This year in our exhibit we are talking about all of the places Lew and Susan traveled during their lives. Lew did much of his early travel during the Mexican War and the Civil War. Today I want to talk about his time in Maryland during the Civil War. Maryland […]
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“Lew Wallace’s Career as a Criminal Lawyer” is the topic of our next video in the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum’s Dr. Howard Miller Lecture Series. Criminal Lawyer Lew Wallace passed the bar exam in the late 1840s and immediately began his legal career. It was not a career […]
Visitors often ask if Lew Wallace knew Abraham Lincoln. The answer, of course, is yes, though Lew’s brother-in-law Henry S. Lane was likely closer to Lincoln. Lew and Lincoln had a lot in common. They both spent their boyhoods in rural parts of Indiana along the Wabash River. They both […]
Lew Wallace’s 1881 appointment as US Minister to the Ottoman Empire provided him with many opportunities to travel in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Today I’ll be focusing on the Wallaces’ travels in Europe. Traveling to Europe On their way to the Ottoman Empire, Lew and Susan arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, […]
Soon after his arrival in the Middle East, Lew Wallace helped Jews fleeing to Syria from the pogroms of Russia and Romania. Officials of the Ottoman Empire did not welcome these poor refugees. However, Lew used his friendship with the Sultan to obtain a reprieve for the refugees. He also […]
“Give us something about the Nile they say. Tell how the Sphinx looks; is the nose really knocked off? and how about the Pyramids, are they equal to their fame? and were you disappointed in Karnak?” – Susan E. Wallace, The Repose in Egypt Susan Wallace traveled with her husband […]
Lew Wallace’s most widely remembered military exploits were the result of his participation in the Civil War. However, his interest in the military predated his Civil War experiences by many decades. His participation in the Mexican War began a lifelong love of Mexico His father, David, had attended West Point. […]
Dr. Howard Miller joined us on Thursday, May 2 to discuss Victorian travelers and tourists. What, if anything, is the difference between a “traveler” and a “tourist”? Between an “actual” and an “armchair” traveler or tourist? Dr. Miller explains all in his lecture. As it turns out, Lew and Sue […]
The Grand Kankakee Marsh, once known as the Everglades of the North, was a very important place to Lew Wallace. Everglades of the North The Grand Kankakee Marsh spread across Indiana, from western St. Joseph County, into Illinois. This “Everglades of the North” covered more than 500,000 acres of land […]
In 1893, Harper and Brothers published Lew Wallace’s third novel, The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell. They paid Lew a $100,000 advance for the novel; he apparently decided it was time to invest in real estate. As a result, he and his son Henry began planning a luxury […]