinking the History of the American South,” Gainesville, Florida, October 2005.
Roundtable Participant, “‘Model’ Editions in the Real World: Roundtable on the Uses and Future of the Model Editions Partnership DTD,” session at Association for Documentary Editing annual meeting, Chicago, Illinois, November 2003.
Chair and Comment, “Fighting Faith in Nineteenth Century Warfare” session at Society for Military History annual meeting, Knoxville, Tennessee, May 2003.
“Webs of Credit: S. C. Davis and Company and the Collection of Interstate Debts,” paper presented at Missouri Valley History Conference, Omaha, Nebraska, March 2002.
“Building with Lincoln Logs: Transforming the Lincoln Legal Papers,” paper presented at the Association for Documentary Editing annual meeting, Raleigh, North Carolina, October 2001.
“The Business at Hand: Abraham Lincoln’s Law Practice in Macon County, Illinois,” paper presented at “History at the Grassroots: Local History and Its Audiences,” Charleston, Illinois, October 2000.
“Creating a Database,” paper presented in session on “Historical Editing in the Electronic Age” at the Organization of American Historians annual meeting, St. Louis, Missouri, April 2000.
“Learning from Lincoln: New Tools for Researching Local Legal History,” presentation and roundtable discussion at the American Society for Legal History annual meeting, Toronto, Ontario, October 1999.
“Staggering Toward Reform: Temperance and Prohibition in Antebellum Illinois,” paper presented at the Illinois History Symposium, Springfield, Illinois, December 1998.
“Why ‘Redemption’? Religion and the End of Reconstruction, 1870-1877,” paper presented at the Southern Historical Association annual meeting, Birmingham, Alabama, November 1998.
“Voices from Kingsley Plantation, 1844-1852,” paper presented at “Kingsley Heritage Celebration: 200 Years,” Jacksonville, Florida, October 1998.
“The Business at Hand: Abraham Lincoln’s Law Practice in Macon County, Illinois,” paper presented at “Breaking the Prairie: Abraham Lincoln in Macon County, Illinois,” Decatur, Illinois, June 1998.
“‘A Family of Women and Children’: The Fains of East Tennessee during Wartime,” paper presented at “Families at War: Loyalty and Conflict in the Civil War South,” University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, April 1998.
“‘Their idolized General is no more': The Death of Stonewall Jackson as a Crisis for Confederates,” paper presented at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association annual meeting, Orlando, Florida, April 1998.
“Feme UnCoverted: Women as Litigants in Antebellum Illinois,” paper presented at the Illinois History Symposium, Springfield, Illinois, December 1997.
“The Ways of Providence: Baptist Nationalism and Dissent in the Civil War,” paper presented at "Baptists and the Civil War,” Southern Baptist Historical Society annual meeting, Richmond, Virginia, June 1997.
“‘To Balance Evils Judiciously’: Zephaniah Kingsley’s Antiracist Defense of Slavery in Territorial Florida,” paper presented at the Florida Historical Society annual meeting, Jacksonville, Florida, May 1997.
“‘To Balance Evils Judiciously’: Zephaniah Kingsley’s Antiracist Defense of Slavery in Territorial Florida,” paper presented at the Florida Conference of Historians annual meeting, Jacksonville, Florida, February 1997.
Session devoted to “Rebuilding Zion: The Religious Reconstruction of the South, 1863-1877,” St. George Tucker Society annual meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, August 1996.
“Unholy Zeal: John Brown, Paul Hill, and the Quest for Social Change through Violence,” paper presented at “John Brown: The Man, the Myth, and the Legacy,” Penn State University Mont Alto, Mont Alto, Pennsylvania, July 1996.
“Zephaniah Kingsley’s Proslavery Treatise: Defending a Three-Caste System in Territorial Florida,” paper presented at the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic annual meeting, Nashville, Tennessee, July 1996.
Invited Participant, “Teaching As Faithful Profession,” Lilly Summer Institute, Hope College, Holland, Michigan, June 1996.
Presentation of “Rebuilding Zion: The Religious Reconstruction of the South, 1863-1877” research, Pew Fellows Conference, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, May 1996.
“Crossing Jordan: The Black Quest for Religious Autonomy,” paper presented at the American Society of Church History annual meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, January 1996.
“The Ways of Providence: The Meaning of Confederate Defeat for Religious Reconstruction,” paper presented at “Telling About the South,” University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, March 1994.
Invited Participant, Commonwealth Fund Conference: “Politics, Religion, and Society: The Market Revolution and Its Expressions in the United States, 1815-1880,” University College London, London, England, February 1994.