The courses below start in December
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Abraham Lincoln: An “Engineer” in the White House | $5 - David Sabatini
December 2, 2025 | Tuesday | 9:30-11:00am
Abraham Lincoln. Widely acclaimed as the greatest US president. Less known is that, despite his limited education, he is the only U.S. president with a patent. How could this be? Lincoln was a voracious reader, borrowing any book he could get his hands on; had an insatiable curiosity – learning all that he could from not only books but all that crossed his path; and had an amazing technical acumen - teaching himself trigonometry so he could work as a surveyor and studying Euclidean geometry to refine his logic and reasoning skills, which proved useful to his legal and political careers. Lincoln pursued leading patent cases (e.g., the famous McCormick Reaper case) and railroad cases (e.g., a lawsuit regarding the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River). During his presidency, Lincoln’s technical curiosity furthered the Northern war effort by incorporating new technology (e.g., surveillance balloons, ironclads, rapid-fire rifles). Further, Lincoln’s innovation skills led to programs that propelled the US to the technical and economic envy of the world (e.g., the Railway Act, the Morrill Land Grant Act establishing public universities, and the National Academy of Science Act). I propose that Lincoln evidenced all the attributes of a successful engineer. He was self-educated in the fundamentals, skilled in understanding and designing technological advances, and adept at identifying innovative solutions to challenges before him. Thus, I put forward “Lincoln the Engineer.”
