Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to Headline Hildene’s Legacy Gala, Launching New Civic Engagement Initiative Drawing on Lincoln’s Leadership
Author of Team of Rivals will sit down with Hildene President Craig Gemmell on July 8 at Robert Todd Lincoln’s Vermont estate; proceeds support a new Hildene initiative on civic discourse rooted in lessons from Abraham Lincoln
MANCHESTER, VT — [June 4,2026] — Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home will welcome Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, as the featured speaker at The Legacy Gala on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. The evening will mark the public launch of Hildene’s new civic engagement and discourse initiative, a signature program drawing on lessons from Abraham Lincoln’s leadership to convene substantive civic dialogue.
Goodwin will join Hildene President Craig Gemmell for an on-stage conversation in Hildene’s new Lincoln Hall, the centerpiece of an evening that begins with cocktails in the Formal Garden of the Lincoln family home, followed by dinner, live music, and an auction and appeal in support of Hildene’s expanding role as a national platform for civic engagement learning.
The pairing of speaker and venue is deliberate. Goodwin’s Team of Rivals remains the definitive modern study of how the sixteenth president built a cabinet from his political rivals and held it together through the gravest crisis in American history. Hildene is the home that Robert Todd Lincoln built in 1905 and the only place where descendants of the President lived for more than a century. Hildene deliberately embodies President Lincoln’s ideals not only in preserving the historic house museum but also in its working farm operations and public programs.
“This is the moment Hildene was built for,” said Craig Gemmell, President of Hildene. “Robert Todd Lincoln chose this Vermont hillside to build his ancestral home and steward his father’s legacy. Launching our civic engagement initiative here, in conversation with the historian who taught a generation of Americans how Lincoln actually led, turns this house from a place we visit into a place where we do important work together.”
The new initiative will use Hildene’s 412-acre estate and Lincoln Hall as a non-partisan convening platform for programs grounded in the qualities that defined Lincoln’s presidency: the capacity to listen to opponents, to change one’s mind in the face of evidence, to hold a country together across deep disagreement, and to lead with what Goodwin has described as the rare combination of humility and ambition. Programming is being designed to serve students, civic leaders, journalists, and the general public, with particular emphasis on bringing opposing voices into the same room.
“Doris Kearns Goodwin is the reason many of us understand Lincoln the way we do,” said Nan Bambara, Director of Advancement at Hildene. “Having her here to launch this initiative tells members, partners, and the public exactly what we intend to build: a place where Lincoln’s playbook for holding a country together gets opened, studied, and put back to work.”
Goodwin, often called America’s historian-in-chief, was the first historian to receive the Lincoln Leadership Prize from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation. Team of Rivals was awarded the Lincoln Prize and the inaugural New-York Historical Society American History Book Prize, and has been cited as an influence by leaders ranging from President Barack Obama to corporate executives studying coalition-building under pressure. Her broader body of work — including the Pulitzer Prize-winning No Ordinary Time, the Carnegie Medal-winning The Bully Pulpit, Leadership in Turbulent Times, and, most recently, An Unfinished Love Story — has made her one of the country’s most sought-after voices on presidential leadership.
Event Details
The Legacy Gala, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, 1005 Hildene Road, Manchester, Vermont. Cocktails on the terrace and in the Formal Garden, followed by dinner in Lincoln Hall, an on-stage conversation between Doris Kearns Goodwin and Hildene President Craig Gemmell, live music, and a lively auction and fundraising appeal.
Early supporter and sponsor tickets are available now, with public sale opening later in May. Tickets, sponsorship details, and additional information at hildene.org. Inquiries to Nan Bambara, Director of Advancement, at 802-367-7994.
About Hildene’s Lincoln Connection
Hildene was the home of Robert Todd Lincoln, the eldest and only surviving son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. Robert Todd Lincoln, a Civil War officer, Secretary of War, U.S. Minister to Great Britain, and president of the Pullman Company, built Hildene in 1905 as the family’s home, and Lincoln descendants lived on the property until 1975. The estate’s collections include items belonging to President Lincoln himself, among them one of his iconic stovepipe hats. Hildene’s mission, “values into action,” is grounded in the family’s enduring commitment to democracy, stewardship, and civic virtue.
About Hildene
Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit historic site, working farm, and educational institution on 412 acres in Manchester, Vermont. Hildene preserves the Lincoln family home and gardens, operates a working goat dairy and cheese-making program, maintains miles of hiking and conservation trails, and offers year-round educational and civic programming. For more information, visit hildene.org.
About Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian and #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her nine books include Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, The Bully Pulpit, No Ordinary Time, Leadership in Turbulent Times, and An Unfinished Love Story. She is the recipient of the Lincoln Leadership Prize, the Pulitzer Prize for History, the Carnegie Medal, the Gold Medal for biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and numerous other honors. She lives in Boston.