In honor of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, Centre sponsored a host of projects honoring our 16th president and the College's connections to him.

As Lincoln wrote in a biographical sketch, at age 23 he considered a career as a blacksmith. When his friend John Todd Stuart, Centre Class of 1826, encouraged him to study for the bar instead, Lincoln protested that he had nothing to study. Stuart promptly loaned Lincoln his own set of law books. Lincoln then, in his own words, "went at it in good earnest," and later passed the bar. He became Stuart's law partner, and the rest is history. Lincoln and Stuart remained friends until Lincoln's death in 1865. Stuart then headed the National Lincoln Monument Association that built a memorial to the fallen president in Springfield, Illinois.