A Lincoln Pilgrimage: The Hal Seaberg Travelogues and Correspondence

 

Photograph of Hal Seaberg at Oakwood Cabin, June 9, 1940

The Hal Seaberg Travelogues and Correspondence, 1939-1942 (MS 1013) describe the travels of Carl Hjalmar Seaberg (who went by Hal), a Swedish immigrant and steelworker who spent his summers from 1939 to 1942 visiting sites related to Abraham Lincoln. He worked in a steel plant in Midland, Pennsylvania, and would use his vacation days to travel for two weeks over the summers.

Seaberg immigrated to the United States from Sweden around 1923. In the introduction to his first travelogue, “Twice a Pilgrim through the Lincoln Country,” he described how he set out to learn about his new country:

“After I had learned to master the new language well enough and could absorb the news and other contemporary things from papers and magazines I set out to find out all I could about America. But I worked seven days a week at the blast furnaces and the only time I had for that purpose was my yearly two weeks vacation. I used them well.”

His study of American history led Seaberg to Abraham Lincoln. As he began to dedicate himself to his research of Lincoln and his carefully planned travels based around his life and career, people frequently asked him how he became so interested in Lincoln. Seaberg believed that to know a nation, one must know its history and its great men, and through his study of U.S. history, he found Lincoln to embody his vision of the “American Dream.” He wrote, “I needed someone who could give me a full compensation for all that I voluntarily left behind when I swore allegiance to the United States of America. I found it in Abraham Lincoln.”

Letter from Hal Seaberg to Harry Pratt, August 8, 1939
Letter from Hal Seaberg to Harry Pratt, August 8, 1939

It was while Seaberg was working on a scrapbook about Gettysburg that he decided to travel to sites with ties to Lincoln. After seeking information from the Chamber of Commerce in Springfield, he was directed to Dr. Harry E. Pratt, Executive Secretary of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Pratt shared a suggested itinerary with Seaberg, which guided him as he planned his travels, along with a list of Lincoln scholars and collectors that Pratt thought Seaberg should reach out to.

“Twice a Pilgrim through the Lincoln Country” is a 65-page typescript that describes Seaberg’s travels through Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois in 1939 and 1940. Seaberg recounted his visits to his chosen sites and reasons for seeing them, such as his first stop in Steubenville, Ohio, where he saw the statue of Lincoln’s famous Secretary of War, Edwin McMasters Stanton. He also described meeting people that Pratt had recommended he reach out to with a shared interest in Lincoln. One such meeting was with William H. Townsend, who invited Seaberg to visit him in Lexington, Kentucky, to see his collection of Lincoln-related books, original letters, oil paintings, and statues. Seaberg wrote about the experience of seeing such rare Lincoln-related items:

“When he brought out some of his most treasured items, take for instance the book ‘The Revised Statutes of Indiana’, I found it kept in a specially made black box, lettered in gold outside, lined with black velvet inside. This was the very book which Mr. Lincoln as a lad of 16 borrowed from David Turnham, the Constable at Gentryville. Mr. Townsend opened the book where the Constitution of the United States was printed. ‘Your eyes’ he said ‘are looking at the same page, where Mr. Lincoln for the first time read the Constitution of the United States’. Quite a thrill to be sure.”

Seaberg’s second travelogue, “On the Lincoln Ancestral Trail,” is a 20-page account of his travel from Massachusetts to Virginia in 1941. He continued to make trips through 1942 with the hope of visiting all of the sites recommended to him. Both travelogues also include a number of photographs featuring Seaberg, some of his companions from his travels, and the sites he visited.

In addition to these two typeset travelogues, this collection contains nine letters Seaberg wrote to Harry Pratt throughout his project. These letters tracked the progression of Seaberg’s interest and planning while revealing his ongoing enthusiasm for the project. He also wrote to Pratt about how thrilled he was with the kindness he was shown by the people he reached out to during his research and travels. Over the years Seaberg formed close relationships with many Lincoln enthusiasts, including scholars and collectors that Pratt recommended to Seaberg, members of a group trip in 1940 that Seaberg called the “Pilgrimage Party,” and others he met along the way.

In recounting his venture in “Twice a Pilgrim,” Seaberg described the allure of studying Lincoln as the ultimate American figure and the core significance of his passion project:

Really what I have learned about Mr. Lincoln is not very much yet but I am increasing my knowledge every day and I am happy and forever grateful for that privilege. Governor Horner says: ‘No man can know Lincoln too well and no man can know him at all without becoming better for that knowledge.’ Therein lies the inestimable value of America’s greatest treasure, a hope for all time to come, a gift for all humanity.

To learn more about Lincoln scholarship you can also check out the collection of Seaberg’s friend and mentor Dr. Harry Pratt in the IHLC’s Harry E. Pratt Papers, 1840-1965 (MS 202) and explore his work and research on Lincoln.

Other Resources

Emery, Tom. “A Notable Success at Blackburn College: Harry Pratt and Lincoln Scholarship.” Enquirer Democrat, March 2012. http://enquirerdemocrat.com/a-notable-success-at-blackburn-college-harry-pratt-and-lincoln-scholarship/

“History.” The Abraham Lincoln Association, 2019. http://www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org/History.aspx

For more information about the Abraham Lincoln Association, you can explore the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association here: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala?page=home

One Reply to “A Lincoln Pilgrimage: The Hal Seaberg Travelogues and Correspondence”

  1. Hal Seaberg was my Grandfather. I have his collection of books on Lincoln and other documents, but I have not see this before.

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