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Celebrated on the third Monday of February to honor all U.S. Presidents

Four presidents have February birthdays: George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan

When established in 1885, Washington’s Birthday joined Christmas, Independence Day, New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving as nationally recognized official federal bank holidays.

Originally established in 1885 in recognition of George Washington’s birthday and was celebrated on Washington’s Feb. 22 birthday; It is still officially called “Washington’s birthday” by the federal government.

Changed to the third Monday as part of the 1971 Uniform Monday Holiday Act

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

INFORMATION FROM HISTORY.COM

Rea Redd, professor of history and Director of Eberly Library, is a Civil War re-enactor in his spare time. Redd is also a first-person presenter of Abraham Lincoln.

“Some people call it reenacting and we call ourselves Civil War re-enactors, when we’re in uniforms, marching about, shooting weapons and things like that,” said Redd. “If you do it to a certain audience and you do it first-person, then it’s more of a first-person presentation, like a monologue.”

MEET “ABRAHAM LINCOLN”

REA REDD, AKA “ABRAHAM LINCOLN”

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When was the first time you were ever Abraham Lincoln?

What about physically preparing to become Linocln?

What all goes into becoming Abraham Lincoln?

What else can you tell me about reenacting Lincoln?

Gosh, the first time I did Lincoln, I didn’t have to say a word. A play called “Our American Cousin,” this was in 2000. All they needed was Lincoln to sit in a balcony with someone who was Mary Todd Lincoln and then laugh loudly through three-quarters of the play and then the play would briefly stop, someone would come out and say “at this point, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth,” lights would dim, and then would come back up and I was silent. So my first Abraham Lincoln was pretty easy. I just had to sit there, under the hat and laugh loudly at this Victorian play. And he did think it was funny. It was like the third or fourth time he had seen it and he was still laughing at parts of it. So I did that part and didn’t say anything. Eventually, people would say put on your Lincoln gear and come read the Gettysburg Address, and I started doing that.

He was 6’4”; I’m 6’4”. He was under 200 pounds; I’m slightly over 200 pounds. When I first put on the Lincoln gear, I said “this is not Lincoln.” Sometimes, some people will say my profile looks like his profile and when people ask me what I do and I say, “you darken the lights and I got a really good silhouette.” It’s not like you’re getting Lincoln in front of you, but you just let the imagination go in the right lighting and it works.

I just read a lot about Lincoln. I take some shortcuts. There’s this book that helped a lot. There’s two that I really learned from. One is “Did Abraham Lincoln Own Slaves?” which was written by a fellow from Fort Wayne, Indiana who ran a very good and popular Lincoln museum and he kept all the questions he was ever asked about Lincoln and he wrote the appropriate answer. The other was written by Stephen Oates, who did two books and he took the speeches of a lot of Civil War era Americans like Lincoln, [Stephen] Douglas, Clara Barton, John Brown, and he wrote it as a first-person for each, so you’re actually reading Abraham Lincoln talking about it. So I just kept hearing the first person voices from these two books.

I don’t go to Washington D.C. to do this. I’ve never been to Gettysburg. Gettysburg has it’s own Lincoln reenactor, so it’s not a “turf” thing. It’s like I’ll do it locally for individuals and organizations that need an Abraham Lincoln. I don’t sell cars. I don’t sell mattresses on Lincoln’s birthday. I don’t do that at all and if there’s two or three other Lincolns in the area and we show up at the same spot at the same time, I say “Hi!” It’s the audience. It’s who is in front of you. That’s what you reach for. Whatever age group or however much history they know, or don’t know, or the only thing they know about Lincoln is they saw the movie with Daniel Day Lewis and they got a lot of questions.

When I first put on the Lincoln gear, I said “this is not Lincoln. I’ts not like you’re getting Lincoln in front of you, but you just let the imagination go in the right lighting and it works.

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DESIGN BY BRITTANY SEMCOPHOTO COURTESY OF REA REDD