Excerpt from the Foreword by Jeff Saulsbery, Curator:
People who are in charge of historic sites/homes always refer to themselves as “just caretakers.” This is a true statement on many levels. My primary job is to tell visitors the story of David Davis and his connection to Abraham Lincoln. I do this by taking them through Davis’s nineteenth-century mansion and telling them the story of their friendship. But my REAL job is to literally take care of the mansion itself. I am constantly looking for things that are going wrong. Imagine your own home and all the daily little things you have to do to maintain it. Now multiply that by one hundred and you begin to understand my day-to-day existence. It is most definitely a labor of love. By the time this book comes out, I will have been the curator here for twenty-four years. I’ve met thousands of interesting people over the years from all over the world. I’ve worked with dozens of organizations to hold special events here. I’ve worked with some of the most amazing volunteers, again hundreds of them, whose love of history and of the mansion always shines through.
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