Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Lectures Sketch Presidential Lives

A historian evoked poignant memories of Abraham Lincoln and his family for an enraptured audience at the White House. David Herbert Donald of Harvard University sketched everyday life in the White House during the Civil War years for the 16th President, his spendthrift wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and their sons. The lecture was the first in a series that President Bush and his wife, Barbara, are hosting on the presidency to, in Bush’s words, make “the men who held this office . . . come alive.” “We always think today our lives are so complicated,” Mrs. Bush observed after the lecture. “Then you look at what Lincoln stepped into . . . things look pretty good for us.”